Since my recent discovery of planes I have been looking at wood a little differently. I've been planing down the mangiest specimens in my scrap pile for practice and have noticed that the wood underneath the dirt, raised grain and oxidation looks pretty good.
Armed with that knowledge, and running out of really damaged scrap to practice on, I've started to raid another source: the 50 (or more) year-old remnants of a kitchen installer/plumber whose building my Dad bought in the late '60s. There's not a lot of great stuff there; the guy wasn't a cabinet maker, after all. Most of it is narrower material, including some oak 2x2 (ish) of random lengths.
But there is also a fair amount of what must have been real utility-grade stock; stuff the plumber would make shelving out of for his various fittings. There are 1x6 pine boards of various lengths. It's pretty dirty, but what I've looked at appears to be less warped than what you might find at HD.
I've seen furniture that is allegedly made from salvaged or antique pine, some of which looks pretty nice. I took a piece home and planed down one face (for practice, of course). Even dry it had a richer color, tending toward orange, than wood you might buy now. I wiped on a coat of Waterlox, which intensified the color.
I think this has possibilities. I'm sure I could cobble together enough of this material for a coffee table, for instance. I'm curious, is the difference I'm seeing due to age (even though I've planed off the outer layer), or is it more likely that the wood was different to begin with back in the '60s, or even '50s, when it was sold?