Treating timber

[sjs5060]

I want run an idea past you lads to see if you think it mite work.

I think most of us will agree most modern 'treated' timber ain't great, in my experience the treatment barely penetrates the timber.

I've been thinking of making some fencing myself but don't really want to spend on a pressure vessel and the rest of the stuff to end up with the same shite as everyone else.

Now, I've had an idea:001_rolleyes:

If I make a shed load of pine pitch, thin it out with linseed oil and fill a large vat. If I put my timber in a kiln and 'over dry' it then take straight out the kiln and submerse in my solution for a period of time, will the timber soak in the solution enough to act as a decent treatment?

My thinking behind this is when you over dry timber, say below 18% it seems to always return to the ambient moisture in the air if left alone.

My mates just had a new glen farrow kiln installed so when I've a bit of time I'm gonna do an experiment, just looking for your opinions beforehand.

 

Am I a genius or an idiot? I struggle to decide most days:lol:

 

Ste

[se7enthdevil]

i recommend you call yourself an idiot as that way you can only graduate to genius and not go from a genius to an idiot.

 

 

with regards to your fence why not just use a timber that is rot resistant?

 

anything in the "cedrus" genus will do just fine for 15-25 years.

 

western red and larch are ok for up to 15 years.

 

false acacia (robinia pseudoacacia) will also last up to 25 years which is as long as good english oak.

 

 

if you want to go for some of the best timber though i recommend "makore", "greenheart" or "opepe" as they will last over 25 years.

[Matthew Storrs]

i recommend you call yourself an idiot as that way you can only graduate to genius and not go from a genius to an idiot.

 

 

with regards to your fence why not just use a timber that is rot resistant?

 

anything in the "cedrus" genus will do just fine for 15-25 years.

 

western red and larch are ok for up to 15 years.

 

false acacia (robinia pseudoacacia) will also last up to 25 years which is as long as good english oak.

 

 

if you want to go for some of the best timber though i recommend "makore", "greenheart" or "opepe" as they will last over 25 years.

 

 

I couldn't agree more- even '30 year guarantee' softwood timber is questionable considering how far the treatment goes in. Creosote is great but nasty to deal with. I use almost exclusively Chestnut now for fencing stakes. And would be interested in other options for naturally durable (and easily accesible) timbers too.

[sjs5060]

I know what your sayin mate, but I've 15 acres of unthinned small softwood I'd like to make us of, and fencing would be one thing I'd like to do

[se7enthdevil]

what species will you be taking out?

[Ilnumero]

I have just come from a sawmill in Scotland where they saw fencing from all types of 'pine' softwood and it goes straight from the mill into a huge tank of creosote. It soaks in there for a day and then onto a drip rack for a bit, then onto a pallet for sale.

 

Now, I don't know what the penetration would be but they sell tons of the stuff, so the customers must be happy with it.

 

Yes, creosote is nasty but one of the best treatments. I'm talking about proper coal tar creosote, still freely available to the trade, not the rubbish brown stuff from the DIY shop. I still dip my chestnut stakes in a tall bucket of creosote before ramming them in and I would say that they outlast anything with a '20-year' guarantee. So, it might work for you, especially with drying the timber before soaking in whatever you use.

[openspaceman]

I know what your sayin mate, but I've 15 acres of unthinned small softwood I'd like to make us of, and fencing would be one thing I'd like to do

 

Different softwoods absorb preservatives differently. Seasoned pines take up well, Douglas and spruce badly unless a sap displacement method is used, the problem with spruce is the pits in the end of the cell walls block as it dries.

 

Wood is a collection of cells which have an inside and outside wall, just dipping it in a preservative tends to coat just the outside of the outside cell walls.

 

Green wood has the cells full of incompressible liquid so either you immerse it in a preservative that can diffuse through the wood or you need to get the liquid out of the cells and replace it with a compressible fluid (gas or vapour) then you can use a variety of means of forcing the preservative in to coat both the inside and outside of the cells to the required depth.

 

Get too good at this and you end up with the wood retaining too much expensive preservative which is why you have pressure to vacuum systems to leave just the desired load of chemical in the wood.

 

Any chemical preservative is likely to have adverse effects on living tissue, hence why chromated copper arsenate is severely restricted and creosote slightly difficult to obtain.

[sjs5060]

It's mainly corsican pine with some lodge pole.

I hear what you blokes are saying with regards creosote, and to be honest I'll probably use it for my testing but I've access to both pine root to extract my pitch, and linseed which is grown locally.

And I think it's a more natural way of doing it?

 

Thanks for your input so far.

 

Ste

[Bogoak]

Buy your fencing from Jacksons; the treatment penetrates right through the timber.

 

It's pointless ( well almost ) trying to treat wet wood; that's why much of the pressure treated timber sold is so poor: if the wood is full of water, then how is the treatment supposed to penetrate:confused1:.

[SteveA]

I coated the ends of a load of freshly cut Sitka posts with TuffDip a few years ago and they are all still solid. Tuffdip Fence Post Protection

Thing I like about it is that it's not got the nasty chemicals associated with other preservatives.

I'd buy some again when the need arises....

cheers, steve