White pine peeled and sitting for a couple months... any special considerations?

[AAtkinson]

I purchased some winter cut eastern white pine for my house that Im going to build. I also purchased some spring cut stuff as well. I have all the logs peeled and they've been sitting exposed to the elements for a couple months. I more than likely wont be able to do any scribing, carving and fitting until fall at the earliest due to time constraints with my job. All the logs are on six by six cants off the ground and have ample air circulation around them. They are starting to grey, which to be honest I dont really mind and actually think the exterior will remain finishless to get that grey ancient feel the old homes in Ontario have (I live in Northern New York). The home will have four foot roof overhangs so Im not worried too much about a chemical finish. What I am wondering about is if it is worthwhile to mess around coating the logs with anything to protect them from the elements. On the interior I either plan to sand or redrawknife them to clean them up and/or apply a bleach and neutralization cleaner to them to brighten them a touch. Also, should I seal the ends at all? They have started to check, but thats going to happen anyway right?

[northernss454]

Hi, all I can say is I wish I would not have pealed my logs and let them sit. Mine sat for about 5 weeks in the hot sun and they were really tough to drwaknife on the side that was exposed to sun. The next load of logs I got are not going to be pealed till I need them. But another mistake on my part was not covering them. You should cover then they will be easier to work on later.
just my 2 cents

[dr.]

It is easy to peel a rotting, bug infested log. Get the bark off as quick as possible, its a starch/sugar compost bag. End coating keeps the ends from drying faster than the sides. Moisture gradient causes much of the checking, a drying shell over a still green core. A fresh end trim at this point before end coating would be best. At sawmills they try to end coat within a day or two of felling since once checks form its hard to really seal anything.

Attached is a shot of a red oak board end that I was lazy and left the bark on. The insects also carry bluestain fungi in with them accelerating its spread. White pine is no different just easier to chew. Where the bark was off the wood has zero insect damage. Our pine bark beetles will swarm over fresh sawn lumber at my mill over a lunch break they line up along the cambium and try to burrow in.

You hit one of my buttons. Winter cut or spring cut or any other time the moisture content is about the same, sap does not "go down". Actually conifers do not lose their needles and grow all year, if that needle is above freezing it is photosynthesizing. The needle is a specially adapted leaf with a waxy cuticle to help prevent transpirational losses through winter's dessicating winds. The valving in pine's cell walls is capable of holding 900 psi before the begin to leak so they can sustain some freezing of the anti freeze sap. They can also survive and reestablish water column after a freeze embolism. If sap actually went down in any tree it could not pump itself back up. The ability to do what a pine does is the reason it grows to the limits of the tree line both up and north. The various forest covers you see as you travel north is demonstrationg each species ability to maintain water column through winter without fatal damage. Bluestain and other fungi do not grow at cooler temperatures, so a winter cut and peel allows the surface to dry below fungal levels before the temps rise, keeping the wood bright... there's our reason for winter cutting, leave the bark on and that advantage is lost. The easiest peel is during the spring growth spurt when the bark "slips" as the pre cambial initials split, one cell in and one cell out. You can drop a poplar log that time of year and have it squirt right out of its bark.

A tin lid up off the pile will keep the logs best. I scrounge scrap tin whenever I can.

[AAtkinson]

Yeah, like I was saying initally, all the logs have been peeled, and before the bug season here. They are smooth, drawknifed timbers now, and bucked up off the ground and the damp... so any special considerations with that form I should be considering?