New Experiment

YellowHammer · June 19, 2016, 10:44:42 PM

I'm always asked by customers for "barn" wood, or old looking thick planks. At the Project in Georgia, after talking to a bunch of folks I figured I'd run an experiment to try to make blue pine slabs and sell them.
So about a month or so ago, I bought some white pine and slabbed some and left some as logs. The logs have started bluing from their perimeter to about a couple inches in from the bark. The slabs were left unstickered and when we broke open the pile, they looked like this. All shades of black, blue and fuzzy, hopefully, just right. Some had more mold than others. :laugh:

So we stickered them and I put them in the kiln to finish them off. Hopefully it will turn out well.

xlogger · June 20, 2016, 05:54:03 AM

You never know what someone might like, wood I use to throw in my wood boiler even sells sometimes. Just having a place to show it off is the problem sometimes.
Robert I would of though that a slabber was in your future by now. If I was somewhat younger I think I would get one. Has anyone had much luck with live edge pine slabs?

YellowHammer · June 21, 2016, 10:58:10 PM

Quote from: xlogger on June 20, 2016, 05:54:03 AM
You never know what someone might like, wood I use to throw in my wood boiler even sells sometimes. Just having a place to show it off is the problem sometimes.
Robert I would of though that a slabber was in your future by now. If I was somewhat younger I think I would get one. Has anyone had much luck with live edge pine slabs?

I have a lot of people ask about them. Time to see if I can sell them..

ellmoe · June 22, 2016, 08:10:24 PM

Looks like you may have more "mold" pine than "blue" pine. I think that you will find they don't look the same. You'll probably have better luck with slabbing the logs. Leave the logs in this summer heat and humidity and in a few months you should have plenty of blue pine. Good luck.
Mark

YellowHammer · June 22, 2016, 08:54:08 PM

Yeah, I definitely am in the wrong side of the power curve with this, especially turning good lumber fuzzy. It's not what I normally do. I left a couple smaller pine logs I bought laying in the dirt, and they have started to turn bluish a couple inches from the edge, all around the circumference, but it's not very deep. So I should have both ways covered, if I can get this to work at all. I talked to WDH about it at the Project, and he covers his with sawdust. I might try that next. Any ideas are welcome, as I said, this will be a fun experiment. I'd leave some logs in the pasture to let the cows poop on them if I thought it would work. :laugh:

For Father's Day, I splurged, and bought a few pretty decent sized pine logs, 40 to 44 inch diameter, 16 foot long. Three of them filled up my trailer. I figure I'll leave them lay for the summer and see what happens.

Glenn1 · June 22, 2016, 09:15:54 PM

That is an impressive load of logs! Since I am not familiar with blue pine, does it make the boards really look bluish or is that the name? What kind of money can you get for boards that have this characteristic?

xlogger · June 23, 2016, 05:33:55 AM

Quote from: ellmoe on June 22, 2016, 08:10:24 PM
Looks like you may have more "mold" pine than "blue" pine. I think that you will find they don't look the same. You'll probably have better luck with slabbing the logs. Leave the logs in this summer heat and humidity and in a few months you should have plenty of blue pine. Good luck.
Mark

Are you talking about slabbing first or letting the logs threw the summer then slabbing?

ellmoe · June 23, 2016, 06:51:15 AM

[/quote]
Are you talking about slabbing first or letting the logs threw the summer then slabbing?
[/quote]

Leave the logs unsawn to produce the blueing. The ends will blue quickly, but the blue will only be in the ends at that time. Also, only the sap wood will blue, not the heart. The big pine logs in Y.H.'s photo look to be mostly heart, if so, there will not be much blue. We do make a "blue heart" pine floor that's looks pretty cool! ;D

WDH · June 23, 2016, 08:08:55 AM

I cut a good bit of it. I use beetle killed logs that have been standing dead. The ambrosia beetles hit them as they are dying from the bark beetle attack, and the ambrosia beetles bring in the blue stain fungus with them. There is progressively more blue as you go up the stem from the butt. If you let them stand for too long, the flat head borers get in the wood, and they leave pencil sized holes. Some people like this, some do not.

The most popular use for the blue pine that I sell is for farm tables. I get $2.25/bf for it kiln dried to 8% and planed to a full 1". If you let green logs lay on the ground for a couple of months in this heat, they will definitely blue on you. Robert, the logs that I am trying to spalt, the pecan, are the ones that I left covered with planer shavings for 9 months.

cliffreaves · June 23, 2016, 08:57:56 PM

I've never heard of blue pine either (pretty new to all this), but it sounds pretty cool. I do have about 150 bdft of maple (some hard some water) and some of the boards have bluish grey streaks. I was wondering if this is the same thing or something entirely different?

YellowHammer · June 23, 2016, 10:22:35 PM

So the consensus is I should just let the logs lay for the summer? Any way I can accelerate the process? Put them in the sun? Put them in the shade? Cover them with a tarp in the sun?

customsawyer · June 24, 2016, 03:29:02 AM

I don't think you will have to leave them all summer. The sap wood will be blued in a few weeks in this heat. Getting the blue deeper might take all summer but then you might get some black in there too. I have some I cut yesterday that have been setting for a month I will try to get you some pictures of it.

ellmoe · June 24, 2016, 06:36:04 AM

Quote from: YellowHammer on June 23, 2016, 10:22:35 PM
So the consensus is I should just let the logs lay for the summer? Any way I can accelerate the process? Put them in the sun? Put them in the shade? Cover them with a tarp in the sun?

When people ask me how I "blue" my pine, I tell them that's it's simple.
Unload a load of pine logs in the summer and place on the ground, turn around three times and take logs to mill, they are ready! Seriously, with heat and humidity it will not take long. If I had to guess, logs in the shade may blue quicker than in the sun, but mine are kept in the sun.
Mark

WDH · June 24, 2016, 07:51:35 AM

Quote from: cliffreaves on June 23, 2016, 08:57:56 PM
I do have about 150 bdft of maple (some hard some water) and some of the boards have bluish grey streaks. I was wondering if this is the same thing or something entirely different?

No, not the same with maple. The gray in the maple is not a fungal stain. It is a enzymatic chemical reaction that occurs with the sugars in the wood. If you let maple lay in log form a long time in the heat and humidity, it will gray stain. Sometimes it can be very pretty, and some customers like it while others only want the bright white maple.

cliffreaves · June 24, 2016, 08:56:42 AM

Thank you WDH, some of my boards are spalted and they have the grey streaks on the surface. I think it's interesting and more importantly my wife likes it. I'm using it to make our counter tops. Sadly she wants it stained dark so slot of the character will be hidden, but perhaps some will shine through. 👍

WDH · June 24, 2016, 03:45:51 PM

I bet that it will be beautiful.

YellowHammer · June 24, 2016, 10:49:52 PM

WDH had some maple logs covered with sawdust, and he had sprouted a whole ecosystem of fungus of various kinds on them. It was pretty wild. I have no idea what they were, but he was calling them by name. Did you ever saw those up? I would love to see what they look like inside.

As far as the pine experiment, although I don't saw and sell much pine, as its not in much demand around here, but I keep thinking I should be able to make something with it nobody else does, and have a nice little monopoly on it. The wood is very inexpensive, I can get it easily, and it mills nice. I'm pretty interested to see how this turns out. I put those fuzzy slabs that were in the picture, in the kiln, and they are down to about 15% now, so I should have them out in a few days and see what they look like.

WDH · June 25, 2016, 07:26:31 AM

Robert,

It was pecan (

), not maple. Will open them up to see what is inside soon.

YellowHammer · June 25, 2016, 07:56:35 AM

Pecan! That makes sense, you want to teach it whose boss before having to mess with it. 8). I missed that in your previous post.

What would happen if did the same with pine? Would it just rot out quick or would the sawdust acidity somehow do something to improve the aging process and appearance?

barbender · June 25, 2016, 09:10:45 AM

YH, everything I have ever read concerning white pine and blue stain is how to keep it from happening! Some of it borders on black magic, I think the best thing you could do is pretend you don't have time to get to your pine logs when it is hot and humid. This has always resulted in blue pine for me ;D White pine is a little better than other pine species as far as turning blue, but not actually starting to rot. Some species tend to blue stain and get punky at the same time, or at least the punk is not far behind.

WDH · June 25, 2016, 09:39:08 AM

Covering them with wet sawdust or planer shavings in the summer keeps the environment moist and hot, and that will speed the spread of the blue stain fungus (I think. At least it did for the pine buried in the inventory stacks at the big pine mills I bought for. The mill people were never ever happy with any blue stain. Always blamed it on me. Now, I am trying to do it on purpose

).

Bruno of NH · June 25, 2016, 12:04:18 PM

It's funny how blue stain is in :)
Some people see it and love the look .
I like wood because of its knots grain patterns and things like blue stain and spalting .
Bruno

YellowHammer · June 25, 2016, 07:50:07 PM

Well, it's an experiment, so tomorrow I'm going to bury some pine in sawdust shavings. I had several customers ask for pine slabs today, and one already committed to buy one of the fungusy, fuzzy, black and blue pine slabs in my first picture and they aren't even out of the kiln yet. Sounds like the trick is going to be catching it with max color just before it turns to rot. So I assume blue is fungus, black is rot? What is white and fuzzy? :D Timing is going to be critical.

Apparentyl ugly is "in" and I've had several customers say lately that "your wood is too pretty."
At least I've figured out they don't want ugly ugly, but uniquly ugly, if that makes sense.

Jake, yes if you've got pictures I'd like to look at them.

WDH · June 25, 2016, 08:19:00 PM

The black and fuzzy white are mold and mildew I believe. I think that they are just along for the ride. The real party is happening in the wood with the blue stain fungus.

The trick is sawing the logs before the flathead borers and long horn beetles riddle the pine with pencil sized holes

.

Peter Drouin · June 25, 2016, 08:33:36 PM

Quote from: WDH on June 25, 2016, 08:19:00 PM

The trick is sawing the logs before the flathead borers and long horn beetles riddle the pine with pencil sized holes .

YH With high end $$ up here, Lumber has to have [Figure] in it. :D :D Every one has ¼sawn wood. All most can't give it away. :D :D :D and no one want's blue stain pine. :D

Well, maybe Bruno. :D :D

Hi Bruno. :D :D