Sawing pine and spruce

[jtmccallum]

This week I was given about 20 white pine and spruce logs by a co-worker.   They were cut this week and I will have them home by tomorrow.  I would like to mill them as soon as possible and air dry them this winter.  Will I have any issues with blue stain if I can't get them milled right away.  I don't have my own mill and would have some body mill them at my site.

                                                                      John

[beenthere]

Don't think you should have a problem with your night temps near freezing, and soon to be cooler.

If you can deck them off the ground and in the shade, they should be fine until it warms up in the spring. 'Spect you would saw them by then.

[kderby]

The causitive factor for bluestain is a fungus that needs food (wood), moisture and warmth to grow.  Around here we worry about bluing when the daily temperatures are seventy degrees.  Like spalt, blue is a process (fungal growth).  Spalt and blue do not happen over night.  My expectation is that you are in good shape until spring time. 

Blue is an issue for sapwood and not the heartwood.  Blue is especially an issue in lumber graded for appearance (pine) and not structural lumber.  Blue pine can be quite beautiful.  I was asked yesterday, "Why does it decrease lumber and log value when bluestained?"  The answer from my perspective: blue is inconsistant.  One log can be denim blue and the next log looks like mud.  Some boards are solid blue and others are not.  The general market does not tolerate scattershot diversity.  The price drops until the market no longer cares if it is blue or not.  Milling cost per board foot sold actually goes up for bluestain.  There is additional waste due to decay (fungus=decay process) and checks in drying logs mean broken boards.  Finally, when finishing,  it is hard to keep the blue "blue."  Often the nice blue, with age, becomes muddy and flat.

Perhaps more than you wanted to know.  Enjoy your logs while they are still bright!

[backwoods sawyer]

Generally speaking the blue stain will not develop after the log has been milled up unless there is no air flow, and the humidity and temperature is high. Mill them now and the should stay bright, wait till spring to mill them and they will start turning blue.

[woodmills1]

blue is not consistant at all, and I like the some look like mud line, but blue can happen even when you think it won't.  leave a couple of pine boards laying face to face for a few days and see what happens even when nights are cold.