Recycled Material ?

[OldDog]

I have a 12 x 20 Oak smokehouse to demolish this winter.

It is located at my Moms home where I grew up.

It was built in 1936 and is close to collapse (sill failure).  There are 12ft Oak rafters and Oak siding up to 14in.  I would like to use some of the material in wall clocks for my kids,  and maybe some furnishings for the "future cabin"

My questions are:

how to store it?
how to check for "missed nails"?
surely it is as stable as it will ever be?

Thanks for "Any Ideas" or "Comments"

Bruce

[glenn kangiser]

If good and dry you could probably just put like types together to make a smooth straight stack probably with supports under it every four feet or so initially.  If you want air circulation you can put dry stickers - like lathe strips between each layer as we do when drying boards.  Most of mine don't get that luxury though. :-/

For missed nails I would use a my metal detector if I was serious about it - or if not a big problem -- just a pair of safety glasses and a carbide blade I wasn't in love with too much.

[optionguru]

I'm with Glenn on this.  My garbage company demolishes a lot of old barns and we use the wide boards to make barn board tables for my wifes furniture store.  We almost always stack our boards with 1x1 sticks every few feet.  I'm sure you already know but if you're not completely sure it's nail free don't go near your planer.  Expensive lesson I learned when "saving money" using reclaimed lumber for furniture.  Good luck, there's nothing better than the character the old wood has.