A question on stickering

[Bruce Gray]

I just received several hundred board feet of freshly sawn red oak, that needs to be stacked and stickered. The question that I have is what material to use for the stickers. There are one or two boards that are junk, and can be cut for stickers, but that is not nearly enough to do the whole load. I do have a large pile of dry walnut that is still stickered (with walnut stickers). Can I use the walnut for stickers, or will that cause a problem with the dreaded sticker stain ?

This is beautiful wood, a mixture of 4/4 and 6/6, and is nearly perfect. Many boards are 16" wide. I certainly don't want to do any damage by improper drying.

I have never stacked and stickered freshly cut wood, so any help is appreciated.

Bruce

[Kyle Kraft]

Bruce,

I'm no seasoned woodsman, but I think I can answer your question. You should usually sticker your green wood with the same species of stickers, or stickers of a lighter species. If you use walnut stickers on light woods, the stain can bleed into the wet, green stuff.

I just sawed about 600 bd/ft of hard maple and a buddy loaned me some fluted maple stickers to avoid "sticker shadow". Type those words into a search engine and do some interesting reading.

[Andy Hoyt]

Use 1x1 stock

Be sure it's dry

[Martin Lutz]

I use 3/4" exterior grade plywood ripped 3/4" wide. That way the sticker thickness is consistent. I would not use wood from the same tree that is not dry. You may create a problem with mold and staining. Plywood is already dry, no worries. As far as sticker shadow, I have not had a problem. I do not claim to be an expert but I have dried several thousand board feet of various species including red oak. Oak is sometimes tough to dry because it tends to case harden and should be dried slowly. I learned the hard way. Have fun, its definetely rewarding.