Proper Stickering & Stacking Red Oak

[BLink]

Sunday and Monday we milled 2 nice Red Oak logs. We ended up with about 700 bd ft 4/4 lumber. Most of it is knot free!
I plan to sticker & stack it under an open roof for a while until I can get it into a kiln.

Do I need to limit natural air flow for a while?

Any precautions I can take to assure quality lumber?

[doc henderson]

you would need to limit airflow if in Ks.  We have been running 90 to 104 degrees, with a usual 10 mph breeze.  We call it summer.

[K-Guy]

Make sure your stickers don't react with the oak, some woods do.

[scsmith42]

The attached details is what I've evolved to in 20 years of kiln drying.  This is optimized for my Nyle though, but it also works fine for most air drying.  I would not worry about slowing down air flow if you're using 3/4" thick stickers under a shelter.

Stickering Infov2pg 1.pdf

Stickering Infov2pg2.pdf

[BLink]

Thank you all for your replies!

Doc H, what do you mean by "in the Ks"?

K-Guy, some stickers are the same tree, others are dried pine, which shouldn't be a issue.

SCSmith, the stickers are 1".
It is in the 70's and 68% humidity.

[scsmith42]

Thank you all for your replies!

Doc H, what do you mean by "in the Ks"?

K-Guy, some stickers are the same tree, others are dried pine, which shouldn't be a issue.

SCSmith, the stickers are 1".
It is in the 70's and 68% humidity.

With those temps and RH% you'll be fine - no need to block airflow.

I would suggest dry stickers though so as to avoid sticker stain.  

[YellowHammer]

That's a good write up Scott, is that an educational document to train your new employees?

[BLink]

SCSmith,
I don't have dry stickers. How deep might they stain?

[doc henderson]

@BLink Ks is Kansas.  lol.  get the best stickers you can get.  get lighter or same wood if you can.  even a few days of drying is better than wet.  I have used wet for many species and have no problems.

save, saw, sweep, stack, sticker, secure, and dry one log at a time - Page 2 (forestryforum.com)

[Larry]

Sticker stain usually isn't a problem with red oak, but.........

How wet are your sticks? How wide are they? What is the humidity? What is the air speed? Since the sapwood is lighter it will stain easier. Sometimes the stain is shallow and will surface out, sometimes not. Sometimes you think the stick stain surfaced out but when you put a finish on your project you see something.....not really a stain but more of a stick shadow. Most folks won't notice but you know its there.

I see Scott gave the right answer and the same one I give to folks in his PDF

"Stickers should be between 3/4" - 1" thick, dry wood or plastic, and placed directly above one another. A good, commercially available sticker
option is to use furring strips (1" x 2" x 8'), and cut them in half to yield two 4' stickers. Item 4511 at Lowes, and 160964 at Home Depot"

[scsmith42]

That's a good write up Scott, is that an educational document to train your new employees?

Thanks Robert.  

I mainly use it to educate customers who want to air dry their own lumber and then bring it to use to finish off and sterilize.

[scsmith42]

SCSmith,
I don't have dry stickers. How deep might they stain?

It depends on a lot of factors, but I've seen the stain go 1/8" or deeper into the lumber.  It seems worst when the stacks are allowed to get rained on and also when the lumber is milled in the middle of a a hot and humid summer.

[jimF]

As mentioned above sticker stain is not a great big problem with red oak because any darkening goes mostly unnoticed against the dark wood of red oak except for the sapwood which most people avoid using. Lighter colored woods like maple it is a big problem. The sugars in the wood reacts with oxygen and becomes dark; like an apple bitten into left on the counter. This is an aqueous reaction so if the wood is dried quickly there is little time for the reaction to occur and therefore less noticable.

[longtime lurker]

I keep some 20x20mm ( approx 3/4")  aluminium stickers for anything that's really prone to sticker stain. Between those, and 30% boric acid in the  borax mix, and using fans intermittently on the lumber stacks for a few days after sawing... I don't get sticker stain.

[greensman]

I keep some 20x20mm ( approx 3/4")  aluminium stickers for anything that's really prone to sticker stain. Between those, and 30% boric acid in the  borax mix, and using fans intermittently on the lumber stacks for a few days after sawing... I don't get sticker stain.

i would like to hear more about the borax mix you use?  is it a commercial product or something you mix yourself? do you use it on all your lumber or just certain species/ certain times of the year? 

[longtime lurker]

Mix 2/3rds borax (disodium octaborate tetrahydrate) to 1/3 boric acid by weight.  Any good farm fertiliser store can get or has got these, but make sure it's those two chemical compounds: there's a few boron fertilisers around now that are allegedly less toxic but are also less soluble. 

Mix with water until it's a saturated solution. That gives you the highest concentration of soluble borate in solution that's possible and you get some bonuses because boric acid works differently to straight borax... borax is an insecticide where boric acid is anhydrous  and a better antifungal.