Interior wall siding with staining

[Tripp]

I have a customer who wants to do a room with lap siding like I did in my home. I used wane edge siding that had some staining after being dead stacked. My problem is all the wane edge I have now is all stickered and dry. No staining. Do I dead stack some and put it out in the weather or do I cut some new stuff dead stack it and keep an eye on it.
Here are a couple of pics for reference.

Tripp

[beenthere]

Tripp
That sure looks cozy. Nice decor.

Interesting that you need to force the wood to stain to get "the look".   8)

Is it pine?

[Tripp]

Yes, it is pine. I forgot to mention that.

Pine is king in Ga. We also have some nice hardwoods. I just have not had the chance to cut many yet.

Tripp

[djoslin]

Tripp,

Don't have a clue on the staining, but I do like the longhorn hide on the floor, the room looks very warm and cozy, very nice.

Djoslin

[fishpharmer]

Looks sharp Tripp.

Are the angled "ceiling" parts in those rooms louvered windows?  The top pic looks like sun or some other light "bars" shining through on the back wall.  Just curious.

Not to get off subject, but if it is a louvered window will you put a pic of the outside in your gallery?  Thanks.

[sgschwend]

Heck just make or sell the customer unstained boards.  Stain is easy to apply, it could easily be put on to make a random blue stain.

[Tripp]

fishpharmer,

No louvered windows on the ceiling, just tin.

I do like the idea though.

Tripp

[James P.]

Tripp, really nice job! Someone was recently asking on forum about a belsaw or go bigger, you are the poster man for belsaw. Wish I had one,  keep up the great work. Really inspiring . James P.

[fishpharmer]

Okay, I guess its the light reflecting off the angled part of ceiling.  There are definitely some kind of "rays" on either side of the window in the top pic, if you look close.

Nice work, for sure.

[Magicman]

Tripp, nice shots of your home.  Artificially staining is possible, but from what I have heard, really doesn't look like the "real stuff".  I've heard about staining and then running it through a planer to "feather" it out.

[apm]

Well I'll be darned, Tripp. I believe I see a banjo in one of those pics! You're a man of many talents. In my mind, sawmills and banjos just naturally go together.

Frustrated banjo picker,

Greg

[Raider Bill]

Beautiful job! I too like the metal ceiling.

[scsmith42]

Tripp:  the room looks GREAT!

Re the blue stain, can you put your hands on some pine logs that have been cut for a few months?  They should already have the stain in them.

Typically the blue stain only occurs during the warmer months, so if you dead stacked the pine right now I don't think that it would stain (since we're headed into fall).

[Don K]

Tripp, That is nice. I built my own log home, but it doesn't look that nice inside. If that got put in a magazine you would be a trend setter. I've never seen lapsiding used inside or corrugated tin on the ceiling for Dang sure. I bet it really reflects the light.

Don

[Dodgy Loner]

The idea that pine will not blue stain in the winter is not true in the South. Dad and I sawed a couple thousand board feet of pine last November-February and every stick of it had blue stain. We turned standing trees into stickered lumber in less than 8 hours, and all of it stained. However, we also sawed up quite a bit of pine this summer, and all of it was stain-free. The difference is the amount of time it took to dry. In the South, the damp, cool winters slow drying and promote staining. The opposite is true in the summer.

In summary, if you want blue stain, then the lumber must dry slowly. You can ensure this is the case by letting the logs sit for a couple of months before you saw them, which is the most reliable way I know of to promote blue-stain. Dead-stacking will also work, but I would be sure to sticker the boards after a couple of months to make sure they dry out before using them for interior siding!

[ohsoloco]

All of the pine I've ever sawn and left dead-stacked (not mine, but customers not picking up their lumber promptly) was green and/or white with mold.  I've cut pine logs that sat for a year or more, and they were nicely blue stained, and full of grub holes...cool looking stuff 

[backwoods sawyer]

If was me I would look for some logs that had been sitting long enough for the bark to slip and check them for stain. I have not had good luck with dry stacking, as it tends to mold or the bugs get to it. By starting off with stained logs you can be choosy about which logs you mill up, but if a stack goes bad on you will have to start over or just deal with it. But then again I am on the west coast and do not have the humidity that you have.
By the way nice job on fitting them board together, it turned out nice.

[Tripp]

Thanks for all the replies.                         

My customer is not in a big hurry so I have some options.

The banjo in the pic was one of two fret less mountain banjos I built a few years ago.
Tried to learn the claw hammer style of playing. Maybe I will try again someday.

Tripp

[solidwoods]

I'd take the pine you want to blue stain-
Alternate direction flat stack it on the ground with fresh wet sawdust between layers.
Wet each layer with water (don't drown it, oxygen needs to get in to help).
Check every ? days.  Prob every couple till you see how she's growing.
Any white slimy mold = too wet.
No bluing and dry sawdust = too dry.
Keep an eye out for different areas staining different ways.
jim