I bought some firewood a couple of years ago that arrived on pallets. I asked the company about exchanging them against future purchases, but they were not interested. The response was burn'em.
So I'm cutting them up today and the one sure looks like PT lumber, but there is no tell tale ring where the wood is cut. But the wood sure looks greenish on the outside. But it's a little hard to tell under all that dirt. The second pallet is much heavier and must be some kind of hardwood. Doh! This one is definitely not PT. The rails on this one were very tough to cut with the Sawzall. The one pallet is painted blue and the other red, if that makes a difference. Just the manufacturer I gather.
That's exactly what I was going to say. Be careful if you mill or burn the wood. I know a guy who owns a pallet factory, and some of the treatments they use are clear, some are colored, so it's hard to tell if the wood has been treated.
I have seen a lot of pallet wood the past few years. They are generally made from whatever point-of-origin wood that is cheap and semi-strong. That means that there are a lot of poplar boards out there with green heartwood holding up lighter loads.
As 'the maintenance guy' in my plant I had a lot of free time and once in a while I would not only not have enough work for myself, but they would give me an assistant! The same guy every time. Not horribly bright, not likely to follow instructions and possessed of the memory of a 3 year old who's just been told 'no'. But he could handle a pry bar and hammer, albeit very, very, slowly.
I ended up with a LOT of curly tamarind (auto parts from Brazil), some decent white oak and even the occaisional 3x4 of walnut (from variopus parts of the world). Tamarind is WAAY hard (about 3x that of oak) but in its native country (Brazil & India, generally) is considered suitable for rough construction only. Pallets = rough construction. Curly = mine.
Depending on the source of the pallet, there is a real chance that the heavy pallet is either tamarind or oak. Look for a pinkish color and wood that WILL -NOT- RELEASE THE DAD-BLASTED NAIL! That's tamarind. It has the color of pink ivory, the grain of curly maple and strength that (I think) has to be experienced to be believed. I hung on to a little more than a ton of it.
Then again, I am not looking at the wood, you are, and I could be 100% off the mark.
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