Wormy Chestnut

I have an uncle in Kentucky who has done well. He owns a bunch of farms, and leads the life of a gentleman farmer. He tells me he owns a barn made of wormy chestnut at the head of a holler. He says the only reason that it is still there is that it is so remote that no one knows about it. He wants to show it to me the next time I come down.

What am I going to do? I would love to get my hands on some of it. I would think it would make some lovely and valuable furniture. I can't use all of it however, and it just bothers me to think that there is such a valuable wood just rotting out there in the weather. The cladding on the side of the barn is probably 3/4 in planking. It seems to be what they use down there. I would imagine it would plane down to 1/2 in material. The bones of the barn are what I am most intrigued about. Frequently, the beams are 4 X 4 and 4 X 6 timbers, and in some cases, they are uncut tree trunks. I've got to go down there and see what's there.

My own father's barn is a case in point. The cladding is poplar weathered dark gray to black. I am not sure that it is worth much. However, the beams and supports are all white oak. It also is rotting out in the weather.

None of the barns are used anymore. They used to be used for curing tobacco. Now there is very little tobacco grown down there anymore. It's a shame that all that lovely wood is rotting away.