Occasionally we will get a call asking how long logs should sit before you put them on the sawmill to be milled.  The answer typically is ‘it depends.’  It depends on what you are trying to do with the wood.  It also depends on the species of wood and how the logs are being stored.  We will give two ends of the spectrum.  If you wish to mill up red oak or pine for lumber, we would suggest milling it up within 6 months.  It can sit longer, but the longer it sits, the more likely that the rot will destroy the quality of lumber you will get out of the log.  We recently milled up a large red oak that had been sitting for over a year.  While we did get some valuable lumber from the wood, we would have gotten about 30% more board feet out of the log had we milled it six months earlier.  On the other end of the spectrum, letting a maple log sit and rot can allow the wood to develop beautiful colors and allow ‘spalting’ to occur.  Spalting is where fungal growth turns parts of the wood black.  Check out the video below where we mill up some rotten logs to find absolute beauty inside.