The Forestry Forum

I have a cherry log and a couple of maple logs to saw. I was told to get the maple boards into a kiln right away. Is that critical on the cherry, or would I be ok to sticker them outside for a while (covered)? Someone is coming up at a later time to buy them, and I want to make sure that they are looking good when they come up. Ideally I would like to just sticker them outside and sell them green when they come up.  Would that work ok, or should I get it all into a kiln to prevent staining, etc?

The advice for the maple is spot-on. It will stain very quickly. Cherry is much more forgiving. No need to dry it quickly. However, kiln-dried lumber sells for a premium over green lumber, so take that into consideration.

I have had trouble with maple developing gray stain on stickers here in this hotter climate.  There needs to be very good airflow.  I plan to use a small fan to move the air on the next batch that I try to air dry.

if you use dried stickers (small) and stack your wood in a well ventulated area(air flow) you won't have any problems in this northern climate. the biggest mistake people make is they don't get the logs sawed quick enough after the trees were fallen. if you go from stump to sticker in 2 weeks you'll be fine.

My way Here in Central New York State with quite high humidity and with SMALL  amounts of Maple is to stack the boards against my shed vertically for a couple or 3 days to let the surface dry,
Then I stack the conventional way with stickers that i have made in the  cross section of an "H" beam, 4' long and have had no trouble.
I have made hundreds of these stickers with my shaper and a custom bit from Charles Schmidt and Co.
I cover the piles with some used metal roofing in an area with good air flow.
Hope this helps
pete

Forgot to mention, cherry is no problem with conventional stickering
pete