I just purchased some heart pine – Milled to 3/4″ x 6″ x 96″
All of the pieces have sap oozing slightly and one of them is real bad. Is this normal for heart pine (long leaf) that is reclaimed and remanufactured?
If so, how long will I need to wait for the sap to stop oozing, if it will?
If it’s normal, how do I clean it up so I can finish it without sap coming through?
Should I take it back and have new pieces cut?
Thanks for any help
Replies
Sap can stay soft for years, and will reappear anytime the temperature gets especially warm. Kiln drying will permanently harden the smaller pockets of sap, sometimes, but I have a few pieces furniture made from kiln of dried pine that still get tiny pearls of sap on their surface every summer after fifteen years. The small drops harden almost immediately and can be knocked off with a light pass from a cabinet scraper, which I do once every few years and then rub on a light coat of an oil finish.
Nothing will seal in liquid sap that forms droplets on the surface of the wood, not even shellac which I see recommended occasionally. You can use the pine, resin rich pine is a joy to work with, but only if you can tolerate a certain amount of resin appearing on the surface of the finished piece occasionally. The piece with the large pocket should be cut up to eliminate the worst part.
Resin rich pine will gum up sandpaper instantly so scrapers and planes are needed to finish the surface of the wood. Pitch can removed most efficiently from tools with turpentine, which I find is more considerably more irritating than paint thinner, though both solvents are toxic enough to that you should use some protection when using either.
Wiping down the pine with turps might remove pitch right at the surface but won't clean off enough resin to make any finish other than a penetrating oil practical. Paints, shellac, and varnishes will blister and peel over any area of the wood that is actually oozing liquid resin.
John W.
One particular piece is seeping sap on the entire side. Will I be able to face glue it with that much of a sap problem? I would expect the glue couldn't do the job due to the sap.
I don't know for sure how much sap affects glue but I wouldn't use a piece of verry sappy wood in a critical joint.
John W.
I won't do it...I won't!
Ohhhh...
Sap on my heart pine, fire in the sky!
I did it.
DC
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