Log Furniture - Dead Standing Trees vs. Green

[FrankLad]

jpgreen:  Sounds like a pretty good find there!

jpgreen: It's remarkable how they stay in good condition for years.

Down here, most all of the dead standing pines I have encoutered have termites or evidence of termites, and if one has been laying on the ground for a while, there's not much to be done with it.  Most of them seem ok structurally (at least for log furniture), with only a couple being discarded for having more pulp pockets than I'd like.

[Stephen1]

Frank
Thank-you for the report I have been wanting to purchase one to make my railings and some furniture. looks like I might drop the hint around the house here as it is close to Christmas. it looks better than a new sweater!! ;D

[FrankLad]

Ha ha!  Glad the report was helpful to you, Stephen!   

[pineywoods]

JP Green  re: salvaging dead pine

I cut a lot of dead pine.  The red streaks you found are caused by lightening. When lightening kills a pine, it almost always will have red streaks in the wood. Also the but cut will usually be hard as a rock. I've seen some beautiful furniture made from the streaked wood.

[Tom]

There's two kinds of red streaks in SYP.   One is caused by wounds.  I guess lightning could cause it.  It looks like streaks of fat lighter or sap that has crystallized in a longitudinally oriented streak.  Sometimes you find a crack running through the middle of the streak.

The other is a brilliant red stain.  I'm told it is one of the colors of blue stain fungus. If it is Blue Stain Fungus, it sure is pretty.  Blue Stain Fungus doesn't effect the strength of the wood, just the color, so, if you like the color, the wood should be OK.

[jpgreen]

Thanks for the pine info... 8)

I've seen the red stain, that's like the blue stain, but this is the streaking stuff and I've never seen it before.  It's awsome.

THere's still bout 15" of taper to the end out there, that I should go out and get.

[TexasTimbers]

There was a log home company back in the last century that bored out the center of their logs to speed drying and reduce checking,

I ran that idea past my wife one day coming back from Tennessee. I had never heard or read it before but I wondered aloud to her if drilling a hole right down the pith, about  1" - 2" depending on the size of the timber, wouldn't speed up the drying process.  I figured on long timbers you would have to afix one of those small computer cooling fans on the end to pull air through it.
I thought of all kinds of crazy eccentric stuff like running a steel rod in it after it was dry to help stiffen it, but that would probably offer about a zero increase in tension strength. I knew I could drill a hole no problem as I had fabricated a 12' drill extension for one of our members who needed to drill through a ERC post to run some ROMEX through. I also thought of injecting the hole with PU to keep bugs from using it as a hacienda etc.

Then, after I had opined on various brilliant ideas for several minutes,  she said something to the effect of "Well honey if it was great idea wouldn't they already be doing that stuff?"

And that's all it took to put the kabosh on that pipe dream. 

[solodan]

Pat I think the red  that you have is, what I call, and have heard it called around here, "red rot".  If it is the type of red that I am taking about, it has a red hue  and a soft edged cast to it.  Almost a swirling or wavy effect. It seems to only occur with pine logs that have been in contact with the soil, but the red is not the rotten part or even near it, it occurs in the bright heart wood, kind of like an oxidation. It almost looks as if the wood has been fumed, although I have never seen fumed pine. ??? I have seen it in both ponderosa and sugar pine,  but not in lodgepole. lodge pole grows in drier areas and rots a whole lot slower. In your area closer to the beach you have shore pine, which is just lodge pole that grows in very wet soil. I bet you can find some of that red in some shore pine.


FrankLad, I am glad you like the Logman tenon maker too, I have not pulled mine out for awhile, but you have motivated me to dust it off. Thanks

[Raphael]

I got a couple of those pretty red pine logs from an arborist friend.
I'd figured they were someones imported yard tree, just didn't know from where.
What other pines can show red rot?

[jpgreen]

I've seen two reds in pines.

The stuff I've milled in the past was actually more of a rubyish red color that stained just like blue. This last tree has a mohogany red for lack of a better descriptive term, that streaks and swirls, and the pine as a whole is not white, or yellow but more like a doug fir color.  Darn I wish I hadn't runied the other 8'.. :

The rest of the log may not be accessable til next spring, cause the rain has started in, and it's too muddy back there. As soon as it dries up or freezes, I gonna go get it..  8)

[4woody]

will i orderd my logman an the bits to

[4woody]

will  the bits came but not the jig so i jus made my jig works good