I’m new to wood working and am looking for relatively cheap sources of wood and was wondering if anybody has ever used used liquor barrels. Are these even cheap? I’d probably use it to make small furniture or planters. Anything I should know in particular or resources I could look into? Thanks!
A lot of once used bourbon casks are shipped to scotland to refill with single malt. Here is some options but they may be geared towards refilling instead of disassembling.
In addition to what the others mentioned, barrel wood is curved and the cross sections are not square, so you can’t just use the wood for “normal” projects without a lot of work to get back to straight, square pieces.
I have seen some cool uses of barrel wood for things that are more sculptural than structural, if that makes sense. Things like lamps. You might be able to use them at the back or bottom of a seat, too. I doubt you’d be able to get barrels cheap, though, at least not anymore.
For cheap wood, lots of people use pallets, but there’s a lot of stuff you should know before collecting a whole bunch.
Depending on what type of woodworking you want to do (handtool/power tool, what types of things you’ll make), there’s a few types of wood to try to get. Construction lumber can be used for shop furniture. Poplar is the cheapest hardwood, generally it’ll be easier to work with than softwood. Pine is still perfectly workable, but I wouldn’t try to use construction grade for projects other than shop furniture. If you ever see old cheap shelving units on the side of the road, take the shelves out. Melamine coated particle board is great for making jigs and other fixtures around the shop.
