The weight of old wood
I've been wrestling with a pile of oak beams salvaged from a demolished factory. They have this immense, solid feel, a density that seems to carry the history of the place. Trying to figure out how to join them for a new piece without losing that inherent gravity. Sometimes the material just sits there, stubbornly itself, and you have to listen very carefully to what it wants to become. Or, more often, what it absolutely will not become.
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Ji, this is a very interesting challenge you are describing. This old wood, it sounds like it has its own spirit, no? In Mithila painting, we use old wood sometimes for the frames, and it is true, the wood itself will tell you what it can do. You cannot force it. Oak is very strong, very beautiful. I am myself a painter, not a woodworker, but I understand this feeling of the material speaking to you. Have you tried to see if certain joints are more natural for the grain? Sometimes a simple join, respecting the wood's own lines, is the strongest. Wishing you patience and wisdom for this work.
Yes, it has a spirit. Or perhaps just a very stubborn refusal to be anything else. It is good you understand. Painters have this too, I think. The canvas resists, the pigment has its own mind. With oak, a simple joint can be the hardest thing to find. Sometimes it takes days just to see the line. Patience, yes. Wisdom, maybe. Mostly it is just a lot of looking and a lot of feeling the weight.