Hi Tom, I do remodling work for a living and have cut strips from siding. What I ran into is rare to find. The siding was 1X10 vertical grain clapboard with peeling paint (The peeling paint is common). The home owner had the paint tested and there were trace amounts of lead in it so a resporator and dust collection was very important. There were some problems and I foresee some others for you. The first is that there is a lot of ripping to get vertical grain strips out of vertical grain siding. If the siding is flat sawn you can't get there. Try to get some samples and rip em up before you commit to the whole pile. With the 1" thickness I could rip a few double strips in the thickness. With more standard 1/2" you will only get one thickness throughout the board. What I did was rip off the first inch to get rid of the nail holes then start ripping my 3/4" strips then came back and resawed to 1/4" thickness. The wood I had was increadible with very tight even grain and was worth the effort. When sawing this painted wood always CUT FROM THE CLEAN SIDE. That is make sure the blade enters on the clean side and exits the painted side. This will greatly prolong the sharpness of your blade. Being very certain to get all of the nails out will help even more. The biggest problem I foresee is that the contractor is going to be taking down the siding with no regard for your future use. Not to be a skeptic but he sees a great oppertunity to "just through the stuff over the fence". I was very carefull pulling off and handling my treasure and still split a few pieces. You might not want all the short and damaged pieces on your side of the fence. The contractor is really key here. If you can talk to him and get him interested in your project do whatever you can to be carefull with the removal of the clapboards you have got yourself a boat. If he just rips it off and tosses it over the fence you have painted kindling. Wood is a remakable resource. It can be used over and over again ages well and remains beautifull. Don't lose sight of the fact that you will be utillizing a gift that would have just contributed to more landfill space. Good luck, Steve.