Miranda Pederson/Daily News Russ Walkup of Allen County is a physical education teacher at W.R. McNeill Elementary School. He uses wood from World War II-era Army barracks buildings at Fort Knox to create U.S. flag designs. The flags are sold online at www.etsy.com.

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ADOLPHUS — Give Russ Walkup a bundle of wood, and just stand back and watch what he can do.

In his Allen County home, a beam from a nearly 200-year-old log cabin has been turned into a fireplace mantel; an electric wiring spool is now the base for a bar table; and the hardwood floors in the kitchen and living room were laid to his exacting standards.

Walkup’s latest project, however, is an exercise in historical commemoration.

The basement and garage of the Walkup family home are teeming with American flags made by Walkup from wood flooring salvaged from World War II-era barracks from Fort Knox.

“Just the history of this wood and knowing where it came from is fascinating,” said Walkup, a physical education teacher at W.R. McNeill Elementary School.

The wood Walkup uses to create his flags was claimed from barracks that housed Marines and armored division soldiers at Fort Knox during World War II.

A recycling program at the base allowed people to deconstruct the aging buildings and claim batches of the red and white oak flooring for their own use.

Walkup, seeking to build on to his old house, found that a neighbor, Greg Coyle, had salvaged thousands of square feet of barracks flooring last year and was willing to part with much of what he had not already used.

“He almost literally had to climb up through a cubbyhole to throw out all these bundles of wood he had,” Walkup said.

After his family moved to their current home, Walkup cleaned up some of the wood to construct a patio table, and realized he had about 1,500 square feet of the old lumber remaining.

While shopping for patio furniture in Gallatin, Tenn., Walkup said one of his sons pointed out a canvas American flag that was made to appear as though it had been painted on wood - from there, Walkup received his inspiration.

After nearly six months spent removing nails from the flooring, Walkup went to work creating his first American flag design.

He planed the wood, cut the boards so that the length of the wood for the field of stars would be proportional to the length needed to paint the red and white stripes and experimented with various paints for the right look.

Using a dry brush and enamel paint, Walkup found that too much of the pigment was being absorbed by the polyurethane finish he was applying to the completed product, leaving what he called a “blond” flag.

After a few prototypes, Walkup arrived at his formula - planing and cutting the wood, using a brush to apply finger paint to the boards for the stripes and the blue field and creating the white stars with a sponge dipped in white enamel paint.

The flags, each numbered and signed, bear a rustic, worn look as though they have been flying outdoors for years.

That is a conscious step taken by Walkup, who has taken pains to preserve the wood as it had been found.

“The floors were never sealed with chemicals, but were instead just waxed over and over,” Walkup said. “I want to make sure the wood looks just as pristine as the day (the floors) were laid.”

Except for cleaning off the thick layers of grime, Walkup leaves the other blemishes untouched - the deep grooves and dark spots left behind by bunk beds that sat for years on one spot, or the unusual rounded cuts that may have come when the boards were laid around a stove or radiator.

After giving each flag two or three coats of polyurethane, Walkup glues a piece of plywood to the back and holds it in place with a few small nails.

He has sold about 60 in the past two months and can make eight in an hour.

Of the remaining 1,500 square feet of wood, Walkup says he can make as many as 750 flags.

“After this 1,500 square feet, there is no more wood for me to use,” Walkup said. “The barracks have all been torn down, and two that are still standing are being used for war games.”

Walkup has been selling his flags online at etsy.com, a Web site for buying and selling handmade items, where he has an account as “fortknoxflagman.”

His flags have been finding buyers far and wide.

“I’ve got one going to a former student at McNeill who has joined the Coast Guard and another going to England at an Air Force base,” he said.

— The flags are available online at www.etsy.com