I am looking at getting some hemlock logs. One load will be used right a way. The second load is for inventory. I have a 36x72 ft hay shed with closed in side and can close up the end (south ). Leave the bark on anchor seal the ends. Or cut them into rough cants. What is the best method. Need to keep them out of the elements.
Don't cant them, they will just check and be hard to saw into usable lumber. If you'll have a roof over them, I'd try to not damage the bark (it will keep the wood from drying) and spray them with diesel to keep the bugs out.
Putting logs indoors is not worth the effort in my opinion. Heat is the enemy and wind on the end is bad. Other than a pond, on the ground, no sun, the colder and wetter the better. The deterioration will be on the top side of the log that has tried to dry. Many disagree with me but I have been keeping logs for quite some time.
Brad_bb burns his in a vortex barrel.
Add: OOOPS. Wrong topic.
I am one who disagrees with the on ground storage. I agree with the pond. I am trying to snake out some maple that uprooted last Fall and I keep seeing uprooted trees on my route from an ice storm we had 20 years ago. The ones where the logs are off the ground due to big clayroots and tops holding them up still are still solid. The ones directly in contact with the ground are pure punk - most of these are already completely gone. You've been in the woods - what does your experience tell you?
I'd suggest storing off the ground on sacrificial logs (Locust if available) or treated cross ties or such and debarking would be good to reduce insect problems if possible. Good luck.
If you have a pond and can move the logs around in it .... that'd be great.
Otherwise, I'd put them on a couple of bunks (off the ground) and let them dry. Hemlock is soft, so I wouldn't leave it too long because it'll start to rot under the bark. That's also my experience with Spruce and Pine.
For storage that's going to be any longer than a couple of months I'd skim a slab off four sides (ie: make cants with a bit of wane left on them) and pile them to dry as if they were boards. Yes, they'll start to crack to the heart, but they won't rot.
.... just my opinion ...
Spent the morning sorting hardwood logs that came in fresh October [2018]. They should have been sawed and stickered or sold before now. The winds of march took there toll on the high and dry piles. The ones on the ground in the woods are better, not so cracked on the ends yet. Soon it will warm up and the staining will start on any white woods. Logs cut in the spring are the worst and I hope none come in. My experience comes from buying logs, sawing and drying the lumber for years and then not being able to sell all the cracked and stained material that many think is cute.
My experience with eastern hemlock should be the same for western.
I have stored them with the bottom logs directly on the ground for over a year.
No appreciable degrade and a lot of the bark comes off in the handling.
The deterioration of logs kept too long is a boring subject. Large diameter cylinder shaped straight, slow growing, little sap wood showing is the log that may last longer. On logs that have curvy indentations the sap is closer to the heart and therefore the rot that follows the sap goes deep when these logs lay around. The species and time of year cut and of course the exposer to sun, wind and worst of all heat. I don't consider insect damage because in most cases the logs have already gone past there prime when attacked. All logs should be sawed a.s.a.p.
My experience is try and get hemlock sawn within a year. I keep mine outside on railroad ties. I would think that after 2 years you will start to see rot. Don't know for sure though I've never pushed it that far
Take a gamble on what's most likely to be needed or will sell and cut them for stock. Get it right you're in front, get it wrong and you might have to buy more logs and you'll be in front some other time. Buying logs to look at is never an effective or efficient use of money.
Pete's got it right in the 30 + yrs of custom milling I've sawn hemlock that was 5 or more yrs old just piled in the bush never moved till I got there the guy was under the impression that if the logs sat the stress would come out of them , nope still had plenty of timber bind ,now white pine I try to cut asap on account of staining especially summer cut and pine bugs within 1yr .
I never could afford to put up an inventory of lumber but sorting my logs and having a good steady demand helped I'm sure, anyway where I am there's no need of worrying about hemlock as was said " no appreciable degrade except a little bark falling off" which is a good thing no bark no dirt.
I've had good luck storing hardwood (Ash, Walnut, Cherry) on sacrificial logs off the ground. I don't have time to debark with as fast as they came in. I have to debark later when they go on the mill. I've only had a few that the bugs really damaged. There is some large beetle larvae that bores past the sapwood into the hardwood in Ash, but I haven't actually seen them. Like i said I only had 2 or 3 logs out of 100 like that last year. I now have well over 100 logs mostly Ash that have been on sacrificial logs since last summer. I probably won't get to them till next fall or winter.
rjwoelk, or Bob in Canada as I call him, told me he plans to cut the hemlock into beams. In that case, since he's not planning lumber/boards, maybe cants would be ok? When you cut a beam, checking will occur. If the can't is larger than the final beam, the check will be larger on the outside, but as you cut it down to the size you need, the check gets smaller. I have no experience with hemlock. Bob is talking about Western Hemlock. Not sure how it differs from Eastern Hemlock?
Storing in a pond is iteresting.
What is the procedure . What kind of size.
I have a 150 ft wide by 300 ft long and up to15 deep dug out. Do they need to be fresh to go in or if they are dried for a year? What will it do to the water that is their now, contamination etc. Due to tannins in the water.
I've stored logs in our pond, it works fine. Actually, for some hardwoods, it actually increases the color in the log, making the lumber look better, cherry for example turns a more distinctive shade of bright red. That's why I started doing it, off and on, some years ago. I've got an ornery cherry log still floating around in the pond, I can't get it near a bank to pull it.
My buddy just chokes his with paracord and rolls them into his pond. They can be pulled to the bank pretty easy that way. I just let mine swim around until I need them. The wind will blow them to a bank at some point, when they can be pulled.
I don't know how your northern logs would do in water, never tried it with those species.
Way, way back in time all sawmills had a log pond. I have a book that shows old mills in the catskills here in N.Y. and they look like the old western mills only smaller.
How long could one leave them in the water?
What happens to the part floating on top do you need to turn them if so how often?
How about winter? Just let them freeze in?
Think of logs as food; vegetables cut from the vine. Log [tree] cut from the stump, same difference. Gotta eat em or keep em wet and cold or frozen or cut em and dry em.
That cherry's been floating around in my pond going on 4 years. :D
Around here weyerhauser (hope I spelled that right) cut off a lot of timber and hauled it out on the lakes and in the spring they floated them down the river to the mills. These logs were cut around 1905. There are a lot of them still in the lakes today. If they sank in shallow enough water they usually laid down on bottom. If in deep water yet they are on end. Boaters hit them once in a while. Guess they do quite a bit of damage. My neighbor and I brought out a few and I sawed them. Just some pine. We laid them on everything and leaned them against the mill and 2 days later with sunshine there was no shrinkage and no warp. Would have been a good deal but someone hollered and then the DNR got involved and wanted stumpage and all so we quit. I have always thought of water curing some myself in my own ponds but never got around to it.. Now to old a decrepit. The outside of the log was a little brittle but the inside was better than the day they were cut.