To mill, or not mill; that is th question...

[kellysguy]

I have two trees here I'm unsure about. One SYP, the other white oak; both lighting strikes. Pine was hit almost exactly a year ago, no rot with some splitting; tree still standing. White oak hit maybe a year or two ago. It looked like it died...then put leaves on this spring and then they quickly died and fell off. That tree is mostly solid with some upper limbs falling out now and then; some rot where I think the jice traveled to ground. Are they too late or too hard to mill? I know the pine will be a little hard in the center but is this a concern? My plan was to practice on these. Thanks

[beenthere]

Just one good way to find out the answers to the question.  ;) 8)

[kellysguy]

Well yeah, but I had the same mindset when I decided to stick the chrome plated plastic tweezers from the board game "Operation" into the wall outlet when I was five. ( I still remember it too; I even announced it at dinner right before but either they didn't hear or didn't care..... :D)


I was under the impression lighting strikes in general were a no-go. Is that the case.

[willmyers0169]

i have milled several SYP's that were lighting strikes, I couldn't tell any difference once I got inside the log, beautiful wood, maybe a little more blue streaking, I sawed some 3/4" boards for board and batten trying to save on material and some split in the center after being nailed on, ive never had that problem with one inch boards.  Cant help with the oak, but I would definitely give it a shot, worse case is easy to handle fire wood