Skid Wood

  Re-use is better than re-cycle and wood is an amazingly versatile material that lends its self to re-use. I had my brother bring a couple of random skids home from work a while ago and on Friday I began reclaiming the wood.

 Taking a skid apart is not that easy, or at least this skid wasn't. 

skids waiting for my attention

 My best guess is that the skids are spruce or fir. Some of the boards are dense and heavy and others very light and prone to splintering.

  After hacking and slashing, from one skid I got this much wood. 

and ended up with this much useless firewood  for my efforts.

fire wood in a box waiting to go to my friend's fire pit.

 I think that I've ended up with enough wood to make a couple of garden boxes,which is better than nothing. These particular skids held no hidden treasures in their wood.  I will make a couple of boxes that'll  hide away in the garden amongst the roses. Actually the rough and rustic wood will fit into the garden as well or better than carefully sanded lovely wood.

 My suggestion for dealing with skid/pallet/reclaimed wood is to have a serious pry bar and a hand saw that you don't mind treating rough. This wood is so rough that I don't plan to do much sanding and am going to just stain the wood dark or leave it totally raw depending where the boxes go.

 Re-used material has its place, but it is a specific and small place in my workshop.

cheers,ianw