The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Making a Stovebolt Bed southern yellow pine saw mill for my stake body bed rebuild

how far south of Pa must I go for a yellow pine saw mill? Just getting ready to start working on the bed of my stake body.

Jay - Guessing your talking about sourcing some southern yellow pine to re-board your stake body truck bed? That topic best belongs in our Making a Stovebolt Bed forum, so your post has been moved there for further conversation and help.

BTW - It will help others help you if you provide more specific on what truck your are working on to help best answer your questions.

There are several sawmills owned by the Amish/Mennonite community here in middle Tennessee that do custom sawing for projects such as yours. My son bought a big load of rough-sawn oak to build a deck behind his home from one of them. You might also check with John M. to see if he knows of similar businesses in his former neighborhood in southern Maryland that might be a bit closer to you.
Jerry

There is some reclaimed timber (underwater) if you want old growth long leaf southern yellow pine wood like this.
Check Tallahassee Fl. I used to dive for one of loggers long ago. We would find axe cut sinkers.
These we found are long leaf yellow pine which I don`t think is available much. The slash and loblolly's make up the yellow pine offered today.
Long leaf yellow pine would be what was used originally.

Those would be pricey ,remember watching a documentary on the logs being brought up from the lakes were they flowed the logs after being cut and some of them were worth 40,000 for the Birds Eye maple for making classical instruments .

The bed wood I removed was branded from Tallahassee FL If I recall right.

Jay -- In PA, you are closer to the heart of the Plain Community (Lancaster County) than most of us are. I have not yet connected with the Plain Community here. The community we left had several Mennonite and Amish mills that would do custom milling ... but you had to bring them the logs.

Search out woodworking sites and forums to see if there's any info on old pines like that. But for some of that tight grained long leafed southern pine ... IF you find it, I bet it's going to be some pricey stuff.

I doubt I will have to replace my truck's original bedwood in my lifetime (and, for that matter, my grandson won't likely need to replace it in his, either). But if I did, and I was going for originality ... which requires the wood to be coated with a black coating anyway .... I'd probably go with something like a mahogany or a redwood or even an oak which, when painted black, probably looks very similar to the original tight-grained long leafed southern pine anyway.

And if you're not going strict original and are planning on going with a glossy clear coating like a polyurethane or a spar varnish ... then you are already broken the "originality seal" so what's the point of the unobtanium wood?

Just something to consider... Not a sermon, just a thought (to quote Lon...)

They are still finding logs diving in North Fla. You can surely obtain enough to do a bed.
I have about enough left of what I used to do a bed.
try these people....https://brunerlumber.com/pine
some of the curly sinker looks interesting. get some of that 'kings wood" . I always wanted to do a bed from
cypress wood. Already moisture resistant.

Many coats of marine spar

Wearing my hat as Editor/Publisher of this here web site ... harrumph ... I just sent them a note via their input page asking about pricing and dimensions on the long leaf southern pine. Their shop is only 5.5 hrs from HQ ...

I still think its going to be pricey stuff...

Its wonderful wood. I bet I could make a knife from it... the angle and hardness.
Very heavy. You have to keep soap and water on any blade/planer.
I made this guitar out of a chunk. I stopped counting tree rings at 183.
Its too heavy to wear.

I'll bet you could play some Metallica/Black Sabbath/Iron Maiden with that heavy guitar.

I did not know this wood was unobtainable today. Yes I will be painting it black.
So back to the drawing board as they say.
Thank you to all

On the topic of old growth yellow pine….

Wonder if you could find some if you found someone salvaging an old barn or such? Perhaps in the bed of an old grain truck someone is scrapping or parting out?

Old railroad ties that are untreated. Hand honed. If he is gonna paint black, I`d use most anything.
5/4 board
Old barn is great idea.

I definitely see not spending money on rare submerged lumber if you are painting black.

However, I do think there’s a case to be made for sourcing some old lumber of some sort.

The way most lumber is milled today, even if it’s “dry”…is pretty prone to cupping and twisting and what not. I do like the idea of tighter-ringed old wood that got all the warping and twisting out of its system….many decades ago.

Try to find quartersawn red oak in 5/4 thickness. That will work very well for you and is nice and hard.

If I was gonna redo my bed wood and build my own, I would like use the laminated hardwood (kinda like butcher block or bowling lane) they use for semi trailer floors.

Durable and stable and not likely to twist/warp/etc. Stain opaque black with some sort of oil concoction.