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reclaiming wood?

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 12:50 pm
by SmokeyBert
So I got a wild hair and decided to reclaim wood from a Lazy Boy recliner. Surely there would be some gems of good hardwood hiding deep inside the structure yes? Small or large pieces; I thought I could find something to carve on.

I set to with my leatherman tool, drill motor with torx bits, and a little 5?lb sledge to knock apart glued joints.

Wow, I didn't know what I was in for. If I try this again, next time I will start with perhaps a 1/4 stick of dynamite and see where that gets me. I think there is more metal in the chair than wood, by weight at least. And far more glued woods, particle board, than there was real wood.

The indestructible fabric seems to be made from some kind of blended spidersilk, spun titanium thread and kevlar nano strand technology. My knife blade almost wouldn't cut through it, and it's fairly sharp!

I didn't lose an eye from flying springs, and I lost very little knuckle meat so that's a bonus. I ended up by switching full time to the sledge hammer with a few muttered curses, and obtained maybe 3 or 4 usable little planks of wood that were certainly not worth the time and frustration.

Next thing I think I will try is one of the great big old couches I frequently see tossed out on the curb. Surely that will have more wood than finger-removing metal trap pieces eh? Oh and my tools will be a large milwaukee sawsall and maybe a chainsaw this time.

Re: reclaiming wood?

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 3:20 pm
by wdteipen
If I ever come across an old couch made out of briar or an exotic wood, I'd certainly give it a college try. :lol:

Re: reclaiming wood?

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 3:45 pm
by notow1
There is no job too big or small when You have the almighty Sawzall, Norm.

Re: reclaiming wood?

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:18 pm
by kamkiel
I have never tried, but I have a few friends out here in China that from time to time hop in the car and make their way to small villages to look for expensive wood. Throughout China's history they have been making furniture out of teak, Phoenix wing wood(?), and a real pretty wood they call jing si nan (Golden Thread wood). This could also almost be the equivalent of us rummaging through antique stores back in the states.

Of course, there are antique-y stores here too, but there is no guarantee of the item actually being an antique. Some of the professors at the Art University in Xi'an told me there where government commissions to replicate the terra cotta warriors located there. They said if you go see the ancient army now, you are actually looking at replicas of the real ones. The real ones are locked away in a vault somewhere with other ancient stuffs.

On this note, one of my professor friends at the art school here in Chongqing told me that in his hometown (Henan Province) many of the public toilets built during the cultural revolution used huge ancient Han Dynasty bricks to line the bottoms to prevent leeching into the soil. I'm sure at the time, they thought it was a good idea!

Sorry this post is not about lazy boy recliners
Kiel

Re: reclaiming wood?

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 1:49 pm
by Charl
:lol: But interesting (and a bit sad, as well) nonetheless.