SYP for your entertainment

[Tom]

I've been cutting SYP for a chicken farmer who is taking bug killed trees from his property to side a building.  I'm not sure what he is going to use it for but the SYP is to be placed horizontally on the sides for walls. It is being cut 6/4 x (4", 6", 8") and will be pressure treated.  I have talked about some of the good wood these farmers have and thought you may like to see what is being cut.  It may not be the prettiest and it may be rejected by a grader to a scrap pile, but  these barns are full of this stuff.  Yes it has blue stain.  You can see some on the right side. The sap wood is dark from the tar in the wood and the heart is light colored because of its lack of liquid sap. The diameter at the point of this cut is about 15".  This is the top of the butt cut and is one of 4-16' logs from the tree that produced 6/4 x 8's.  The top cut squared 8".

Below is an 8" board, through the pith, from the uppermost cut.


 

[Jeff]

Pretty stuff Tom, did ya save me a bench slab?

[Tom]

From all the huffing and puffing and grunting I heard from the farmers son and grandson there are probably quite a few in the slab pile

[Don P]

Boy, wish I haddawhackathat! Looks like PT would be a waste.

[timberbeast]

Looks awfully wet!!  Is PT done after KD?  Does it make a difference?  Inquiring minds want to know.  The SYP PT we get up here is usually really wet,  build a deck,  you have to butt the decking up tight,  after a couple warm days,  you have a gap of a good 1/4-3/8".  Do they only use SYP for PT stuff?  Always wondered,  the grain can be striking (as in the pic).

[Kevin]

SYP is what many of our utility poles are now.

[Texas Ranger]

Looks like good old fashioned southren yaller pine ta me.  6/4 will be one heck of a board for siding.   I sell these trees for a living, and your pictures are of every log I ever sold.

And blue stain dosen't hurt a thing, except saleability, folks think it is bad, discolored, what ever, so not much gets passed the grader.  

[Don P]

That was gonna be my next Q, what does a forester see when he looks at that board. As a woodworker it looks to be some nice high ring count stuff...do you guys view that as wasted time? This tree looks to have put it on pretty slow.

I know blue stain fungi is just living on the contents of the cell and not the cell itself, but it has to be going through the cell wall to move. I envision hyphae puncturing their way from cell to cell.I have no basis for that mind you. When we used to stain SYP furniture, the blue areas would take up too much and turn very dark.

[Papa Dave]

Hey Tom, that is a fine looking log.  Is it old growth long leaf southern pine.  It kind of looks like it. If it is, I really don't why they would pressure treat it, but that is there choice.

Looks like you are having fun

[Don P]

Let me try that a different way

The wood appears to be slow growth, or at least thats the assumption I wanted to start from. I figure stocking was pretty dense, the rotation fairly long...all as compared to optimum. In the long view, the wood for whatever reason,even if it is only eye candy, apeals to us more,has potentially greater value. Does the landowner take a loss in volume/acre/year in managing for this type of wood? I guess another way, is not the same volume simply spread over more trees and if so is it a viable plan to manage for slow growth wood?
(modify,moments later)
Ooops, thought the thread was dead and when I went to check the post I was right on top of yours Dave. I saw TBeasts on the way down, let me go back to my wood handbook quick.
Dave saw the same thing I did.
"PENETRABILITY OF DIFFERENT SPECIES
The effectiveness of pt is influenced by the pentration and distribution of the preservative in the wood. for maximum protection it is desirable to select species for which good penetration is best assured. The heartwood is commonly difficult to treat. With round members such as poles,posts,and piling, the penetrability of the sapwood is important in achieving a protective zone around the heartwood."........................
Boy as I'm reading it is interesting but I ain't copying it all, Chapter 18 in the Wood Handbook gives a good description. I lost the link in the last crash but its online.
Been warm here too, got groceries up yesterday, the ice melted .

[Papa Dave]

Don, that is quite ok.  We needed some serious detail on the subject.  I was just thinking since I grew up in that part of the country, that the old heartwood of long leaf southern yellow pine had so much rosin in it, that it would just about stand up to anything and that pressure treatment would not absorb into it very well.  Of course, the newer growth pine is another story.

Well, anyway, Tom is trying to keep us on our toes.

[Tom]

This happen to have been a longleaf log that was jump cut from a fence line at about 4 feet. The ring count at 4' was 110 and we had many a good joke with the landowner who is 76.

Long Leaf is cherished down here and found in a forest invironment only on old family property or in urban yards where the tree meant more than the pulp it produced.  These guys would almost rather cut off an arm than take down a tree because it means so much to them, but these were bug killed and harvested rather than wasted.  They don't mind putting them in the structure of a barn or outbuilding because it is just a means of using a good board while it is being stored.  After a life as the side boards of a chicken house these may end up in a house or furniture or fence or whatever.

SYP needs to be dried to 16% or less to accept Pressure treatment.  This can be accomplished in about 8 weeks of air drying for 2" material.

The heartwood doesn't accept the treatment too good but doesn't need it for preservation.  The resins do a good job of keeping insect and rot damage to a minimum.  There is some treatment to the surface which helps its longivity.  The sap wood will be penetrated through and through.

Stands of Long Leaf can be found on most of the farms but is seldom cut for production except for veneer and poles and select sites for sawlogs.  Most of the production sites will be Slash and secondarily Loblolly because of the shorter rotation.

I will post some pictures of longleaf forest one day for your enjoyment.  ?They are exceptionally striking because they are usually groomed regualarly with fire which keeps the understory to a minimum.  Long Leaf forests will have short palmetto and gallberry of generally knee height making it look similar to "kept" yard.

[swampwhiteoak]

Tom,
Don't forget about the amadillos hiding in that palmetto.  I about had a heart attack when one of those hopped out toward me while I was on vacation a few years back.

[Papa Dave]

Boy, I remember eating barbecue armadillo outside of Jacksonville, FL. one time. It was real good.

Well, I thought it was, but not sure if I was really too much aware of its real taste. My Navy buddies and I had consumed several beverages when the opportunity arose.

[Tom]

  Even 3.2 can make Soy taste like steak. .........kinda .......maybe...... :-/