Found a bullet....

[NOLA_Ken]

Found a bullet.... in a fairly odd place

I've been up late tinkering with some old bargeboard I've had stashed away that I'm going to be making a door out of over the next couple days. I need to plane it because it's around 150 years old and it shows, and I always take my pinpointer to any salvaged wood because I really don't want to have to go buy new planer knives mid job. I had pulled several old nails and tacks when I got to one that just didn't look right. I knew right away it wasn't a nail and after a bit of digging with an awl out popped a .40 cal slug. This is the second bullet I've found in lumber over the years, the first one was a .22 slug in a new 2x4, and I found that one with my circular saw...

Here's the board, it's a full 14 inches wide 1 1/2 thick and 9 feet long. For anyone who isn't familiar with bargeboard, up until the days of modern diesel tow boats barges on the Mississippi only made one way trips. They would build them up north out of really big timber, this board is Poplar, load them up and send them down river and most of them would eventually end up here in New Orleans. Since there was no way to go back up river with them, people would just take them apart and sell the lumber which is what a lot of houses here were built with. (they way they built those houses is pretty interesting too and if you're a carpenter it would make an interesting read for you) Anyway, this one came out of the back wall of the same house I found my saloon token in a couple years ago and I just got around to finally using it....

And, here's the bullet and the fresh dug hole it came out of. Too bad it's not the same age as the board it came out of, but still an unusual find. I'll be sure to post a pic of the finished door on this thread when it's done, and maybe see if I can incorporate the bullet back into it as well...but for now I should probably get some sleep.....

 

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Cool show us the door when done

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Well, after a long wait the glass for that door finally got here. The customer found a source for old time school door glass with the chicken wire in it. This door is going to be for a shower stall, and I think it's going to look really good. This pic is just a test fit of the glass, so the wood isn't stained yet, but it's getting close. I really like using this old antique lumber it just shows so much more character than the new stuff with the iron staining from old square nails, and the two things that look like knots on the left are actually cut off wood pegs that held the board onto the barge frame long ago.