Shopsmith Forums

How long can wood sit in "log" form and still be successfully milled for lumber?

I have a couple reasons for asking and maybe the answer would be different for each one?

1) My father-in-law has a couple of trunk pieces from large oak trees. They're about 3'+ in diameter, and about 7' long. They've been sitting there for 1.5 to 2 years. I do see quite noticeable cracks in the ends. Can anything be done with these? He recently pushed them off into the woods behind his house, but I hate to think of them just sitting out there rotting.

2) I went to my wife's sister's boyfriend's mom's house the other day. They've done some work to their house over the last few years, and there is a lot of red cedar. Very beautiful stuff. I asked where they got it and they were given a bunch of trees, and then had them milled. If I understood the story right, the trees remained in log form for about 10 years before they were milled. Can that be right? They said they still had a big stack of the logs.

Not sure on the Oak but Red Cedar can certainly sit in the log that long. I have some very, very nice Red Cedar that was felled in 1940 and milled in 1950. Some of it is 16" wide and 22' long. there are 30+ grains per inch and it is as light as air. I built my current sailboat out of it.

Paul M

I'd take the Oak and start cutting the ends off to see where the checking ends... you might wind up with only a 4' piece in the middle that is usable... probably not worth it

Some logs can sit for quite a while before milling into boards. Pine logs are usually kept wet in order to prevent blue stain. They used to be floated in a pond which prevented that problem, but now the decks are set up with sprinkler systems.

Don't have any experience with oak logs, but it seems end checking is natural in most species of logs. That's why logs are specked to be cut 6" longer than the nominal length.

The logs you have may be checked other than end checks depending on the conditions they have been subject to. If the only defect you can see is end checking, there is likely no other issues. I recommend you do not shorten the logs. Only after milling into boards, should the ends be removed. You may be able to get usable material from the board ends in between the checks.