Has a thin black coating on them which doesn’t smell.
Builder has supplied them. They have electric cable secures on them so can’t imagine the previous owner was too bothered.

I wouldn’t eat them 😆

Looks hellishly tough

Are you planning to use them for a raised veg bed?

Yes on the food front. They are 2.4 metres long should I be able to lift them easily if they are hard wood?

Have they been used as sleepers? Do they have the footprint of the rail chair on one side, and gravel impressions on the other?

I can lift one end of a pine sleeper, though I don’t like to, having borked back and knee. Tropical hardwood – no chance.

They are 2.4 metres long should I be able to lift them easily if they are hard wood?

If your first name is Arnold,then maybe, I struggle with three foot chunk of hardwood tbh 😉

I would ask the builder where he got them and what exactly have they been treated with(creosoted?), myself, I would avoid near veg, but that’s just me.

I’ve read a few times that genuine railway sleepers have all sorts of chemical treatments and dropping on and in them, but that may be scare-mongering.

I did once visit a house where a previous occupant had allegedly used old railway sleepers from a nearby line in his Aga/range thing. There was all sorts of black crap seeping out the chimney stack, so I’m not sure I’d risk it.

Railway sleepers weigh about 100Kg IIRC.

I’m no expert, I believe the railway company can use nasties as preservatives, the sort that ordinary people can’t. I’m not sure these are genuine sleepers, hence the question about marks. Me, I’d use them with black polythene stapled to the inside with joins overlapped. This would keep sleepers and soil apart, just in case, and might help the sleepers stay drier and thereby last longer.

Are you contemplating using them as chopping boards or plates?

Massive chopsticks?

Massive Chopsticks

OK

[video]http://youtu.be/0Yu62StlsMY[/video]

eddiebaby – Member
Massive Chopsticks
OK

Very well done sir.

They may be untreated oak? I bought a pile for building with. Made all my window frames and lintels out of them. I think if they had been treated you would not be asking the question! Give us a photo of the end grain and we can have a better stab at guessing the wood type.

If they’ve been pressure treated it will have been with copper salts etc to inhibit plant growth so not good for veg, they look quite fresh too. Do they smell?

Isn’t the normal treatment CCA? Before it was banned of course – chromated copper arsenate? Tastes pretty dreadful I’d imagine