Dead standing pine

[whittle1]

I had someone ask me if I would mill some dead standing pine, some has bark slipping? He would bring the logs to me but I don't know if there worth milling don't want to waste his money. What are your thoughts or experiences?  

[TroyC]

My experience has been that once the needles and cones fall, the log deteriorates rapidly from bugs/decay. If the needles are brown and haven't fallen yet, it might be worth milling. There  is also the danger factor in harvesting if the branches are beginning to fall from the dead tree. I left 6-7 very large dead fire killed pines because the branches were scary. I'm just a hobby sawyer but many with more experience will chime in.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well there is dead standing, and then there is standing dead. ;D
What killed the trees? If it was bark beetles or other bug infestations, they may have started decaying before they were even fully dead. I have cut a lot of dead pine for safety clearing and TSI work. I like to leave a few (2/acre or so) for habitat trees and I try to choose the most stable for that. But it's funny with pines, they are usually so well balanced that it takes a lot of storm to knock them over. I have cut some that would not fall until I pushed them. They lose the branches and have even less windload. If they are recent dead, you may have a chance but remember dead wood gets pretty brittle, so the end use might matter.
 You need to take a look at them and make a judgement, again, it's based on the end use. A couple of years back I milled up some white pine that was terrible, just for the practice and to get rid on the logs. FULL of bug holes something fierce. I wound up making 3/4 boards and using it for a top layer on the loft floor in my shop. Works great for that, but it is backed up by 5/4 hardwood. The thing is your yield can be very low when you take off the outer bad stuff (pithy and pre-rotted), defect wood, and all the other stuff you find. I am going through tons of the stuff at the mill right now and take big opening slabs off which all feeds the OWB anyway, sometimes I get decent wood for framing or fences, and sometimes I waste 30-40 minutes on a log that winds up being BTU's. But we have to get this stuff out of the yard somehow.
 Just get eyes on them before any more time and effort goes into it. You should have a good idea after you take a few whacks with a hand axe to see how the wood is under the ugly part.

[beenthere]

Mill them per his request, and not be worrying about spending his money. I'm suspecting there are some good boards in them thar standing pine. 
As long as you get paid for your time and mill costs. 

[whittle1]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I had some pines that a storm took down that got blue stained and buggy before I could mill. Milled to 1" and kiln dried and sterilized. Made some beautiful boards for the ceiling of our barndo. Just wasn't sure if standing pine would yield the same type boards.

[Magicman]

A fairly large percent of my sawing is beetle killed, etc Pines.  The landowners hate to see his trees go to waste and everyone needs a stack of framing lumber. 

If/when I see a log that fractured when it hit the ground I will point it out to the customer and not saw it.  Otherwise, my job is to saw.

[Ron Scott]

Though much is small diameter, a lot of the mountain beetle infected pine in the West is milled for salvage. The sooner that it is milled, the better, however.

[kelLOGg]

I had 4 dead standing pines on my property felled. They had bugs in them but were still useable. I air dried and kiln dried them and advertised them on CL. They sold quickly to a person building an art studio on her property. All went well.



 

[bannerd]

Cut 10,000BF of pine that was in a log pile for.. four years.  A lot of good boards in those.. red rot, beetles but still some good boards.