Wet stickers

[BigOakAdot]

So the township made us move all of our lumber from where we had it stacked at the yard. I got to take a look at a lot of slabs that have been stacked for about a year. I would say most of the lumber stayed relatively straight and is workable.

The one stack was of maple that we had milled this summer and it was covered with a really junky tarp. A lot of the stickers got wet and caused some black marks on the slabs. Now keep in mind we had just had about two days of rain so maybe it just seemed bad because it was so wet out.

Do you think these will stain all the way and show up after planing? I would really hate to have to cut down these monster slabs.

 

[Mike Van]

The sugar thats in maple will feed most any bacteria that lives. Probably worse than any wood in the n.e. Stickers that are grooved or shaped so only the edges touch are best. They must be dry too, fresh sawn wet ones are the worst. How deep the stain is can only be found when you plane it. I see in the pic a lot of yours are way too wide - I've never seen a 1x1 crush yet. Lots of hard work in your stack - Let us all know what the end result is if you would -

 

[BigOakAdot]

These stickers were either plywood or pine ferring strips. So all stickers were dry and that all happened from rain getting to the ends of the stickers. Like I said it's been a wet muggy last few days so those spots are physically wet right now and look a little worse.

 

[Mike Van]

When you restacked it, did you shift all the stickers a little so they're on fresh wood? That would keep it from getting worse I think. If you did it with a forklift, you could pick one part off the pile, try a little bleach & water where the stains are. Restick with new dry wood.

 

[steve easy]

I fillet or sticker with the same wood. Can be a pain if im just slabbing with a chainsaw mill, have to bring a top or bottom of milled log home and rip it down or sacrifice a low grade slab. Much easier when using the chainsaw circle mill, usually if cutting for a farmer i will cut a 50x50 batten as fillet they always have a use for them.

 

[BigOakAdot]

the tree outfit is moving to a new location so in the next couple of months we will be moving that whole stack. When we do that I'll replace the stickers with fresh ones and will have them stored indoors.

I like the idea of water with a little bleach and will give it a try. I'll let you know how that works out for me.

 

[BigOakAdot]

And Steve are you saying you use wet wood of the same exact wood you're cutting to sticker it? Like you take off cut slab pieces and cut them down into stickers?

 

[steve easy]

Yep, a habit i have got into after talking to other oldtime sawmillers here. I use antiblu on some woods as a backup mix it up in a bucket and apply with soft broom as i make the stack.

 

[BigOakAdot]

And that's to prevent staining?

 

[Mike Van]

Wont work on sugar maple

 

[BigOakAdot]

Does it make a difference if it was a silver maple? Pretty sure that's what it was.

 

[Mike Van]

Theres still sugar in silver, just not as much -

 

[Mike Van]

Here's a link to some further talk on stickers - http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Stacking_and_Stickering_Advice.html if it doesn't work just search google & it'll come up. A lot depends on where you want to sell your finished product - Lumber cut for horse barn stalls won't matter much if it's stained, but no one's going to buy table tops with big black / blue lines across them. A few companies used to market KD stickers, they were called breeze something? They had spirals cut on them so very little sticker touched the lumber, and the air could get through. Another one I remember the four faces were milled concave, only the outside edges touched lumber. most however stress dry stickers, and not OSB, plywood, etc.

 

[WoodyBlue]

I alway thought you use the same wood, if possible. But I am a bit puzzled at the use of Pressure Treated 4x4's as stickers. Isn't that a HUGE no-no?

 

[BigOakAdot]

Those are just temporary for when we move the pile to its final destination. Main reason was to be able to get the forks in there to grab them in sections.

 

[Mad Professor]

White ash is the way to go for stickers

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I don't have a problem using any stickers, as long as they are DRY!

SR