Question 1, yes the old barn wood was stabilized, but I am going do it more in depth. I will be using some MinWax strengthener that was recommended.
The old Oak story- My dad came across this wood through a friend. He had quit a bit of it in a garage (I won't tell you how much my dad pay for it...he'd go to jail..) The previous owner’s dad got it from our local gravel pit in Indiana. The story is they were starting to expand the pit when the large digger they had hit something in the water/muck. The digger died on impact, which had never been stopped before or died. They did this in the 50's. Instead of digging the object up, they worked around it. After a few years the owner of the pit used the large digger to pull the tree out of the water and it broke off. Some came out to the shore, some sunk. The owner of the pit calls the guys dad who had the wood to investigate it and see what it was. The started to cut the tree up (limbs) and saw they had something special. They told to owner that they'd send off a portion to a company to have it carbon dated (I am not sure how I really feel about carbon dating and accuracy). The scientist that did the dating stated that the tree was about 1270 years old +/- 130 years. So it could have been 1400 years old or as young as 1140. Any way this puts it about full grown between 611 ad and 871 ad or there about. The grain pattern in this wood is so tight. Ok back to the story....The guy who sent the wood off to be tested returned with the results to the pit owner. The funny thing is the rest of the tree was gone. The owner wouldn’t say what he did just the tree was gone. So he may have shoved it back in the pit, burned it or who knows. Anyway I have a small supply of the wood in different sizes and such, but not much at all. I am actually entering/donating this one to the NWTF Grand National Call Contest in Nashville.
Needless to say the wood is very special and has a neat story. I wish I had or knew where the rest of the huge tree was.....the plot thickens
