# Water treating lumber



## Byron Barker (Apr 17, 2016)

I am curious about water submersion treatment of lumber. In Taiwan, I've been noticing a lot of the old mills have GIANT pools outside of them. When I inquired as to why, the man who owned one such mill told me that before, they would soak logs in water for 3 years, dry them for five and then sell them. He said this greatly enhances the durability of the wood. The popular quote he told me was, "season wood, use it for 100 years. Soak wood, use it for 1000." They soaked the wood for three years, but I get the feeling this is due to the size of the lumber they were getting and the type of wood (mostly cypress and cedar....heavy in oils). I am currently working on trying to build a natural house on my land using camphor wood. I have a running river of clean mountain water at my disposal and am considering soaking it. How long do you think I should soak a log for if the diameter is around a foot? Is this just a waste of time? Any input of sources would be greatly appreciated.


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## Blueglass (Apr 17, 2016)

I love working with Camphor. That should make a great home, no bug problems.


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## Nature Man (Apr 17, 2016)

Subscribed, for curiosity sake. Chuck


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## Mike1950 (Apr 17, 2016)

In the old days in the PNW every mill had a mill pond. In the beginning they serve 2 purposes Power for the mills and to clean the dirt and ? off the logs. Mill ponds existed into the 50's -60's and even a few longer but only to clean logs. Dealing with nothing but softwood timber here so maybe different elsewhere but it had nothing to do with ageing the wood.


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## barry richardson (Apr 17, 2016)

I have read where they soak veneer logs to make them slice better, but never heard that it makes the wood more durable or long lasting...


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## Byron Barker (Apr 17, 2016)

Well, there is a huge amount of money also invested in removing lumber lost in lakes some hundred years ago as it was being transported. The information I read about it linked the increased durability of the soak lumber to the leaching of resins out of the wood. I always thought resins preserved wood, so I was a bit confused by that. Either way, most of the wood recovered is over a hundred years old and often resting at depth. I won't be waiting 100 years...obviously. I know it works well for bamboo as well, but the bamboo only requires a few weeks to leach the glucose out of the starches in the fiber due to the thin walls.


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## norman vandyke (Apr 17, 2016)

I know they soak rosewood meant for instruments for years before kiln drying. Something about the wood experiencing less movement after that process.


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## Mr. Peet (Apr 17, 2016)

From what I have read and been told, it depends on the species. Yes, soaking to draw sugars out is a big help to reduce certain insect damages as well a blue stain and other stains. Water in these ponds could often become tremendously tannic from the release of suberelum and other compounds from the bark of many trees. These compounds could leach into many types of woods and act as a preservative, similar to the creosoting process of the past. This is in stand alone ponds.

Additionally, some woods last long under water, such as many of the elms. Expose them to air and water in a cyclic manner, and soon they will rot off.

Yes, ponds were for cleaning the logs, but primarily to keep them somewhat 100% saturated. Log runs ran in the spring when the melt off waters were high. Mills were overrun with inventory in the spring. Ponds were the easiest way to reduce heavy checking, blue stain and most insect damages previous to milling. As Mike said, often the pond water was used to power the mill. Fresh cool water came in to replace the used water and prolonged the safe storage of the logs. Now the fish down steam didn't fair to well.

Lumber recovery is another story. Many old growth diffuse porous woods were far denser than the averages of today. Therefore, they could become "waterlogged" and sink more easily. Water has different densities as one descends. This is now and was a big hazard in the past. A log could become waterlogged and sink just below the surface, and be held there by a more dense water layer. The issue was more often a danger in rivers than in lakes, since a river could hold wooden torpedoes. I'll stop there....

Reactions: Like 3 | Informative 2


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## Mike1950 (Apr 17, 2016)

Mr. Peet said:


> From what I have read and been told, it depends on the species. Yes, soaking to draw sugars out is a big help to reduce certain insect damages as well a blue stain and other stains. Water in these ponds could often become tremendously tannic from the release of suberelum and other compounds from the bark of many trees. These compounds could leach into many types of woods and act as a preservative, similar to the creosoting process of the past. This is in stand alone ponds.
> 
> Additionally, some woods last long under water, such as many of the elms. Expose them to air and water in a cyclic manner, and soon they will rot off.
> 
> ...



To add- I read where 1/3 of the old growth timber (PNW) is in deep water reservoirs. They cut the shorelines trees but if they were in the bottom or below a certain depth they left them standing. Watched a show where in canada they used a little submersible robot that went down- attached a balloon to tree then used a chainsaw to "fall" it. It rose to surface and they gathered them up. BIG trees.
Most of the mill ponds in Inland northwest were small cleaning ponds- not storage. Now the big lakes stored huge numbers of logs. They stopped using log booms in the St Joe river and lake Cour'delane only about 10 years ago. These where huge booms. I was sorry to see them stop, they were fun to watch. harrison Id. Had like 20 mills at one time at mouth of Cour'delane river. Most of them burnt down. It was back in steamship days. When a steam ship got worn out they would keep it afloat till 4th of july and then burn it. Makes for cool diving now. For a while they were logging the bottom of the lake where a mill was but owner decided to stop process. Beautiful old growth that had been there for up to 100 yrs or more. When one of those drugs was going down the road it was like following a fire hydrant- the water just poured out of the logs........

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 2


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## Byron Barker (Apr 17, 2016)

Thanks for the replies! I talked to my elderly Canadian friend here who has done extensive building and he told me a similar story. He said their method was to cut one season, soak another season, season a season and then use. So, my guess would be they would do most of the building with partially green wood since it would still be real wet. He said he built a cabin out of cedar using these methods some 40 years ago and the thing is doing just fine today. I'm concerned about wood rot in the humid climate and my guess is that soaking it a few months in running water ought to do the same thing it does to bamboo for a least a few centimetres of the woods sap wood and clear out most of the sugars. Good thing is the wood was cut in the winter already, so I'm guessing sugars are already low.


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