I've had a bunch of white oak stored outdoors on stickers for at least 10 years. I'm starting to take it down to move it to storage inside a freight container.
Some boards show evidence of the little holes left by PPB infestation.
It gets very hot inside a freight container exposed to the sun. Wouldn't surprise me if the ambient is near 100, the inside would be 40 or 50 degrees hotter. As I understand it, that would kill off PPBs, right?
At first glance, dark sides indicates before sawin
Keith Newton
There are some insects that get into living trees, especially around injuries like lightning where the bark got knocked off. They wouldn't be living in the wood after made into lumber.
Then, there are some beetles that would lay their eggs on the wet wood soon after sawing, which couldn't live in dry White Oak, except the sapwood. In fact I don't think there are any that would be happy in dry WO,
Also, if you inspect closely, the exit holes are always perpendicular to the face. If some of those holes go in at an angle, that would indicate them being in there before sawing into lumber.
You could also double check that by cutting up and planing some of the lumber where the holes exist. If there are tunnels running all over the place, ignore what I just wrote. I'm not an entomologist specializing in wood borers, but this has been my observation over time.
is that 135°+ for 2 days will kill whatever might be in there. 140-150° should do fine.
If you like a belt with your suspenders, mix up a gallon or so of TimBor [amazon @ $19] and spray it on the boards and let them dry before you load them in the box. Stickers not really needed but can't hurt. You and I can eat the stuff but it kills the bugs.
The holes appear to be round. Those are entry and exit holes from after the lumber was cut. If the bugs had been in the tree you would see some oval and some elongated half tunnels, the road map effect. Plane some of the lumber and see what you get.
The fact the holes are dark indicates they are old/oxidized. Look for newer fresh holes and piles of frass/sawdust/bug poop within the stack.
Timbor may be the ticket in this application, but it tends to sit on the surface. Boracare is made by the time company and is the same/similar chemical (borate) dissolved in glycol (antifreeze). The glycol is a penetrant, vehicle that carries the borate deep into the wood. The glycol itself is also poisonous and may be almost as effective as the borate. Not sure anything penetrates white oak though. The glycol makes it more dangerous to you also, so the Timbor may be the answer.
Check with Nissuss, they make both and are very helpful. Forest Products Laboratory may be able to help too.
I have wondered the same thing. I have what amounts to a solar kiln and it gets very hot. I leave it open in summer but in winter it gets shut up as a source of heat for my house. the wood gets cooked pretty thoroughly. Some has been stored in it a long time. I wonder what effect it has had? So far, everything I have pulled out seems fine.
that once wood has been "kilned" (to the temps discussed) it does not perform well for steam bending as the structure of the lignin is changed with the high temperature. Haven't done enough steam bending to personally confirm however.
The significant difference between green wood, air dried wood, and kiln dried wood is moisture content (MC).
When you put a stick of wood in a steambox and steam it for an hour or so, the steam itself does not have enough time to penetrate the stick of wood. But if there is moisture already in the wood, this internal moisture can effectively transfer heat from the surface throughout the interior of the wood. The higher the initial MC of the wood, the more effectively the steambox heat is transferred throughout the wood, and the more uniformly the lignin in the wood is heated. It is lignin that provides strength to the wood and if the lignin becomes pliable the wood can be bent. Kiln dried wood typically has a MC of 7-8%. Air dried is more like 12%. Green wood is more like 20% and can be much higher.
I have bent short sticks (think slats for chairs, or rungs for chairs) by placing them in a microwave for 30 seconds or so, maybe a minute depending on thickness. The microwaves easily penetrate the wood and heat the internal moisture which heats the lignin. What was a rather stiff stick 30 seconds ago is now easily bent (and still dry so it hasn't changed dimensions at all).
There is also a hysteresis effect to consider. Wood dried to a low moisture content of seven percent MC, a typical target in kiln dried North American practice, is made stiffer as a result of the drying and, due to a form of hysteresis, it is quite difficult to make wood soft and pliable again once it has reached this level of dryness and stiffness. This applies even if the wood is brought back up to moisture content levels similar to those found when the tree was felled. Slainte.
I have read that heating wood permanently changes the properties, including properties of the lignum, making the wood tougher and stiffer and making steam bending kiln dried wood a problem. But a google search found that some people claim to bend kiln wood dried successfully, for example this:
I neglected to give my usual steam bending protocol.
For green lumber - 1 hour for every inch of thickness. Said hour being measured from when the temperature in the steam box achieves a stable temperature (typically above 200 F).
For air dried lumber - at least 1 hour 15 minutes, usually 1 1/2 hour for every inch of thickness.
For kiln dried - usually about 2 hours.
I have no idea if the lignin "sets" or what with kiln drying. I understand what you are saying about getting moisture back into the wood. I don't know if it is that possible with kiln dried wood. Sounds like an interesting series of experiments with a moisture meter the next time I'm bending. I have some 1/2 rounds that I need for a project I have in mind. I could try some with kiln dried as well as green and air dried. I could stab the wood with the moisture meter and make sure I was at the same relative level (more or less).
