Storing cants

[Bearpau]

 :P Im wondering if it would be a good idea to cut my logs into cants and stack them up under cover with stickers brtween them and let them start drying and cut what I need when I need them? Or is this a bad idea? 

[WLC]

I'd think that just storing logs up off the ground would be less work.  No handling them several times and just cut when you need lumber.  If you have room to store cants under cover you could just cut the lumber and store in the same way.

[WV Sawmiller]

  There are many threads here pertaining to storing cants and the general consensus seems to be - don't do it. Apparently they check badly and degrade the return and quality of the lumber. I think WLC is right on track with storing the logs off the ground. Be sure the ends are sealed for the hardwoods, less risk to softwood I understand. I would further recommend debarking them if you can, especially for any pine or other softwoods as my experience is the bugs/worms will get into them badly. 

[slider]

I did this and i did not work for me in soft wood. Even in a big cant there will be some movement as it dries . then for me i had to re-square the cant before sawing it into boards. Even with the pith centered there was some movement . It is twice the labor for the same outcome.

[moodnacreek]

It takes tremendous weight and ridged foundation to keep cants flat. The first and last sticker must be overhanging, something seldom seen. And when you cut off the jacket boards they will be probably baked on 1 side and moist on the other and cup and split worse than green boards. Storing logs has never worked for me unless kept wet or frozen. Bark on stops the splitting but is home for insects. Bark off can produce long, deep cracks. Logs in most cases in the east just have too much water inside that can't get out until the outside has shrunk. A healthy tree that died suddenly, lost its bark, in the arid west is an exception, especially pine or cedar.

[WV Sawmiller]

Moody,

   You raise an interesting question. Does the bark on a log actually help keep it from splitting? I had never noticed that. I knew the cants would split if the jacket boards were removed but I never associated the bark with keeping them intact. In my world bark was generally a bad thing mostly because of the insects that made it their home - especially true with our white pine. I am not even sure the bark on the yellow pine just a little south of us causes the same insect/worm problems.

[WDH]

It surely does.

[moodnacreek]

The bark is the protective wrapper. You end seal to do what the bark is doing. In most sawmills that debark they do it minutes before sawing. In spring and summer they want to saw and stick within 2 weeks of the live tree being felled. Buyers want fresh cut, live wood. So many people think logs are drying and getting better while laying in the yard but it's because we don't have time to saw them right now.  In spring and summer you got 2 weeks and the stain starts and in winter, if below freezing, 2 weeks before the cut logs freeze. [Live trees don't]  The old expression cut and dried is where wood wants to be just like hay, fish, fruit etc.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Thanks for the reply. My understanding was the wood was made up of a bunch of capillaries running vertically and that was why when you bucked a log you cut the capillaries cross ways, like cutting a garden hose, and the water ran out the end at a much faster rate than seeps out through the side I guess more like osmosis, which was why we wanted to end seal the logs to prevent or slow checking. I can see where the bark might help hold in the moisture but to a lesser degree.

[Brad_bb]

My Experience with hardwood logs is NOT to cut cants to store. You'll waste wood when you have to resquare the cant later.  Then the outside boards will be pallet grade.  The inside boards might be good if the cant isn't TOO checked.

Storing as a log is better.  It will check some too.  Even if it has bark, the bark will likely slip some over time, depending on the species and how exposed to rain and sun they are.  But in log form, you can then cut the jacket boards off which are usually low grade or firewood anyway, and you'll end up with a can't with MORE good wood.  Of course this all depends on how long you let them sit before milling.

The best way for wood to dry is in the form you want.  If you're milling beams, I mill them 1/2" oversize so I can square them up later.  You won't do this if you're using them right away.  If you're milling boards, mill them and get them in a proper drying stack with weight.  A board will check much less as it dries that way than a cant will.  I cant can open up 1/2 inch or larger check on one face.  A board typically will not check anything like that (not including boards with high internal stresses, but those aren't that often and you cannot predict them necessarily).  So you drying a cant does not help you as it creates checks in a cant.  Drying should be done with the wood close to it's final form, but still enough material to account for planing and jointing/ripping.

[barbender]

You're just inviting defects and degrade, IMO. If you were sawing timbers for a timber frame, and sawed them oversize and stored them, you could put them back on the mill and square them up to final dimension. The checking will be contained in the timber and won't affect the strength. However if you try to saw lumber out of cants like that you will be disappointed, the checking will make it hard to saw any decent lumber.