The Forestry Forum

This weekend I had a white pine log sawn into table-top slabs (tree was cut down in early March this year).  I have it on sticks air-drying currently.  But was wondering if there is any trick to preventing it from bluing?  I've heard about the borax/boric acid solution here on the forums, but it doesn't say how to best apply it - if the lumber needs to be soaked with it, or lightly applied.

So I thought I'd see if anyone had any tricks for drying pine without it turning blue?

Dry it fast. If you can put fans by the stack to keep the air moving this helps a lot, or put the stack some pace that gets a good breeze. You can't air dry pine too fast.

There are also chemicals that you can spray to prevent sap staining, but then you have to consider toxic residues left in the wood.

Ian

The borate will not prevent blue stain.  Like Ian said, fans to keep good air flow to hasten drying.