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Wood Gloat.... Maybe??

15K views 15 replies 15 participants last post by  woodguy211 
#1 ·
Lumber Bought at Auction

Over the weekend I went to an auction that had 600 bf of cherry, 400 bf of walnut and 400 bf of oak for sale. I wasn't sure how I was going to get it all back into the shop or where I would even put it if I won the wood but I thought it would be great to work on getting a wood stash that would start to rival that of Karson and Larry.

When the wood was auctioned needless to say I did not win any of it. The guy that bought most of it never put his card down and so the wood went for more than I was willing to pay for it since the auction got quite animated at times. But after the rough lumber was auctioned off there was a pile of split logs that was left to be auctioned. I ended up being the sole bidder and won the stack for $5.00 for the wood that had been stored for over 20 years in a barn (according to the auctioneer).

Here are the slabs of cherry and oak that I got home with:



And a picture of "The Boss" included for the sake of perspective:



In doing some rough calculations I figure there is around 30 to 40 bf of cherry and 5 bf of white oak in the slabs.

But when I removed the bark on one of the oak slabs here is what I found:



and a closer look:



This is obviously powder post beetle damage and needless to say will end up in my neighbors firewood pile. It does not look like any of the other logs are infected but I will know more when I mill the slabs up with my bandsaw sled.

Thanks for looking and, as always, thanks for letting me share this with you.
 
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#7 ·
The holes in the photo although not 100% sure without something to scale does not look like powder post beetle damage. Since I own a sawmill I do see some PPB damage, the hole they make are very very small.
Along the lines of a 26 pt period in Windows Notepad the damage you have looks like some type of wood borer. I have found that wood borers love cherry but once it drys down they tend to lose interest. What you do with the wood is up to you I just thought you would like to know.
 
#8 ·
Thanks for the suggestions on saving the piece of oak.

I can live with the worm holes. These just add a classic look to the project. But I did have some concerns about bringing powder post beetles into the house. They are nastier than termites in my opinion. The best way to get rid of them is through kiln drying but that it not an option due to the distance I would have to go to find a kiln and it is only a single stick of lumber. And I am sure that if I cut it up and tried to bake it in our oven, which could work very similar to a kiln, "The Boss" would have a few words to say about that!! There are some battles that are simply not worth fighting. :)

I may try to mill it up and see what it looks like rather than letting it go for firewood if I can figure out some way to heat it to kill the wood borers. But for now I am going to leave it at the far end of my lot until I get a chance to work on it with my bandsaw.
 
#13 ·
Gloat??? Just one picture rubs it in our faces….shame on you for making me drool on my keyboard…well, not entirely drool….some tears as well…well, not entirely "some tears" more like buckets of tears…great buy!!!
 
#14 ·
Like others, I'd be looking for ways to cook or pesticide that board (I think cooking it'd be easier, even though you'd have to find a way to insulate and heat big bits of it) and using the holes, whatever made 'em, for visual effect.

Holes like that add character!
 
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