White Pine Question

Vince Pagliaroli

Vince Pagliaroli

Well-known member
Recently I was given White Pine logs cut from dead trees. Most of which the bark has already fallen off. The logs are almost 9 inches wide and 45inches long and straight as arrows. Brought in my cellar shop to dry, they have already begun to check (which I expected and will not try to prevent)

Has anyone carved decoys from dead White Pine (ya I know it's all dead if we are carvin' it)? How long is the wait?

I've carved many decoys from air dried, kiln dried and old driftwood White Pine, never from standing dead trees that were cut down. Just curious. Thanks in advance.
 
This question is not as straight forward as one might thing. The general rule in drying boards is one year per inch. With your logs one does not know how long they were dead and how much they dried while standing. The latter would vary base on where on the tree this was. I have cut dead tree for fire wood and could burn the top immediately like it was fully seasoned, but the but was dripping wet and needed a year before I could burn it.


I would suggest weighing it with a good scale like a postal scale and when it stops dropping in weight give it a couple of months and go for it.
 
Another option to aid in the drying is to put it near woodstove or in an attic. Just be careful on your setbacks if near a stove and be sure to rotate it often as it will turn and crack if to close or for to long. Have used the stove method with great success on smaller wood.
 
Dave & Chris -Thanks for the advice. The logs I picked are very light in weight and I was surprised by that, as I have used very old dry Cedar poles that were much heavier. Our attic gets very hot in the Summer that's where they will go. Just for the heck of it in 5 months I'll cut out a few bodies and see what happens, before I put the rest up.
 
Lot of insects attack newly dead white pine. You are likely to produce a lot of sawdust from those before ever sawing it in my experience.
 
Tod - That's the first thing I checked for, you are correct and the woodpeckers did some fine work trying to keep up. Even so there seems to be plenty of Good Wood, that will make some fine decoys, especially Wood Ducks & Teal. I'm lookin' forward to makin' a rig from local material to use nearby. Keep the circle goin'...
 
I haven't touched the logs since I brought them inside. I'm redoing my small shop after some water damage. I figure the largest check is where I'll split the wood, and at this point just letting nature take it's course. With the next group of logs I'll address that prior to bringing inside. Thanks for the advice.

Worse comes to worse, I'll use it to make Pileated Woodpeckers, they are in good supply up here and did some good work on the trees.
 
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