Singing The Blue Pine Blues

WDH · September 05, 2015, 07:39:49 AM

Yes, all sapwood at the age of these trees, which is about 29 years of age.

Bruno of NH · September 05, 2015, 10:33:13 AM

Nice work !
Barn doors are in !
Jim /Bruno

21incher · September 05, 2015, 07:07:05 PM

Nice door. Is the main panel glued up or floating? I built one like that years ago that I glued up and it would warp as the seasons changed because of all the different grain directions.

Bandmill Bandit · September 05, 2015, 07:57:42 PM

This pic is part of the kids remodel project in the home they Bought in May. ALL the wood for this fire place and a wall in progress right now came from a large tree on their mobile home lot that I sawed up a couple of years ago. I think I posted a video link of the sawing of that tree.

I was quite surprised how much blueish grey we ended up with in this aspen.
It is finishing up real nice.

Will post a few more pic of completed project when they are available.

WDH · September 05, 2015, 08:14:34 PM

Bandit,

That is a nice use of some wood with character.

21,

The panel is glued and it floats in dado grooves inside the frame. The groove is 1" deep, and the panel extends 3/4" inside the groove, leaving a free space of 1/4" on each side for seasonal movement of the panel.

mesquite buckeye · September 07, 2015, 12:29:59 AM

I like it. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8)

drobertson · September 08, 2015, 07:42:37 PM

Not sure what weight it carries, but have heard from ole timer wood workers that the blue in pine and the associated (rot) is a myth, one customer loves it and buys all I have when I get it. It is most definitely a work of art in my view.

WDH · July 26, 2019, 08:02:51 AM

I sell all the blue pine that I can get, and right now, I am about out. I have some older logs that have had the bark fall off. I sawed some and there is some blue ranging from 50% in the outer shell boards to almost none in the center of the log. So, I am helping nature out a bit to get more blue. I have tried several approaches to make the logs bluer all the way from just sawing and leaving the lumber dead stacked for a while in the summer heat, from sawing cants and leaving the cants stacked outside under a tree for four of five months, but the best so far has been to let a dead pine stand on the stump for a good while. I did try once to cover a stack of fresh sawn pine with a tarp, and it worked pretty good, but I don't think I left it under the tarp long enough.

So, I am trying that approach again. The boards already have some blue, so I know the fungus is there, so I stickered the boards off the sawmill onto a pallet.

I put the pallet in a part of the yard that will get full sun all day and tarped it. I will let it cook in the heat and humidity for at least three weeks, maybe four this time and try out this recipe. I believe that you get better results by stickering than dead stacking because stickering lets the hot humid air get between all the layers and give the boards maximum exposure under the tarp. That is my hypothesis.

The time that I stacked the cants worked OK, but not nearly what I wanted. These cants were sawn from fresh logs, so they had not been inoculated with the fungus by ambrosia beetles when first sawn. After sawing and stacking, the ambrosia beetles did get in and leave those signature black lined holes, but the amount of blue was not what I wanted. Here are the stacked cants. I watered them once a day to keep them wet for about a week or so.

They stayed stacked like this from mid-July to mid-October.Then I sawed them. About 85% came out like this.

Not bad, but not what I wanted. About 15% came out like this.

Now this is more of what I am looking for. Here is a project where my blue pine was used as paneling in a Church Youth Center.

This is the goal.

caveman · July 26, 2019, 06:56:05 PM

I sawed 15-20 slash and llolbllollly logs Wednesday afternoon that gave up quite a bit of blue pine. They had been sitting around a bit too long. They have a great color but they also have some borers in them. They are sticker stacked and I'll see what they do over the next few weeks. If they don't turn out well, I got a good workout on the Accuset II which paid off yesterday and today when sawing dimensional lumber.

Coincidently, Jmoores uncle needs quite a bit of blue pine to do the inside of his cabin. I hope what I sawed Wednesday turns out decent. Most was sawn at 1"x8".

YellowHammer · July 26, 2019, 07:27:43 PM

I'm hopeful you guys crack the blue pine code, because my results have been as erratic as a one eyed drunken chicken.

The one thing I did find is that if I don't dessicate the big pine borer grubs enough in the kiln, the ants will come get the leftovers. :D

Southside · July 26, 2019, 09:22:44 PM

Again with the chicken reference.... :D

barbender · July 27, 2019, 12:05:28 AM

You fellas still haven't figured out, that the best way to get pine to turn blue, is to try not to!😁

Woodpecker52 · July 27, 2019, 12:14:20 AM

fine line between blue stain and just plain ole bug infested!

WDH · July 28, 2019, 11:38:51 AM

Cooking in the Georgia heat.

Barbender, I think that you may have the key to the whole issue. I am trying too hard to mess it up ;D.

YellowHammer · July 28, 2019, 12:42:22 PM

I got it to work correctly once, maybe twice in a as many years. Deep blue colors, no bugs to speak of, and
I sold it before I knew it. Tried it again, and again, and well, again, and never as good.

I even went to the log yard and marked all the pine logs that were deep blue on the end. I thought I had it made when they were loaded on my trailer and driven home. How hard could this be? When I cut them on the mill, the blue only went about a foot from the end. So then I had wood I couldn't sell as blue pine and couldn't sell as clean pine. So I just turned it into pallets. What a dud.

Bruno of NH · July 28, 2019, 01:22:53 PM

This time of year my fresh cut white pine blues right after I mill it almost.
The winter cut pine wont.
Blue .
If I peal the bark on the pine the bugs stay out of it.

WDH · July 28, 2019, 08:34:23 PM

You want the ambrosia beetles with the little black holes for character.

caveman · July 29, 2019, 07:47:49 AM

What moisture content are you drying your pine for interior use to, 6-8%? Most of the pine logs I have now (above water) have 10-12" heartwood and the sapwood is iffy so I doubt I will get much usable blue pine out of it.

WDH · July 29, 2019, 08:31:38 PM

8% is the target. 4/4 for pine furniture and paneling and etc. I don't deliberately saw construction grade pine lumber. Too cheap to go buy it at the store. I do cut some custom beams, but they go out green, not dried.

caveman · July 29, 2019, 11:31:08 PM

Thanks, Danny. John and I are going to provide his uncle with some pine to do the floor and walls in his cabin.

WDH · July 30, 2019, 07:25:57 AM

I bet it will be nice.

LeeB · August 01, 2019, 11:03:20 AM

These have been down about 6 months. Free, just come get them. I'll see I f can get them if he still has them when I home. Said he would have another pile like that this winter. Might be full of beetles by now though.

Southside · August 01, 2019, 11:48:59 AM

6 months might mean they were cut too early. The sap needs to be flowing before they will stain. I have had winter logs sit for a long time and then when I cut into them there was barely any stain at all.

LeeB · August 01, 2019, 12:22:49 PM

Actually, that would suit me too. I need some construction lumber. Mostly why I'm interested in it. But, if it's blue I am more than willing to turn it to green.