The Forestry Forum

I got about 36 12' red pine logs from trees that where cut for a neighbor. The trees where felled today and are 12" to 16" in diameter.  Can I mill them into cants and saw at a later date? I thought the cants would dry more evenly?  I have no immediate plans for them. Though I might use them for 2X's?  Price was right....all I had to do was stack the saw logs with my tractor as they where cut.

Saw them into 2x now and put them on sticks. I got pine yesterday, of course, it's blue stain season.

Cants will check and you will be sad when you go back to saw them later. Maybe they're called cants because you "can't" leave them sitting haha. I'd sooner leave them in log form then cants.

   I would not recommend leaving them in log form very long in warm weather or you could end up with logs full of worm holes. If I did not have a particular need I'd saw them into slightly oversized 2 X 12's so I could resaw them into 2X6 or 2x4's etc later as needed.

One thing with Red pine, the older trees will give you a bit more time. You still want to saw them quick, but young trees with mostly juvenile wood will go bad quick. They don't make the greatest lumber, either. On older trees, you'll see the majority of the wood is orangish colored heartwood. The bugs don't go into that much, neither does bluestain.

I store cants all they time, I have some cants stacked and air dried under a top cover and open on sides for 2 years and I make boards with them all the time no problems.  The outer boards will have some cracks but when you turn them over and use they are just fine.  Also the boards are super dry and ready to use.  I will cut 4/4, 8/4 or just finish cut to size for beams etc.  It is the best way I have found to stockpile logs you are not going to use quickly and it keeps the bark beetles from ruining the wood.