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Sinker Log Issues
Question
Forum Responses
From contributor D: Colors can be very unusual and will vary greatly from log to log. I never before heard anybody say that wetwood was easy to dry. I've heard the exact opposite. From the original questioner: Gene, it's my understanding that these logs were part of huge rafts that were used to transport the logs. Last year I put several freshly cut pines into my pond to preserve them. They barely floated at first and within one week, they were on the bottom. I did not expect that. Have not yet pulled them out. I am scheduled to go and look at some of the lumber cut from these sunken logs in a couple of days. The price he wants is $1.50 bf for logs and $2.00 bf for squared cants, for either pine or cypress. From Professor Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor: If a log gains more water while it is in a lake, river or pond, that water will come out easily. If the water gain above normal is due to wetwood ("wetwood" is a special term and is correctly used for a special type of wood that occurs in the living tree and is closely associated with bacterial infections that weaken the wood), then wetwood must be dried more slowly. Slowly does not mean drying is harder… rather, slowly means drying takes longer. But no special techniques to control warp, etc. are needed. However, it is very difficult to dry wetwood without some quality loss, as some of the wood is so much weaker than normal. Because the stresses that develop in drying cause the problem for wetwood, it follows that wetwood could be dried better in a system that dries wood without developing such high stress levels... a conventional system that dries more slowly (as I stated earlier) or a vacuum drier that is properly operated to avoid large MC gradients and stresses. The RF-vacuum and electric blanket-vacuum systems did develop stresses and then honeycomb in drying, so it would have to be a different type of vacuum drying. Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? 
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