air drying pine

[nanook]

I recently "rejoined" the Forum so will probably ask some oft asked questions. When air drying pine in my ventilated drying shed what can be done to minimize the chance of mildew? I sticker with 1" stickers. Does brushing sawdust off the boards help? Is there a bleach solution that can be used which will not interfere with wood finish when the lumber is to be used? Etc., etc. Any, all suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Chuck White]

First off, welcome back.

Brushing the sawdust off the boards will definately help.

I feel the single best thing you can do is make sure there's enough ventilation/air movement!

I recall some of the Forum's sawyers using a bleach mixture, but I don't remember what it was!

[Mark Webb]

Yes, getting the sawdust off will geatly help the mildew problem.
Mark

[Piston]

Thanks for asking this question and welcome back.  I didn't realize that brushing the sawdust off will help so I will start doing that now as well. 

I stickered pine with green (pine) stickers which I knew from reading here I wasn't supposed to do, but it was all I had when I started, and yes it stained the boards.  I didn't try planing it out though so not sure if it would come out or not?

[SwampDonkey]

I think you might be able to use 1.5 lb to 2 lbs of 20 Mule Team Borax from the grocery dissolved per gallon of hot water. And spray it on with a garden sprayer. Hydrogen peroxide is a bi-product when mixing with water so no bleach needed. It comes in a 2 kg box at the large grocery stores in with the laundry soaps and stuff. Keeps the bugs away to like ambrosia beetles that cultivate fungus like mad.

[SwampDonkey]

Little 8@$+@8\|)$.

[nanook]

Thanks all! Replies both interesting and helpful.

[rbarshaw]

I put a box fan (~$20) blowing across the stickered SYP for the first month, that saved it from mildue/mold, when I didn't do that it would always have mold. Here in S.C. the humidity is always too high.

[Mad Professor]

I'll add do not make you drying stacks too wide.

Try to cut pine and in late fall or winter.  Mill ASAP

When it gets warm you are asking for blue stain and bugs.

[nanook]

If the pine is felled in the summer and milled in the fall is that as good as felling in fall or winter? [Supposing it is free from bugs and stain when the milling is done. Once milled does the stain travel through stacks of stickered lumber if there is stain on some of the boards?]

[ohsoloco]

Pine felled in the summer will have blue stain and bugs by fall.

[SwampDonkey]

As suggested, bugs and fungus by fall. Around here if your a woodlot owner and wanted to cut and mill white pine it was cut in cold weather and milled before the weather got warm again. We had some that grandfather cut in the winter and yarded across ice with horses., But, my father never got around to milling it up before the warm season and it all was ruined. Got busy farming I guess.

You will be hit hard and fast by Ambrosia and Bupresidae if you let them logs lay in the warm season. Also, remember that pitch will run in the knots of that lumber if the house is warmer than where the pine was sawn and dried. So kiln it. It will even bleed through paint if not. Some folks say on here that shallak will seal it in though. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But, I know paint won't and even on pine air dried for years. Bleeds through the knots. So if it's clear pine, might not bother anything.