"wood beams" Topic

Can anyone suggest a source or materials for me to build what appear to be heavy wooden beams – the kind you would see in the rafters of a medieval castle or very large barn. I want wood which can be weathered and distressed and has the look that its been there for centuries and has had a very hard time of it. I need something about the size of a standard ruler – on all four sides – if that makes any sense.

thanks.

Any good hobby shop should have several shapes and sizes
of wood. It can be easily weathered and distressed to suit.

Plastic dowel can be lightly scored with sand paper to get a 'grain' effect.

Go to a Michaels or hobby store and get the balsa or bass wood strips. They are precut to several different widths. About 2 feet long.

I like to work with plastic. Evergreen and Plastruct make a huge variety of shapes and sizes. Captain Beefheart suggested making the wood grain using sandpaper which I'm sure would work fine. When I do decking, beams or other wooden surfaces in plastic I create the grain effect by scoring the plastic with the tip of a hobby knife… I think the #11 is the standard blade. I use the back side rather than the cutting side of the tip when scoring. There are many examples in my galleries (church floor and beams in my Victorians/pic 32; ship deck in my Pirates/pic 38) but the clearest pictures are probably of my cages in my Darkest Africa Gallery in pics 9 and 11 at link

Balsa wood might be a sympathetic material for such a job.

Balsa or basswood, both available in hobby shops. Balsa will splinter easier if you want a distressed look.

I need something about the size of a standard ruler – on all four sides – if that makes any sense.

You're talking about beams of approx 1" square and 12" long?

Crumbs, what scale are you working at? The biggest beams I've ever seen in real life would be about 12" square in cross section. So are you working at 1/12 scale?

Major B – OOOOPPPPSSSS!!!!!! Thanks for the obvious correction. The actual beams will be about 3/8 of an inch across on each side.

I want to thank everyone here who posted with great suggestions. You have all been extremely helpful.