Picked up some rough cut Hemlock from the Amish to make raised beds. Would running them through my planer do anything to extend their service life, or does the roughness not matter?
Picked up some rough cut Hemlock from the Amish to make raised beds. Would running them through my planer do anything to extend their service life, or does the roughness not matter?
Roughness dosen’t matter. If you want them to last I’d research some food based oil waterproofing to extend their life. I got some milled for board and batton siding on a playhouse I built for my kids. I planed the inside to prevent splinters. I treated them once with ready seal 10 years ago and they’ve lasted so far. Hemlock is already bug resistant. I wouldn’t use ready seal for anything that i wanted to grow food in though as I’d be afraid it would leech into the soil.
therodt
It would help but also coating them too
toxcrusadr
No need to remove material, they’ll rot soon enough and the thicker the better.
bobbyFinstock80
Maybe burning them a bit.
IronSlanginRed
No because they’ll be thinner and roughness doesn’t really matter.
Burning them with a weed torch, wire brushing, and hitting them with some linseed oil will help though.
lalaladylvr
Seal them with a weed burner. blacken those puppies up.
DVDad82
As others have mentioned burning them and forming a char layer then coating with linseed oil will make the wood last the longest. It’s a Japanese method to prevent rot and bugs from entering the wood.
fencepostsquirrel
I’ve had great luck with hemlock, but I use 2 x – soil pushes out with the freeze in winter and no matter what you do these will bow.
Zealousideal-Act8956
I have used “Eco wood treatment” on raw pine planks and they are holding up quite well after 5 years.
Following is the amazon link: https://a.co/d/dnO6M0m
Chaoticgaythey
You’ll want to burn them a bit. If you want raw wood, I’d probably look at black locust.
10 Comments
Roughness dosen’t matter. If you want them to last I’d research some food based oil waterproofing to extend their life. I got some milled for board and batton siding on a playhouse I built for my kids. I planed the inside to prevent splinters. I treated them once with ready seal 10 years ago and they’ve lasted so far. Hemlock is already bug resistant. I wouldn’t use ready seal for anything that i wanted to grow food in though as I’d be afraid it would leech into the soil.
It would help but also coating them too
No need to remove material, they’ll rot soon enough and the thicker the better.
Maybe burning them a bit.
No because they’ll be thinner and roughness doesn’t really matter.
Burning them with a weed torch, wire brushing, and hitting them with some linseed oil will help though.
Seal them with a weed burner. blacken those puppies up.
As others have mentioned burning them and forming a char layer then coating with linseed oil will make the wood last the longest. It’s a Japanese method to prevent rot and bugs from entering the wood.
I’ve had great luck with hemlock, but I use 2 x – soil pushes out with the freeze in winter and no matter what you do these will bow.
I have used “Eco wood treatment” on raw pine planks and they are holding up quite well after 5 years.
Following is the amazon link:
https://a.co/d/dnO6M0m
You’ll want to burn them a bit. If you want raw wood, I’d probably look at black locust.