Water Tank take-down

Our community recently replaced our 40 year old wood stave water tank with a lager steel one. When Chris learned of the plan, he inquired about removing the old tank. The conversation went something like: "what do you plan to do with the old tank?" "Bull doze it I guess." Mind if I salvage it?" "Heck no, be our guest."

It took a solid three days, but we managed to salvage 137 staves, each 2 1/2" thick, 5 1/2" wide, and 13' long. And they are clear redwood and in near perfect condition.

Dismantling the tank proved a bit of a trick. Looking at the tank from the outside, we assumed there was a compression ring around the top, to which the staves were bolted. There were a series of lag bolts in the right spot, and it sure would have aided in erection. But as soon as the tank was emptied and we were allowed to look inside, we were proved wrong. No compression ring. Plan B began to gel while we removed the roof.

The method we struck upon involved installing "lattice bracing", made from 3/8" plywood ripped in to 6" wide strips, all the way round the tank. First we removed all but the top and bottom 3/4" galvanized hoops that tensioned the tank. Next we installed the lattice. With a bit of trepidation we removed the top hoop. To our relief the tank did not collapse like a house of cards.

The bottom hoop remained in place, tensioning the staves against a concrete curb. We removed one "X" of lattice at a time, cut the staves just above the concrete curb with a chainsaw, then simply popped the staves lout of the tiny tongue and groove. Worked like a charm. Removing the roof and doing all the prep work took 2 1/2 days. Removing the staves took 3 hours>

Next we stacked all the staves in my trailer, moved them to our place, and pressure washed them inside and out, removing a bit of algae from the outside and about 1/8" of what can only be described as scum from the inside. The staves now reside at our place, stickered and happily under tarps drying, while I dream about all the fun stuff to build with them.

Any ideas? And what to do with the 45 galvanized 3/4" rod hoops, threaded at one end with connectors at the other, bent in to one third of a 63' circumference?