Help with reclaimed Southern Yellow Pine...

[Mike Becker]

Recently I was given some 100+ years old Southern Yellow Pine beams with a 4"x8" cross section & in various lengths. The building they came from was an old car dealership, hence their girth. But even after a hundred plus years of inside use the wood still seems to be 'wet'. Even though my moisture meter reads 8% to 10% M.C. every tool I use to work this stuff becomes coated with sap and dust, and I do mean COATED

I.E. when I used my bandsaw to slab out the wood, afterwards I had to use a putty knife to scrape off the build-up on both wheels, both sides of the band, and both sets of guides. After the putty knife I washed off everything with mineral spirits to remove what the putty knife left behind.

I've been woodworking for about 8 years and while I have seen build-up on my tools I have never seen anything like this. Is this normal for 100 years old Southern Yellow Pine? Logic, and my M.C. meter, says this lumber is dry but my hands and tools seem to say the opposite, that it's still wet. Is it really 'wet' or is it just sappy??? Is there a difference between the two??? If this is normal for vintage Southern Yellow Pine, that's okay, I'll deal with it but will I have to do anything 'special' before gluing it or putting on a finish?

Thanks! Mike

[Barry Beech]

Yellow pine will gum up blades very fast as you have witnessed, no matter how dry it is. SYP sap is very thick and the wood is very soft. I would actually be a little leary of using some of my tools with SYP because of what you are experiencing.

[Bill Lewis]

Is this normal for 100 years old Southern Yellow Pine?

In a word, yes. Even SYP that is way older than what you have will be the same.

The only other thing I can tell you is that you may want to set it aside for awhile to let it acclimate. Otherwise you could actually have a finished piece experience a sap eruption. By re-milling you could have released the pressure on sap pockets that have been trapped in the wood for a very long time.

[Andy Hoyt]

Mike - It's been my experience that any pine variant will produce the same results if the original drying process was time. It's happened to me on 180 year old long leaf, 10 year old eastern white, 105 year old eastern white, and 50 year old southern yellow. For some reason the kiln dried stuff does not do this to me. My guess - and it's a guess only - is that the resin in the wood gets stabilized by the kiln whereas time just lets it linger.

On the up side - sure does smell good!

[Perry Holbrook]

I think I read that it takes over 180 deg in a kiln to crystalize the sap.

Perry

[Brett Baldwin]

Maybe you could put a beam in a kiln (if there is one handy) and see if it makes a difference. It would be some good information to know either way.

[Ken Wright]

I'm down here where it grows ... and there's a couple of companies locally that do nothing but reclaim big timbers from old buildings and resaw them into "Heart Pine" flooring. There is a sizeable market for "Heart Pine" kitchen cabinets. People go wild for that stuff around here.... and one of the reclamation companies is less than a mile from my home. I've observed them resawing those timbers but never noticed any excessive sap buildup ... in fact I was always surprised at how dry it was.... but that's the best I can offer in the way of help.

[Mike Becker]

Thanks for all of your replies, it is appreciated greatly. There is always something new to learn in any hobby but with woodworking it never ends...and that's a good thing!

As for sticking a beam in a kiln Perry, it just may be possible...I have already put in a call to the guy that gave me the stuff as there is a kiln close to where he lives. If it comes about I will post what I learn.

Oh, Andy, "...smell good!"? There's good, and then there's too good. I thought my shop had turned into a Pine-Sol factory and that's a bit much... I am not looking forward to the planing operation. Maybe the weather will warm up enough here in NEPA that I can open the shop up.

OK guys, I now grasp the sap/resin stuff but what I need to know now is should I wash the glue joints before gluing? As for finishing, a spit coat of shellac to seal the wood I assume would be a good thing to do before applying a top coat???

Thanks again.

[Steve Clardy]

More than likely those beams were air dried.
Todays kilns use a term, with most pine, set the sap.
What they do is, after kiln drying, they turn the heat up to 180-200 degrees, and it hardens the sap. Most machining is done at a lot lower temp, sawing, ripping, and so the sap won't melt at those temps. Thus no sap buildup on your blades, or not much.