Hello, i have found some pieces fo lime tree, wich were brought down by a heavy snow load and subsequently cut up by workmen to free the road. As the tree was alive a few weeks ago it is still very wet, and in trying to dry it i observed that on the unprotected ends it starts to get dark adnd blotchy. How am i to prevent that? Event recently sawn off ends turn dark in a few days.
I suggest you paint the sawn ends
Bass, the American counterpart of Linden, has a similar habit of turning brown in the log. Painting the ends will slow the loss of water and potential end checking, but it will exacerbate the browning.
Best advice is to reduce it to about pieces about 20% over the size of the desired, and get the wood down swiftly to the fiber saturation point of ~30% moisture content. Fibers don't shrink until then, so you can gage the point a bit by examining the end grain for checks.
Juergen Hannappel asks:
Linden is listed as an easy to season tree. Sounds as if you caught up with some that has a mold, mildew or something similar present. I'd try a 1 in 4 chlorine bleach solution (using plain grocery store bleach as a starter), then seal the ends and put it in a dry room. Don't know what else it might be.
Have you looked on Woodweb?
Charlie Self "Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good." H. L. Mencken
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