Oak Pews

[syntec4]

Hi all,
I have been offered a load of Oak Pews. They are 16ft long. The seat and backs are made up from Boards which are about 8" wide. The church they came from is being demolished. I have no idea how old they are but the few nails that hold them together look like they are hand made.
There doesn't appear to be any screws used in the construction. There is quite a bit of usable material. Question is, are they worth the £40 each the owner wants for them? Allowing for the cost of planer blades etc to clean them up a bit, and the time effort to take them apart.

The seller also has a load of what looks like sapele or possibly mahogany boards which are 12" wide and 12' long. They were at the bottom of another pile so he's going to pull them out and let me have a look later this week. He wants £10 per board for them.

Anyone with a bit more experience know if these are good value? I think they probably are, but just want to make sure.

I dont have anything in mind to make with them, but you can never have too much 'stock can you?.

Cheers
lee.

 

[Shultzy]

I recently was asked to cut a pew in half to provide disabled access. The ends of the pews were screwed on and hidden by plugs. This was from a church built in the 1800's.

 

[DomValente]

Bite his arm off!!
If you don't I'll come up and get them

 

[Shivers]

Might be possible to sell them if converted to reasonable size,& i mean getting a some ok cash--we used to convert them in the repro shop i worked in yrs ago.
people love these in their hallways--ideal size depth wise.


shivers

 

[Chris Knight]

Lee,
I'd say they were very good value if the wood is OK. Do check for worm however, old pews are often riddled with holes you may not see under varnish.

 

[ByronBlack]

I'm no expert, but that sounds like a lot of wood for not a lot of money, I would go for it. Even if you don't need them, you can always sell them for profit on ebay.

 

[mambo]

yeah grab them cut them down to about 3' and sell them
keep all the spare wood you cut off for projects :wink:

 

[NickWelford]

I'll have one for £40!

 

[Escudo]

I once missed the chance to buy an old oak pulpit. would have made an excellent little home bar.

can you imagine serving drinks from a pulpit.....and thinking about all those past sermons regarding the evil of drink. 8)

Esc.

 

[Scrit]

Lee, are they oak, or are they actually something like yellow pine? Just asking as most Victorian pews I've seen in the North West at salvage yards and the like are pine. It can sometimes be a bit difficult to tell under 100 years of patina, polishing and dark varnish. As to the timber value - if your target market/product accepts recycled (i.e. work/hardware holes, etc) and you are willing/able to work with lots of short/odd sized bits then they may be worth it.

Scrit