Pine for stickers?

[rambo]

I have a stack of kiln dried pine 4/4. Can anyone see any problems with using pine for stickers? I guess i am mainly concerned with staining?

[Ianab]

As long as it's dry it should be fine.

Ian

[WDH]

I like using dry pine for stickers.  The pine is usually not as dense as most hardwoods, so it seems to perform better without staining.  Even so, air flow around the stack is just as important to prevent staining.

[pineywoods]

Pine works fine if it's dry. The best is sticks cut from a standing dead pine tree, especially a lightening kill. I usually take time out from sawing lumber and cut an entire log into stickers. I use a lot of them...

[Woodey]

Pine is my first choice. I use a lot of pine stickers.

Thanks pineywoods for your post using lightening struck or dead trees. I never thought to use them for stickers.

[Al_Smith]

When I need stickers I make the rounds of the lumber yards and get dunnage boards which they throw away any way . Run then through the table saw ,quick, easy .A barrel full of stickers and a wheelbarrow full of sawdust .

[red oaks lumber]

any dry material is fine, the most important thing is having the thickness very uniform and keep your width to max of 1 1/2 " 1'' is better yet.

[WDH]

I have had a whack of 3/4" by 1 1/4" stickers that I got from the reject bin at a big pine sawmill (the mill uses 8' stickers, and when they get any breakage, they throw the broke ones away).  I have made a good may from bettle-killed pine at 1" by 1", and I think that I like these better than the commercial stickers (they are made from an Indonesian hardwood).  I especially like the 1" thick stickers on tougher to dry wood like maple or pecan where gray stain can be a problem.  1" thick versus 3/4" gives you a little better air flow.  Now, I use the 3/4" stickers mainly for oak and walnut as drying a little slow does not hurt them at all.

[Al_Smith]

I cut them 3/4 by 3/4 same as the local sawmills .

[woodmills1]

for me pine breaks too fast

I like 1 inch by 1 1/4 hemlock or oak, use once full cut off mill then plane to 3/4.

[grweldon]

Sorry to hijack, but is it important that the stickers be dry no matter what the wood type, or is that just with pine?

[WDH]

They must be dry, no matter what they are made from, or you risk sticker stain on the wood that you are drying.  Some species are more prone to sticker stain than other, maple being one of the very worst.

[Al_Smith]

I'm not so sure it makes much diff what the things are made of as long as they are dry .The mills with kilns around here use ash or oak.You have to remember they have automatic rip saws and can carve out a dump truck full of them in no time at all .They can cut more stickers in one hour than I could on a table saw in a week .We'd both have a pile of saw dust though .Maybe not they have vacuum systems ,I just blow in all over the garage . :D

[WDH]

When I am ready to go off to town and am wearing some nicer clothes (my sawing and woodworking clothes are not nicer anymore  ) and then go to the shop just for a minute to get something, I always come back out and look down to see what?  Sawdust all over my clothes  :D.  That is what your post reminded me of, Al.

[woodmills1]

I almost always use green stickers from the job ona cut



then I plane them and use them on another cut



most time no prob on using green


once in a while there is a stain or mold



once ina while ona dry planed sticker there isa stain ora mold

[woodmills1]

just goes to show ya

[drobertson]

I use pine, and oak, nothing kiln dried but stacked and aired. anything going to the flooring mill is dead stacked and shipped. the folks I mostly custom cut for like the product. But they use it up pretty quick. Like so many have posted, some folks don't always pick up on time, so the need for stripping the layers is critical. I would love someone to post some picks on stripped oak that have been planed, just to see the result.