pentacryl and olive

[BlueRider]

Does anyone have any experiance with using pentacryl to stablize or help cure diminsional lumber.

I will be milling some olive next week and was thinking about trying it on some of the wood. I have a friend that has a 55 gal drum of pentacryl currently on its way to his shop where he makes drums, the pentacryl thing is all new to him as well. I have milled olive once in the past and recieved a couple of 2x6's from a friend who milled some as well. the stuff I milled warped and twisted prety badly and the stuff my friend gave me has dried beautifuly. Iend sealed the stuff I milled and milled it in the winter and the stuff I picked up from my friend was not end sealed and was milled in the late spring. To contradict logic even more I mille3d imidiately after the tree was cut down and my friend typically 'ages' his logs for many months.

I did a bit of checking on the net and found a guy not too far from me that sells olive for between $4-$15 per pound which acording to the dry weight of some of the stuff I have on hand comes out to between $16-$60 per BF with the stuff I expect to mill being in the $20-$25/bf range. I don't know how much the pentcryl will const me but as you can see it is worth a little effort to maximize the yeild of premium boards.

 

[Matildasmate]

Does anyone have any experiance with using pentacryl to stablize or help cure diminsional lumber.

I will be milling some olive next week and was thinking about trying it on some of the wood. I have a friend that has a 55 gal drum of pentacryl currently on its way to his shop where he makes drums, the pentacryl thing is all new to him as well. I have milled olive once in the past and recieved a couple of 2x6's from a friend who milled some as well. the stuff I milled warped and twisted prety badly and the stuff my friend gave me has dried beautifuly. Iend sealed the stuff I milled and milled it in the winter and the stuff I picked up from my friend was not end sealed and was milled in the late spring. To contradict logic even more I mille3d imidiately after the tree was cut down and my friend typically 'ages' his logs for many months.

I did a bit of checking on the net and found a guy not too far from me that sells olive for between $4-$15 per pound which acording to the dry weight of some of the stuff I have on hand comes out to between $16-$60 per BF with the stuff I expect to mill being in the $20-$25/bf range. I don't know how much the pentcryl will const me but as you can see it is worth a little effort to maximize the yeild of premium boards.

Hi Bluerider ..... This may be useless info , I milled some Eucy for a mate , when it dried , it warped and twisted badly , so I slabbed a couple of log's up thick , about 4" , that worked very well , it still split though , but this stuff splits no matter what you do , some split's up to 3/4" wide . Cheer's MM

 

[MJR]

I was looking into Penacyl myself. I have two maple trees that grew together forming a large bench. (a branch grew them together). I have had relative poor luck with crotch pieces drying. That is why I was looking into Pentacryl. Here is a site with Q/A. http://www.preservation-solutions.com/faq-pentacryl.php Good luck and please let me know how it works for you.

 

[woodshop]

Hi Bluerider ..... This may be useless info , I milled some Eucy for a mate , when it dried , it warped and twisted badly , so I slabbed a couple of log's up thick , about 4" , that worked very well , it still split though , but this stuff splits no matter what you do , some split's up to 3/4" wide . Cheer's MM

I have no experience with pentacryl, and have only heard of some of the other wood stabilizers that have been on the market for a while, some of which basically just replace the water in the wood with a more stable chemical. Never used any of them. What I do when I come across wood that twists up like a pretzel (apple is one) is simply mill it on the thick side, rarely less than 8/4. It tends to twist less when that thick, and also as MM said, even when it does crack here and there, you still have enough "meat" to get something out of the piece. Another tactic for drying wood like that is take more care in drying it very slowly at first. Wax the ends ( I simply dip them in melted paraffin I heat up in an old metal scraple pan), and keep the pieces more tightly covered/wrapped in the beginning so they don't lose too much moisture all at once.

 

[buicken]

olive dust is a bit toxic, be sure to use a mask.
here is a link to a good list .
http://www.rivervalleywoodcarvers.org/WOOD TOXICITY.pdf

 

[BlueRider]

olive +++ vs black walnut ++ on toxicity ???

Thanks for the info. I am just a bit skeptical of the veracity since the it lists black walnut as less toxic then olive. my experiance is 10 fold oposite. I now get a skin rash similar to a chemical burn or 2nd degree burn. I have been alergic to the dust for years but that is solved with a respirator. I now have to mill walnut wearing long sleeves and gaunlet gloves. and wouldn't you know it it is the wood I am swimming in. I have been milling walnut almost once a week all summer long and will be doing the samw weather allowing all winter and a neighbor just offered me a 40" that looks to have some curly wood in the lower portion.

Olive has a slightly friuty scent with a touch of cabernet, very pleasant. Olive is also the absolute best wood for smoking poultry or pork and is one of the best for lamb and is not too bad for beef.

with apologies to the southerners I pop a few chips on the hot coals and put the lid on and the results are unbelievable. I will have enough scraps that if anyone is curuious I cold send some chips for the cost of postage

 

[buicken]

no kidding, i worked for a wood sculptor who was hospitalized because of olive. i have never milled it.
i've resawn lots of black walnut with no problem.