Thread: Storage of Pine.

You dont say what you want to do with the wood, but the best way to store the wood is to saw it into boards and dry it properly on stickers. Leaving it as a log it's almost certain to split and you need to get the wood dry to stop mould and fungus staining it. Get out the chainsaw or bandsaw and at least split them in 1/2 then stack them up someplace out of the sun but where the breeze can dry them. Smallish logs can be dried whole but expect them to check/split to some extent.

Cheers

Ian

Just one more thing to add to Ian's list, make sure you seal the ends with "endcheck" paint.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's all too late now.

Pine, especially Radiata, but most pines (Pinus) suffer from blue stain if not milled & stickered within 24hrs.
How do I know this? - I have firsthand experience & confirmation from the DPI. :mad: :mad:
I see you are from the Alice, so can you supply the scientific or species name & not just the local name?
It may not be of the Pinus species after all. :confused:

Thanks for the advise.

After searching the web for the Botanic name it looks to be a "Cupressus sempervirens". The logs I have cut vary in diameter from 80mm up to 250mm. The reason I asked is that I'm looking at turning them into a lamp holder at a later date.

Hi Crest

Italian Cypress is what we call it, not a pine at all, but common names can get pretty confusing.

It should be possible to dry some for turning blanks, but if you want it to dry without checking you need to saw it at least in 1/2, making the cut thru the pith. You can probably saw out some 100x100 blanks with no pith from the larger logs.

This page shows a method of cutting logs to make bowl blanks.

http://www.enter.net/~ultradad/logcutting.html

I do a lot of work with Cupressus macrocarpa which is a closely related tree and the wood is very nice to work with.

Cheers

Ian

Cypess has only about a 1% shrinkage wet to dry. Short logs often dry with out cracking but you are taking a chance. I dry it whole then split for kindling latter.
But it is great timber from macrocarpa I made weather boards, stairs, table shelves and 4 panel doors. It does split easily turn carefully

Taunton Press put out a book on milling/storing timber a few years back. have it in my workshop but am away from home right now. Hoads book also has info on same.


Cheers Martin