Two old sawhorses

I salvaged these two sawhorses from somewhere on our property, four or five years ago. I don't recall which shed or shack it was from -- one of the two in the backyard of my wife's grandmother's house, or one of the sheds where our house now stands.

I rescued them a few days ago from the pile of ''treasures'' under the leaky tarp, which I mentioned a few days ago. Luckily, they seemed unaffected from their neglect (they're used to it -- having been in a shed for probably thirty years before I came across them). I've stashed them in the Mega-Shed -- once I get things tidied, they'll hang from the rafters until I get a chance to fix 'em.


I really like how all the hash marks imply a history of use -- nicks and dings by carpenters and homeowners of the past. (Old-ish -- they've probably been on the property for 35 years -- and who knows how old they were when grandad found them.) It's also pretty neat how they have a family connection: they were on my wife's family's property, so either her grandad made them (they seem to be the same height, and of the same construction), or else he picked them up at a jobsite (he used to lift up and move small houses on a flatbed truck, and if the owners had left behind useful-seeming stuff, he often salvaged it rather than letting it go to waste -- and it would end up in one of the sheds in the back yard).


I also like how someone tried to repair the second sawhorse (the photo above, and below), after it broke, by nailing a second layer of lumber on to the top. I'll try to preserve that, when I repair it.


The dowels in the hole (photo above; photo below) are a mystery to me: it's not a pegged joint, as there's no corresponding hole in the wood below. Probably means that the top piece was salvaged from some previous use, and the pegs were just left in, to plug the hole. Or, maybe it was some sort of cleat, to help hold the lumber in place while sawing?


I won't try to **restore** these -- i.e. make them shiny and new, or sand out the saw marks. I just want to make 'em so they're in working order: a light scrub with a brush; add the missing legs; and a coat or two of boiled linseed oil. That's about it. Oh: and remove the truly rotted and termite-eaten sections. That's it.


--GG