Thread: Hardwood sleepers for furniture???

Sounds like treated hardwood if it is green, no good for furniture

There is in town (Tamworth) a hardwood miller who sends most of what he mills to Sydney to be sold in to the landscaping trade. It could be some of his. If it is he is cutting hard woods (mainly stringy bark he gets from private land owners) that are probably not furniture grade but would resaw OK and drying? well expect a large % to bend and twist itself into firewood. You could probably recover some quite usable lengths but you will have a lot of rejects. The main reason is the timber is "young", the trees are only about 400mm diameter so they may only be 30 years old and quite "sappy", which equates to a lot of movement while drying. The logs are not usually number one quality, that's why they go to the landscapers.
If you do go down the seasoning path, I think I would sticker them as is, and see what they look like in 12 months. If you were to cut them down to smaller thicknessses I think they would really bend all over the place
Well that's my 2 bobs' worth

PS Should you decide to give them a go, select from whats offering only straight grained planks, especially steering away from any knots and defects like gum lines,

Just to clarify Dai Sensei. By green I actually meant unseasoned or wet. The label does specify that the wood is untreated.

As for the warping comments is there any way to reduce this as I thought warping was normally due to uneven or rapid drying as occurs in kilns.

Originally Posted by Mr Big

Hi all,

Just a general question for you all on the suitability of the 200x50x2400 hardwood sleepers you cn get get from timber merchants for around $20 each. Basically I was wanting to know if there is any point in exploring their use as a cabinet timber. From what I can tell they just seem to be green hardwood ( some type of eucalypt). Now if you were to resaw them into 25mm planks

If they are 50 mm thick by the time you cut, dry and dress them to remove defects they will be closer to 20 than 25 mm. I guess you will only lose $20 to try one out.