Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: tom sawyer on July 08, 2013, 01:21:42 pm

Title: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: tom sawyer on July 08, 2013, 01:21:42 pm
I saw a double-length (8') pallet sitting outside the building last week and noticed two of the three long boards were yellow wood., so I got permission to break it up and take the wood.  Turned out to be mulberry, some good heavy stuff too.  One of the boards had a lot of problems and the grain was funky, the other had some nice clean stretches.  The upper side was nailed into every 18" or so but the bottom only had three nail places.  Pulled the nails and dragged the bandsaw out yesterday.  Ended up getting two sets of 36" sister billets I'll use for bamboo-backed bows, plus a piece I rounded up for a cane.  It was mostly just fun to recycle.
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: George Tsoukalas on July 08, 2013, 09:37:45 pm
tom sawyer, it is fun to recycle. I guess that is why I like fixing up old arrows. Jawge
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: Joec123able on July 08, 2013, 09:42:10 pm
Mulberry ? Thts weird never woulda thought they would use mulberry in pallets
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: JW_Halverson on July 08, 2013, 11:04:00 pm
I had a small stash of curly maple scavanged from a pallet I spied sitting in an alley once!  Made a couple knife handles and the lid to a cigar humidor out of some of it, too.
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: Pat B on July 08, 2013, 11:46:01 pm
Hey Lenny. Good to see you posting again. Hope all is well in Tom Sawyer land.
 I did a little work around the port in Savannah and we used to find purple heart, green heart and mahogany "chunks" of wood used as dunage on cargo ships.
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: PaulN/KS on July 09, 2013, 01:50:01 am
That must have been a heavy duty pallet .
Sounds like a good save of some wood that otherwise would have been wasted.
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: Eric Krewson on July 09, 2013, 10:02:11 am
I worked at a power plant that had a scrap wood pile about 100 yards across, mostly pallets. For years I searched the pile for some usable bow wood, never really found anything to get excited about. I did find a little curly maple to make handles and knick-knacks out of but that was about it.
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: tom sawyer on July 09, 2013, 10:17:33 am
I was surprised to see yellow wood in a pallet too.  I see a lot of pallets come through here and not much stands out.  Of course the typical pallet has so many nail holes that it wouldn't be bow wood anyway, this one was kind of unusual in that respect.

I think I saw something that looked like purpleheart once.  Gotta wonder what people are thinking, making pallets out of this kind of stuff.

I read more than I post anymore, mostly because I'm not making a lot of bows.  But I do think about it quite a bit, moreso around MOJAM time.
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: PEARL DRUMS on July 09, 2013, 10:18:07 am
Same here Eric. I see lots of skids every day. Pine of all sorts, fake mahogany, maple, oak's and even ash here and there. Never found a set of runners or slats I could splice and back.
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: Pappy on July 09, 2013, 10:18:42 am
Good to see ya on again Lennie ,sounds like a good find,only pallets we find around here is pine,and not very good pine at that.  :)
   Pappy
Title: Re: Pallet Wood Recycle
Post by: tom sawyer on July 09, 2013, 10:23:44 am
Well thats for the best.  I've heard people around here like to buy spruce for pallets, even that has better uses.  We just had a spruce blow down and I had some cut for instrument tops.