Sinker Cypress

[J_Graham]

Saw a diver/mill exhibiting today at a ag expo in south GA today. I have always heard it called sinker cypress, the sawyer here calls it pecky cypress. I'm curious if anyone has worked with any? And if so I would love to see a picture of the finished work.

 

[Rwe2156]

Neat stuff. Its only useful really for wall panelling, sometimes on ceilings. Used to be very common, not so nowadays. I've never worked with it. Everything I've ever seen is either >40 years old or more, if not its reclaimed.

An old timer told me the holes are caused by sugar deposits that dissolve. I don't know if that's true or not. The whole first floor of his house is panelled with it.

 

[joec]

The holes are caused by a fungus, if I remember this correctly. Sinker cypress is just old heart cypress that is reclaimed from the bottom of rivers from the days they were floated down the rivers. I was at a sawmill once and they brought in a sinker cypress that must have been over 100 years in the river. 'The sapwood was completely gone and all that remained was the heart. The sawmill had to split it with large chainsaws to get it down to size to run through their blade. It was completey red in color and the old timers (this was in the late 1970's) called it "Red Cypress".