Thanks Paul.I believe your right about redwood being brittle. I tore down my old deck today and found out it was redwood. There were a lot of 15 foot fairly clear pieces all 2x6's and the frame was 15 ft. 2x10's. the deck was thirty years old and looked pretty rough. I was able to get a few peices off without splintering(whoever built it used monster nails that were impossible to pull out) But was heart broke to see the majority break up. the pieces that did break looked really good inside and probably could have been planed down.

anyway thanks again.I'm going to try to go by the deck and fence yard next week.