Pine Sap

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Kenny Durrant

Kenny Durrant

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Sep 11, 2012
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Here's what I have. A friend of mine was a Safety Manager when they were building a new State Farm Office in the Dallas Area. The builders use some pine with a history to finish out some of the hallways in the building. He saved me a few pieces for pens because of the story behind the wood. Now the question is I'm sure the wood is dry of water moisture because of the age of the wood but the sap is as strong as a fresh cut tree. The wood is very heavy, I'm sure because of the sap, so am I working with green wood or just fresh smelling wood? My two main concerns are cracking as it "drys" or the finish not working out. I've used other pine in the past but it was lighter in weight and it worked out fine. Thanks
 
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Don`t think cracking will be a problem . My approach to finishing resinous pine is no finish . Sand lengthwise to 400 , then give up . Enjoy the smell , which should last a long time . Don`t store the item in direct sunlight .
 
Would really like to see a picture before posting but think you are talking about resin.

Have a lot of Long Leaf Pine and assume you have a lot there in TX too. Stuff have been turning really messes up everything lathe, facemask, tools & walls but looses the smell. This LLP Vase finished with shellac.
 

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Thanks for the replies. I think I'll go ahead and turn the pens and see what happens. State Farm posted a plaque in the hallways explaining where the lumber came from. If I can get a picture of it I'll post the final outcome. Thanks Again.
 
Kenny -- you are smelling the turpines in the wood -- the stuff that was used to make the paint thinner turpentine. You are likely to hit some pockets of pitch with turpines still in it (stickey vs pitch that is hard/brittle).

I slow bake pine in about a 170 degree oven until all the turpines have been warmed and made the way out of the wood (can take a few days and if you do not like the smell, do it in a toaster oven in the out-of-the-way).

Then it will turn pretty cleanly
 
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I do like the smell I'm just worried about the pen coming apart after turning. I just glued up two blanks so I guess we'll see what happens. I have enough wood for several more pens so if it doesn't work out I can try a different approach.
 
Sanding is going to be your biggest issue. I turned a little box from old growth pine. It instantly clogged the sandpaper. I had to do all sanding with mineral spirits as a lube.
 
It sounds like baking might be a good idea but I segmented the blanks with guitar pick guard so I don't know how that will work out in the oven. I'm going to turn them since they're glued up and if finishing is the only problem I'll throw them in the oven and see how it goes. I think it will make a nice pen if all goes well. I inlaid a piece of olive wood in the top half of a slimline with the pine for the rest of the pen. I used the pick guard to break up the lines between the two types of wood. I'll give one to my friend the worked there during the construction of the building, he gave me the wood, and one to my wife's cousin that works there. I just need a picture of the plaque telling about the origin of the pine. I think it will make a cool gift along with the COA on the olive wood. Thanks again for all the input.
 
I'm pretty sure an oven would do nothing with the old growth I used. It's not like it had sap pockets, the entire piece of wood was very resinous. It had been a window sill in a commercial building for over 100 years. The grey oxidized layer wasn't even 1/16" deep. Took off the 1/16" and ithe color was like it was cut from the tree yesterday. They don't make wood like that anymore!
 
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I turned the bulk off on the lathe down to about 1/2 inch and put it the oven at 150 deg. It's been an hour and all the sap ran to the bottom of the barrel. After about 10 min in the oven I reached in to touch a tube and it was pretty gummy. I used acetone to clean it off my fingers. The sap is still in a liquid state. Is it supposed to harden or do you just wipe it off?
 
I baked the tubes in the oven for 4 hours at 150-170 deg. and the sap hardened. When I put the tubes back on the lathe to turn as soon as I took a small layer off the smell was back and the dust had a damp feel to it but wasn't sticky. It was hard to sand but got it to a point where I was happy with it so I put a few layers of thin c.a. and polished with Hut plastic polish. The finish could be better but I don't think it's that bad. I'll post some pics. in Show Off Your Pens when I get a chance. Thanks again for all the input.
 
Kenny Durrant said:
I turned the bulk off on the lathe down to about 1/2 inch and put it the oven at 150 deg. It's been an hour and all the sap ran to the bottom of the barrel. After about 10 min in the oven I reached in to touch a tube and it was pretty gummy. I used acetone to clean it off my fingers. The sap is still in a liquid state. Is it supposed to harden or do you just wipe it off?
Click to expand...

Hold on there Kenny, acetone is not for cleaning skin!!!!! Skin is not a chemical barrier, it's a permeable organ. I'd suggest using a citrus hand soap.
 
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If you can smell the odor, there are volatile materials (turpines) still in the wood. There is little migration over time unless they are subject to heat or vacuum. Neat to make something out of old wood -- especially with a story to go with it.


Go Jo or similar is better cleaner for hands than solvents made from petroleum.
 
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