End grain block - wood flooring cobbles

[SteveA]

Here's the photos of our ancient cobbles. The buildings they are next to are approx 120 years old. Who knows how old they are. You can see the orange bricks they have been replaced with and areas they are knackered and others they are perfect.

 

Wow! That's amazing. I love 'em.

Do you know how deep they are?

I wonder if the ones that were replaced had sapwood in them and the perfect ones might be 100% heart?

 

Thanks very much for sharing that.

cheers, steve

[muttley9050]

No idea how deep they are. Might dig one of the rotten ones out and inspect.

[delabodge]

steve I did my one 4" thick and totally random sizes,,,when I can find the pic I will post, and yes the mix was totally dry then sprinkled with a hose at the end.

[K66 LOG]

hi their in one of the cottages in village is a oak end grain flooring ,it use to be a coffin makes work shop a when i was young the old boy use to say it was but down because if you drop you chiesl on the floor it would not go burnt,and it was warm in the winter,,,

[wills-mill]

There are some lovely jobs in that original link, it's a great looking product-

 

Portfolio | Endgrain

 

The maddest endgrain block floor I've seen is in the photos from the Wadkin factory in Leicester. Since closing down the moisture has got to the blocks, so they've swelled and large sections of the floor have erupted

 

Wadkin machinery, Leicester - July 2014

[SteveA]

hi their in one of the cottages in village is a oak end grain flooring ,it use to be a coffin makes work shop a when i was young the old boy use to say it was but down because if you drop you chiesl on the floor it would not go burnt,and it was warm in the winter,,,

 

What a great story/ bit of history.

Thanks for sharing.

cheers, Steve

[SteveA]

There are some lovely jobs in that original link, it's a great looking product-

 

Portfolio | Endgrain

 

The maddest endgrain block floor I've seen is in the photos from the Wadkin factory in Leicester. Since closing down the moisture has got to the blocks, so they've swelled and large sections of the floor have erupted

 

Wadkin machinery, Leicester - July 2014

 

Yeah, high quality stuff in that Endgrain link.

Funny because I've had a cuppa tea in the cafe at the National Botanical Gardens in Wales and remember the floor.... I thought it was high quality laminate or some type of engineered flooring. Didn't realise they were endgrain wooden blocks! I remember it well because there were birds flying inside and I thought it wouldn't be so nice to have them crapping on people's sandwiches, cake.

 

Thanks for the Wadkin factory link.

cheers, steve

[SteveA]

I'm a little bit further on investigations for this flooring job and came across this DIY instruction page, quite useful info in this: How to Make and Install an End Grain Wood Floor from Scratch

 

I'll be making our blocks a fair bit thicker than the ones in the link above.

Will probably be cutting them in the round with a chainsaw mounted on a Portek Logmaster sawhorse, like this: Portek Logmaster Saw Horse

 

Then I'm hoping to be able to split the rounds into fairly rectangular blocks using my Gransfors froe.... which should work okay as it will be splitting down through the grain/ rather than running across it.

 

cheers, steve

[wills-mill]

We've had a bit of a chat about indoor wood block flooring on the Canadian Woodworking vintage forum (lots of Wadkin hot rodding going on in Canada!)

 

https://forum.canadianwoodworking.com/forum/tools/power-tools/vintage-power-tools/52432-wood-block-flooring

 

You mentioning the Portek reminds me that I've got some photos of a gadget I fabricated to cut shingle blocks to length in the woods. The saw was bolted to one of Logosol's mounts (attaches to the bar cover nuts) and then attached to a pivot on the frame.

[agg221]

Then I'm hoping to be able to split the rounds into fairly rectangular blocks using my Gransfors froe.... which should work okay as it will be splitting down through the grain/ rather than running across it.

 

cheers, steve

 

I suggest having a play with this before getting too far down the line - cleaving tends to veer off line unless there is a fairly equal, or very weighty, bit on each side. It also tends to work very well radially from the centre to edge, ie right across the growth rings, but not so well at other angles.

 

Alec