The story of a man who makes money from old unwanted barns....

Dien ~

Here's a "Crafty" project which could be done today with old barn and house timbers, for those looking for Christmas cash...

Back in the mid 70's a school friend and I had a fairly lucrative business going making clocks.

What we did was to take the old hand-hewn timbers from falling down barns and turn them into clocks. Hand-hewn marks, those made with an adze to "square up" a log, on the timbers really set our clocks apart.

We would use his dad's bow-saw and cut these timbers we carried home into sections. Ranging from 12" to over 2 feet. My buddies dad worked as a Sears manager and we could buy "clockworks" for around $5.00. they were the same square little mechanisms you plug a small battery into you find on the backs of clocks today still.

With a section of timber already sectioned, we would trace the clockwork perimeter onto the back of the timber. Using 1" wood bits in a hand drill, we would then "hollow" out the back to about 1/4" from the "face" of the clock. Next a bit matching the size of the stub where the hands of the clock attach to was used to drill through the front of the clock.

To finish the piece we would rub it down with used motor oil giving it a really old antiqued look. A piece of green felt covered the bottom. if it was to stand straight up.

We "sold" these locally to people we knew, and then took them to gift shops, furniture stores, etc. they would buy them from us for $45.00 up to $75.00 and resell them for over a hundred! (depending upon the piece.)

Interesting pieces were made by using the '"joints" where one beam connected to another with the use of handmade joints and wooden pegs. These commanded TOP-DOLLAR!!!

We did this for a summer until we *discovered* girls!

It could still be done profitably today, given the right kind of beams. We could turn out 4-5 a day working together. I had forgotten all about this until you brought up "timbers"!

Success and Regards... Mike