CowboyBlue
Well-known member
*skeptically eye-balling the twisted-like-a-corkscrew, harder-than-iron mesquite tree trunks on my place, wondering what it would be like to have to build a cabin out of THAT devil's-wood*
DIY log cabin
- Thread starter Bigfoot
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greybeard
Well-known member
Some friends of mine in San Angelo were cutting and milling mesquite for furniture lumber (there is a market for it)CowboyBlue":3oe5x30o said:
What they found, was that there are some borers of some kind in almost all older mesquite trees and the market for their lumber was well aware of it and accepted it. Said they have built bedframes, tabletops, and other stuff from it and the end buyers reported being able to hear the insects moving around in the furniture at night when the house was quiet.
I doubt those 3 guys are still doing it tho.
Once turned into usable pieces, mesquite is quite beautiful. I'd hate to have to work with it tho.
Some folks are still in that business.
http://www.mesquitewoodproducts.com/mesquite-wood.html
CowboyBlue
Well-known member
Yep, I have seen some of that furniture. Personally, not to my tastes, but I can see where it would be quite alluring to some.
There is a business here in my hometown that specializes in mesquite furniture and mantles for fireplaces. They did a booming business for about three years, but I drove by their empty and abandoned shop just the other day and thought to myself, "There goes another fad down the river of history."
I read Texas, by James Michener, in 1986, his novelized, fictionalized, dramatized history of Texas. Supposedly, the characters in his book were real people whom he had interviewed over the course of the previous decade. One of the characters had created a foyer in his mansion that was floored with mesquite. According to Michener, the effect was stunning. But then the homeowner took him out to his barn and showed him all the saw blades that had been used and ruined in the shaping of the floor boards. There were dozens and dozens of them.
There is a business here in my hometown that specializes in mesquite furniture and mantles for fireplaces. They did a booming business for about three years, but I drove by their empty and abandoned shop just the other day and thought to myself, "There goes another fad down the river of history."
I read Texas, by James Michener, in 1986, his novelized, fictionalized, dramatized history of Texas. Supposedly, the characters in his book were real people whom he had interviewed over the course of the previous decade. One of the characters had created a foyer in his mansion that was floored with mesquite. According to Michener, the effect was stunning. But then the homeowner took him out to his barn and showed him all the saw blades that had been used and ruined in the shaping of the floor boards. There were dozens and dozens of them.
midTN_Brangusman
Well-known member
My dad has an obsession with log homes, he has three that he tore down and relocated to the farm. Most were slave cabins put together to make one big one, two of the three are two story, the other has a loft. They were built before the civil war, virgin cedar hand hewd logs. One has a cannon ball hole through one of the logs, this one was overtaken and used as a confederate general headquarters during the civil war. Makes you think about the work that was put in them. Most are 18 to 24 in diameter and up to 20 ft long. Don't know where you can even find that size cedar these days. Its a lot of work done right, especially if your going to rock lay a chimney and fireplace. But on the bright side, it will be in the family for generations to come.
alisonb
Well-known member
Was cleaning up my 'bookmarks' and came across this...not sure why I ever saved it -
http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/build-a-log-cabin-zmaz81mjzraw
http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-homes/build-a-log-cabin-zmaz81mjzraw
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Bigfoot
Well-known member
I guess in the planning stage, I can change my mind as much as I want. Stumbled on this design. It's called a trappers cabin. You intentionally turn the fat end of the log in the same direction every time. Gives you a slanted shed type roof. Then you don't have to fool with gables.
