pics of blue stain

[elliott]

These aren't good pictures, as I am certainly no photographer, and it was getting dark, but I thought some of you might appreciate the deep blue stain in this log. This was a very old tree that had been standing dead for a long time. By the way, this is a lodgepole pine, and that is a thirty-two inch bar on a 660. It's kind of rare to find lodgepoles this big around here. I definitely scored. :greenchainsaw:

 

[woodshop]

Interesting... does that blue stain fade once you plane the wood down and expose it to sunlight? Poplar out east here gets some beautiful blue, green, brown and black mineral stains, but the colors fade quickly in sunlight.

 

[Husky137]

Its funny how out west, blue stain is desirable. Here in the northeast it is treated as a defect. Many mills won't buy pine during the warmer months in order to avoid blue stain.

 

[redprospector]

I have a buddy who builds log home's. He loves the blue stains, it really sets the house off.
When I was building South West style furniture I charged extra for "blue pine".

Andy

 

[elliott]

Woodshop....Yes, unfortunately, the stain fades out when exposed to sunlight. I built some corrals this summer using boards milled from dead-standing timber that had a lot of blue in it, and now the boards are just yellow with very little evidence of blue in them.

We had all of the pine taken off of the property this summer. The loggers say that for lumber, blue stain is undesirable. The mills don't want it. But for specialty cuts or for uses other than lumber, the blue stain pine is very desirable. Personally, I think it is absolutely beautiful, and I love to mill it.

 

[RPM]

"The loggers say that for lumber, blue stain is undesirable. The mills don't want it."

The blue stain doesn't affect the structural properties of the wood - its more of an asthetics thing as you have all noted - some like it - some don't. From a sawmilling perspective its hard to sell some of that stained wood. Our operation is tied into some Japanese markets and they don't want the blue stain strictly from an asthetics point of view. Those markets are harder to find today in this economy so you start to listen to your buyers.