sprinklers on wood

[Tom L]

I don't want to derail the other post about storing logs in water. but I was wondering if there is any truth to this
I had an old friend , up in quebec, a real woodsman. who built a few buildings on his property. he would bring in a sawmill, and cut all the wood for the buildings out of the woods he cleared for the foundation
he would then take the boards, mostly hemlock and pine. lay them all out and run a lawn sprinker on them for a week or so.
his belief was that it brought all of the sap to the surface and washed it away. he did this before stickering the wood and letting it dry for a few months before he would build his buildings. his boards never showed any signs of sap or pitch leaking from it
and it was only air dryed

has anyone heard of this before. and does it work?

[Tom L]

this is a picture of one of his sugar shacks, really nice building.

[bandmiller2]

Tom,I can't imagine a gentle sprinkling with water would raise and wash away sap.Commercial mills have sprinklers on their log piles but to prevent insect damage.Sprinklers won't even do a good cleaning, just wash away the fine mud and leave the dulling grit.Won't do any harm,if it makes him happy,he probibly knows more than I do. Frank C.

[Bogue Chitto]

I store logs in my pond.  Keeps them from rotting until I need them.  I have pulled out logs that have been in the pond for over 6 years or more and they are as if I just cut them down.  The logs stink but the smell will go in a week or two.

[beenthere]

I don't want to derail the other post about storing logs in water. but I was wondering if there is any truth to this
I had an old friend , up in quebec, a real woodsman. who built a few buildings on his property. he would bring in a sawmill, and cut all the wood for the buildings out of the woods he cleared for the foundation
he would then take the boards, mostly hemlock and pine. lay them all out and run a lawn sprinker on them for a week or so.
his belief was that it brought all of the sap to the surface and washed it away. he did this before stickering the wood and letting it dry for a few months before he would build his buildings. his boards never showed any signs of sap or pitch leaking from it
and it was only air dryed

has anyone heard of this before. and does it work?

Can't imagine this procedure would do anything beneficial to the wood.
Just physically getting all boards for a building laid out for a week for sprinkling would be difficult, and muddy at best. Then would one have to daily flip them to 'wash' both sides?
Sprinkled water wouldn't penetrate the wood and cold water wouldn't loosen up much of the pitch (and likely it wouldn't be heated water).  Now steaming the boards just might have some effect on the pitch.

Now leads one to wonder how this fellow would set up a lawn sprinkler on cleared land that is waiting for a house foundation. Maybe a pump set up at a nearby lake? Or the well is already in place?

Hard to imagine what this fellow did do.  ?? ??

Looks like he made some very nice buildings.

[Tom L]

I always thought of it like patting concrete, the water rises to the top. when the wood is cut into board form the sap would have an easier way to the surface, that was what I was told, that was the reason for the question

this guy did make some nice stuff. he built his house, barns, maple syrup shacks by himself out in the woods.
very enthusiastic, and seemed to know alot about the woods and ways.

[5quarter]

at first I thought like Frank said...waste of time. But maybe he was onto something. Components of the resin set at different temps. Perhaps what he was doing was setting the pitch at the beginning of the dry cycle. laying in the sun all afternoon would build alot of heat, but the sprinkler would ensure that there was no moisture loss on the surface. the result might be a board where the pitch has been set for the maximum temp the wood will ever see. if true, quite a clever fellow.

[Ron Wenrich]

You're right about temperature and sap.  But, it takes hit to set the sap from leaking.  One carver who tried to use pine said he had to boil the wood to set the sap.  Kilns set the sap by heat.  Water wouldn't set it or wash it away.  I've never been able to get rid of sap from my hands without the aid of something else. 

The water probably would contain any blue stain in the sapwood. 

[Migal]

Looking at the man's work I would have to go with a man's quote I used to work with... "Can't argue with success!"  8) 8) 8)

[WH_Conley]

Maybe just keep the wood from drying out on the surface til it is used. Kinda like the question of how long you should let green wood lay before nailing it up. My answer is the day it is cut. With a sprinkler, it should stay in that state.