How To Build Your Own Homestead Furniture

Sevelx | December 20, 2015 | DIY

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There are 101 uses for knowing how to build lodgepole pine furniture that go way beyond the furniture itself.

Our forefathers built lodgepole pine furniture out of necessity. They needed beds, tables, benches, chairs and much more. As pioneers, they also needed to use what was around them and, for the most part, they couldn’t transport sawmill equipment when they traveled to new homestead locations. So, lodgepole pines offered relatively straight long pieces of wood that were around the right size. When you can’t mill a 2×4, a lodgepole pine works rather well in its stead.

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The first thing you have to do is decide which of the two basic styles you want. They are:

Ultra Rustic

The ultra rustic furniture type doesn’t have round smooth tenons fitting it its mortises. They are hand shaped with a hatchet, axe or a draw knife. This type is also draw knife peeled and will, of course, show those markings.

It’s not as uniform and symmetrical and no one will mistake it for factory-built furniture. But, it does take a little more skill and patience. You can’t rush it by taking large chunks off of the tenons or you’ll soon find them too small to fit in the mortise holes.

Milled

The milled look for lodgepole pine furniture has tenons that are cut with tenon saws or tenon cutters attached to a drill or lathe. These tenons will be perfectly round and uniform. The peeling will generally be done by drying the timbers and using a rubber mallet and a putty knife which we will get into later.

1. Selecting Your Lodgepole Pines

When selecting your lodgepole pines for furniture, what you’re looking for are dead stand trees (trees that are dead, but still standing). You can use dead fall trees (ones that are dead and already on the ground), but you will have a lot of problems with rot.

The way to check them fast is to take a hammer, a rock or a short heavy piece of wood you can swing and lightly hit them up and down the length.

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3. Building Your Furniture

Skinning: You can skin the timbers with your draw knife, which is pretty self-explanatory, or you can use your mallet and putty knife.

If you’re using the putty knife, wait until the timbers are very dry. Put them out in a barn for a month, laid out so they’re not stacked and can dry well.

Then put them one at a time up onto a couple of saw horses (or whatever way you want to elevate them). Strike them firmly up and down their lengths with your rubber or rawhide mallet. This will loosen the bark and it’s a good idea to wear protective eye wear, as pieces will fly.

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