Basswood outside?

[Bruce Darrow]

Hi Folks,

I have a request for "light colored" wood sign blanks (8" x 8"), to be outdoors at 9000' elevation in the Colorado mountains.

The requestee, a rather arrogant and opinionated fellow, is thinking maple, but I know how well maple will hold up outdoors.....and for some reason, cedar seems to be out of the discussion.

Does anyone have any experience with basswood in the out of doors? Given a BLO treatment, what can one expect over time?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[Kevin Stricker]

I have no experience with Basswood, but living at 8k in Colorado I can tell you that the sun is the biggest weatherer of wood here. I am a carpenter and have replaced 20 year old decks where the joists were non-treated KD Doug Fir. Besides the rot at the nail holes I have been able to reuse some of this old wood for other projects, the same with the cedar decking.

I would choose Eastern White Pine or Port Orford Cedar over a hardwood.

[Danny Hamsley]

Basswood will do poorly outside. White oak would hold up much better.

[Terry Beadle]

Consider cypress. Basswood is not a good outside wood.
Cypress can fish eye on you but if you select the lumber carefully you'll have no problems. Fish eye can also be taken care of with a bit of hand plane treatment.

Maple will not do well with out constant semi-annual finsh treatment. Especially if soaked in snow or ice.

Teak would be expensive but another alternative.

[Bruce Darrow]

Hey! Thought this thread had died a deserved death. Turns out that our Colorado "cousins" are going to handle this themselves. Not quite sure why I was dragged into this to begin with. Now I know about basswood, outside at least. Had all decision making been mine, I'd have ignored "light colored", and gone for cedar. Cypress is not readily available here (VT), although it could be ordered - probably expensively. I'd also have seriously considered our eastern white pine. Or, best of all, from a practicality standpoint, vinyl applied to a signmaker's substrate (of which there are many) and attached to or framed in wood. Practicality doesn't always come into play with many marketing minded folks, though......