Squaredy

Ah, I was assuming you didn't have a spindle moulder. I don't know the particular one you have, but if it is half decent it should be OK, but always the longer the board the trickier it will be to get a good result. I wouldn't fancy doing tongue and grove on boards longer than about eight feet unless you have an enormous infeed and outfeed table. Having said that, a lot depends on how good the power feed is. A heavy industrial spindle moulder with hefty power feed would probably be OK.

Yeah this is a good plan up to about 6 feet long (unless the bed of your planer is really long). I used to operate a 5ft bed surface planer and it was a real challenge to get eight foot boards straight.

Don't forget Andy, before you worry about tongue and groove you need to get the fully dried boards planed dead straight. Any thicknesser will plane the two faces, but you need to put one dead straight edge on the board and then make the other side match. That will be difficult at eight foot lengths. Not impossible, but you need to plan how you will do this, and only then can you consider tongue and groove. Also make the boards at least 25mm wider than you want to allow for straightening. Once the boards are dead straight and dry you could either buy a decent spindle moulder with a power feed (not worth it unless you have a lot of other use for it) or you could simply pay a joinery shop to do it for you. As an alternative you could use a router and clamp the board still whilst machining - it depends how much you just want to get the job done and how much you will enjoy faffing about with a router.

Doug Fir and Larch both similar for cladding, it will shrink a bit as it dries but allow for this in the design. Either use hit and miss cladding as suggested above, or but them up tight and expect a gap to appear as the boards dry.

They certainly look like Sweet Chestnut to me. Not sure about the posts, but I think you only asked about the rails.

The usual problem is the woodsmen simply sell it for firewood as they all assume it is no good for timber. Same with Birch.

Whilst it is possible someone has treated your fence posts and rails, if they are as you say cleaved Sweet Chestnut it is very unlikely. The whole point of using Chestnut is that it is naturally durable. I would say the most important thing is to be sure they are Chestnut. If you are in any doubt pop a couple of pics on here.

Now that is super-nice. I have milled quite a few logs with amazing colours like that, but it is the exception rather than the rule. Also the lovely colours do seem much less clear when the timber has dried thoroughly.

If you try and avoid knots you are always going to be up against it. They are a lovely feature are they knot? I simply dried it in the usual way in the air under cover with spacers, and I probably finished it off in a heated room with a de-humidifier. Certainly the wood will move plenty, just like Oak and Elm and all the other hardwoods, so you have to allow for this and try and get it as close to the moisture content you need as possible. Unlike Oak it dries quite readily though. I did TG&V the boards because mine are not fixed down at all. I would always avoid this if you can as it is a nightmare when you want to lift one, so you need to think through your fixing methods. Mine is simply a floating TG&V floor and it creaks a lot as you walk on it because it is not fixed down.

I fitted Alder floorboards in my bathroom about 7 years ago, and they are fine. The initial orange colour planes off totally when the boards are fully dried. But I would experiment with different finishes. I tried a sample years ago with Danish oil and it went pink. Here is a photo of it after I sanded it back and re-finished it with a spirit based varnish. My bathroom floorboards are treated with a water based floor varnish which keeps the nice light colour. Unfortunately the brand I used to re-do this about two years ago turns out not to be water resistant, so I will re-do this soon with a better one. I have a clock made of Alder hanging in my office which is waxed, and that has made it go a nice subtle chestnut colour. My kitchen cupboard doors are also Alder, and they are finished with Woodoc, and they have gone a bit orange, but in a nice way which I am very happy with....but some people might not like the colour. I have also seen mirror frames, sconses, cupboards, chalkboards and countless other things made using Alder, as one of my regular customers buys a fair bit from me and makes all of the above. In fact one of the first Coyote Ugly bar tops in the UK was made from Alder - I think this was a mistake though as dancing with stilettoes three or four nights a week was always going to ruin the surface. My advice is they would be great for floorboards for a bedroom, just experiment with finishes so you know what to expect.

I could do with a lorry load of Poplar logs near South East Wales. Nice clean stems needed, species not important. 2.5m or 5m lengths ideally.

Yeah. We need some seriously brave leadership.

One significant change would be if governments around the world simply committed to stop subsidising polluting activities. For example energy production is often subsidised. If aviation fuel were taxed to the extent it should be (i.e. to pay for the damage it causes) flying would be more expensive so we would fly less. Same with petrol and diesel. Why is car ownership so wide and why are so many cars so large and powerful? Because so many people can afford them. I have no problem with fancy cars but a heavily polluting car should be made to pay the full price of the pollution. The principle is simple - polluter pays. Even more clear with meat. Beef production is very heavily subsidised, Remove the subsidy and tax beef to reflect the damage beef farming causes and it becomes a nice luxury not an everyday staple. If we ate beef no more than once a week there would be a vast reduction in greenhouse gas emissions according to the scientists. For various reasons we have developed complex systems of subsidy and support for many very harmful practices. What we need to do is rapidly change this so we subsidise sound practises.

Yes I have used them Les.

I think it is worth doing yourself. I now look back and it took as long to send them away as to actually set and sharpen them. By the time you faff about with packing them in a box, booking the courier, phoning up and chasing etc, etc, etc.

Ah that is good to know. Do tell us his name (unless it is a trade secret of course).

I used to send my blades to Stephen Cull, as he is one of the few people I found who really knew how to do them right. I found lots of so-called professionals who do them badly. Stephen told me he would have to give up most of the sharpening (and the couriers kept losing the tubs of blades for weeks at a time) so I invested in the Woodmizer kit to do it and got my miller trained up by Stephen Cull.

Wow, amazing; looks just like Beech.

Yes, the earth is in fact such a good engine for turning Carbon into (ultimately) rock and other solids that it is understood that if we (or some other force) do not intervene, life on earth will finally be wiped out when the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually slips below 10ppm. At this point photosynthesis becomes impossible and all life will then end as we all depend on photosynthesis. Of course this is not going to happen anytime soon, but this is the really long term prognosis apparently. Please don't mis-interpret my words here to suggest I am a climate change denier - I am not. I have been following this thread with interest, and I would suggest we should all read David Attenborough's latest book (A Life on Our Planet). What a good read, and not all doom and gloom either.

Leylandii always gets a bad press. OK, often the stems are very knotty, but otherwise excellent timber - similar durability to Western Red Cedar but stronger. They are both Cypress after all.

You just wanted to get to your 1000th post didn't you...?!

I remember back in the eighties I used to go scrumping in an amazing abandoned orchard in Hooley, Surrey and my dad sent a load of samples off to the RHS and they identified them all. They didn't even charge, but this may have been due to contacts he had. Might be worth asking them though.

There is a very effective treatment I found in a furniture restoration book many years ago which I think would remove the damage really easily and save you a lot of effort. The recipe is as follows: One part boiled linseed oil One part genuine turpentine (not white spirit) One part methylated spirit A dash of vinegar Mix it up and apply it with a cloth. It will cut back the surface and re-finish it all in one go. I suspect it will remove the white mark and revive the whole surface surprisingly well. I have used it many times over the years and never been disappointed. It also has a wonderful smell. Of course the table will still be subject to future damage by heat and alcohol etc, so if you are trying to give it a more durable finish you will have to totally re-finish it. But I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised how well this recipe works and how easy it is and if you keep it in a sealed jar you can use it again in the future if the surface gets damaged again.

Definitely start them off with six months probation. Think about who will do payroll, and if they will also keep on top of constantly changing rules etc. Also remember you must give them a pension, and quite possibly paternity pay or maternity pay. Most of all you need to find someone genuinely good that will make it worth your effort.

Almost museum worthy. Ex MOD, wonder what it was made for? Pumping up tyres on Spitfires in the Battle of Britain I would say...