Porch swing wood

Steve B wrote: > I have a wooden porch swing at my cabin. The wood is obviously a hardwood. > It is one of the mass made ones rather than one of a kind. >

If the metal is either bronze or brass, then white oak.

Stainless will look gaudy and anodized aluminum will also stain the wood.

If the metal will rest, forget it since it will stain any wood you use.

Have fun.

Lew

Oak and copper fittings. Looks lovely, doesn't have the iron-stain problems of steel fittings on oak. You can use steel bolts, just hide the actual junction of wood and metal under a non-corroding washer.

if you have a plasma cutter, then I'm sure you're capable of casting your own bronze fittings 8-) (Go on!)

Down heah, in the land o' cotton, porch swangs is pretty much a way o' life. Mostly, we builds our porch swangs outa cypress. Now if'n you ain't from around heah, you might have a bit o' trouble findin' good cypress. The sapwood ain't hardly no better'n poplar as far as not goin' rott'n on ya, but that heartwood, why it'll last fer a rite long spell in the weather.

DonkeyHody "Even an old blind hog finds an acorn every now and then."

If you can find it: osage orange, or black locust. They will last a long time and are very strong.

There is one sitting on my mom's porch (really a carport with a deck over it) that was there when she and dad bought the house in 1976. I refinished it summer before last for the first time in years (since the last time dad did it). It is quater sawn white oak and is in perfect condition after more than 30 years outside. It clearly was a manufactured unit, but I am not sure when or by whom. I put spar urathane on it. I am not sure what dad used the last time he did it which was at least prior to 1993 (he died in 1995 after a couple years when he would not have been able to do any refinishing).

Dave Hall