Old growth woods like these are obviously unbelievably unique (and expensive).
But even if you can't find or afford anything like that, if you are ever remodeling, it's worth reusing weathered but intact lumber from your house when possible.
I pulled and reused about 50 ft of existing redwood 2x6 off my house recently as part of a remodel, refinished it with shou sugi ban (Japanese wood burning technique) and built a new gate structure with it, and it turned out beautiful.
A majority of old finish lumber in the U.S. has been painted with lead based paint. Unfortunately the safest thing to do with this lumber is throw it away.
Also in many homes floorboards have been covered with asbestos containing adhesives when newer floors were laid on top.
While we on this: I noticed lots of interior design projects, where old pallets are used( Euro Pallet being the most popular). They are all treated with chemicals to withstand harsh environments and definetly shouldn't be used indoors.
This isn't true. Most pallets are heat treated now and can be distinguished by "HT" on the side.
You should still be careful about selecting and working with pallet wood. They can be subject to hazardous spills and can have random debris embedded in them that will damage blades.
I checked a few of the pallets where I work; they're heat treated, no chemical treatment. But! While I'd feel safe using the pallets used to ship corrugate bundles, the pallets used to ship the sketchy drums of mystery chemicals look identical and end up in the same trailers headed off to some pallet recycler.
Also, dust from certain species of wood can be quite bad for you. If I didn't know the origin and history of a piece of wood, I'd likely avoid working with it.
Good point. My house's original wood is from 1998, so no risk of lead paint. Even in old houses, a lot of framing lumber was never painted though, so it should be safe to use.
But even if you can't find or afford anything like that, if you are ever remodeling, it's worth reusing weathered but intact lumber from your house when possible.
I pulled and reused about 50 ft of existing redwood 2x6 off my house recently as part of a remodel, refinished it with shou sugi ban (Japanese wood burning technique) and built a new gate structure with it, and it turned out beautiful.