40 year old Pecan

[dupont6480]

A very good friend gave me approx 300 bdft of pecan today. The wood is rough sawn and is 40 years old.
Most of the boards are 8 - 10 feet long and approx 12 inches wide. Do I need to treat this wood for bugs etc since it has been sitting is a barn?
Is Pecan a good board to work with for furniture projects? Thanks, Tim

 

[ScottM]

Scott Smith would be one of the best to ask this to. Myself I would not be crazy about the idea of spraying the outside and then at some point planing the outside off. Sure that spray breaks down but I do not like the idea of the fine dust covered with spray in the air and in my lungs. No DC is 100%.

 

[eyekode]

Pecan is very similar to Hickory and in the trade they sometimes use them interchangeably. I like the look of hickory and it is as tough as nails. So if you like a little "character" in your wood you will probably like it for furniture. If you prefer even toned dark woods like mahogany it probably won't be the wood for you .
Not sure about the bugs. To be safe you could have it kiln dried.
Good luck!
Salem

 

[MarkE]

Nothing here about bugs, but lot's of useful information about Pecan lumber.

http://www.connectedlines.com/wood/wood50.htm

 

[merrill77]

A very good friend gave me approx 300 bdft of pecan today. The wood is rough sawn and is 40 years old.
Most of the boards are 8 - 10 feet long and approx 12 inches wide. Do I need to treat this wood for bugs etc since it has been sitting is a barn?
Is Pecan a good board to work with for furniture projects? Thanks, Tim

Nah, it's terrible for furniture...probably riddled with bugs, too. Best to dispose of it properly! Give me a call, I'll be happy to haul it away for you.

 

[Tarhead]

If you look at most Pecan trees they are short on the main trunk and long on limbs. Any narrow boards are most likely from limbs. Limbs are stress wood. Make sure you use a splitter or riving knife on your table saw when ripping to keep it from kicking back. If you have a bandsaw it would be safer to rip with than a table saw. Save your cutoffs for smoke wood in the grill. It's my favorite.

Timbor (Borax) is a nontoxic and invisible way to deal with most boring insects. I apply a good coat with a garden sprayer on any lumber I store since my QS White Oak disaster.

 

[srhardwoods]

The best way to kill any possible bugs...and larva would be to kiln dry it. since it's MC is already as low as it will get outside, the core needs to be heated to over 133 degrees for a few hours to know for sure. the sawmills bring in hickory logs, pecan logs and what leaves the mill is all called hickory. My kitchen cabinets are Hickory, love the character grade myself

 

[scsmith42]

Hey Tim, hope that things are going well for you in the new shop!

Re your pecan, it is a beautiful lumber. With respect to your boards, it's a good idea to sterilize them before bringing them into your shop. Because they are already dry, I would shy away from a water based solution such as Timbor (it's a great option for green lumber though), because in general it is not a good idea to rewet dry lumber.

IMO, your best bet is to sterilize them with heat. If you were closer to me, we could simply put them into one of my kilns just prior to the sterilization cycle. However, it is quite easy to build an inexpensive home-made sterilization chamber from foam board, sawhorses and a space heater; and I think that this would be your best bet.

FWW magazine had an article on one, I think that it was in the December 2010 issue. If you need me to, I can sketch something up that explains the concept and e-mail it to you.

Regards.

Scott

ps - pecan scraps make GREAT BBQ wood, so be sure to recycle your scraps in to some authentic steak flavoring!

 

[Rob]

I'd be interested in that Scott, would it work with turning blanks?

 

[dupont6480]

I'll be sure to give you a hollar when I decide to dispose of it

 

[srhardwoods]

I could probably throw it in my kiln next time I fire it off. I'll be drying some well air dried oak coming up soon, and should have room for a few hundred feet. I'm just in suffolk. I'm just about done building my second kiln, so the first load will be about 4k bf of maple I have then the oak. send me a PM if you would like, with contact info.

Chris