Bleeding umbrella pine stump - how to stop

[treegirl]

Hi all,

This is my first post. I have a question. I have carved a lovely toadstool from the bottem 3 feet of an umbrella pine I had to fell due to a storm. I had the guys cut the roots and dig them out a little an leave enough stump for me to make the toadstool. I did it with a chainsaw and the first draft looks good. However, as pines do, now the weather is warmer it is bleeding all over and this whitish residue along with dripping clear resin is all over and looks a little mould like in the grain. Can anyone advise how to deal with this. Obviously I cant finish the carving or sand it down when it is all sticky like this. I wondered if it is a natural healing process and I will just have to wait. Could it bring in any diseases to the garden? I really hope someone can help me with this. I read somewere that I should coat it with lindane, asana XL with kerosene or dursban with water. I live in France so have no idea whats available here. Let me know what you think! Victoria

[AlArchie]

You will probably have to live with all that leakage. Pines, in particular, seem to ooze that heavy pitch to seal wounded areas and protect the tree from disease and insects. It will dry and harden after a year or so and that white chalky stuff will stay. If you look at pines, cedars, spruces, tamaracs, or balsams in the wild, you'll find that there are quite a few with that pitch on them where branches have been broken off or animals have scarred the trunks.

If that stump was cut away from the root, altogether, it may have stopped the "bleed".

All that said, I don't know of any way to clean that pitch off short of waiting till it hardens and going over the carving again with the chain saw to cut it off.

Al

[JSimpson]

You're right Al, it's called resin, and until it dries it's a mess. It'll stop if the stump is truly dead. Once it's dry cut it out, carve your toad stool and apply a good coat of primer to block the resin from bleeding through the paint. Good luck

John

[gumbyteeth04]

Victoria:
I, myself, have never tried to clean off pine pitch after it dries, but, if you can catch it when WET, Coleman fuel works GREAT! Dab a little onto a rag or cloth, whatever you have available to you, & rub GENTLY! Don't forget that stuff is flamable...wouldn't want to rub to vigerously & risk sparkin a flame out of it. (I don't know exactly what the flashpoint of Coleman fuel is) Maybe after you're done carving your toadstool, you might want to consider a coat of some kind of sealer. I hope this helps in some small way.

Dan

[Rwenzoski]

Hi Victoria, This is one of the main reasons why I don't carve Pine or Spruce any more due to the sap & the huge sap pockets invovled, only hardwoods now. I found that heating with a torch just lightly to run the majority of the sap out works the best & the coleman fuel afterwards to clean the remainder off may be a great idea also? Other than that, carve hardwoods, a much better result & also the colours & grains don't compare to the soft woods! Hope this helps you out?
Thanks, Robbin
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[Alice in Wonderland]

Inside I have sealed Pine sap with Shellac I don;t know if it works outside?