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The table top is still sipping out sap. Is this even possible from something that is 160 years old? Sure, it's definitely possible. Sap doesn't just disappear from a piece of wood because it's old. One might think that over that long of a time, the sap should have dried up a little. If it was kept in a cooler place and brought into somewhere warmer, the ...

It could be the 'reclaimed bit. By reclaiming the wood, one possibility is that they had to resaw the timbers to boards. It might have started out as 8" x 8" timber or some other large dimension. This is actually quite likely, and the 'new' cuts are now exposing new wood. Even a significant planning to straighten and clean the boards could cause a ...

This is actually a very common occurrence in woods like pine and fir. Many would suggest that you do not use these woods for reasons just like this one. If you persist then heat is the solution. Note: this is based on untreated wood. Not all lumber is kiln dried and even if it was you cannot guarantee the temperature it was dried at (or duration for that ...

It is said (by Bob Flexner in his book "Understanding Wood Finishes") that shellac is the best overall sealer. It can also be used between any two other finishes to prevent them from reacting with each other. I have no experience with sealing sap into the wood but his statements would lead one to believe that it would work. At any rate, it is very easy to ...

I burned my pine sign and the pitch was sealed. (The wood I used was old pine siding that I planned thin). Mineral spirits takes most of the pitch off but working at inspecting loads of wood I have learned that hand sanitizer disintegrates pitch fast. I tried it on a pine sign and it worked like a charm with no damage to the wood and it removed all the pitch....

Bowlturner's answer is really the best. When purchasing lumber from a quality lumberyard you can ask if the "resin has been set". There is a little extra heat & time applied. This would be possible with any woods that are typically heavy sap woods (pine cedar etc). Sometimes it's a little more work but you can find the wood that's had the extra heat ...

Oil as planned, then seal with shellac? If shellac will stop knots bleeding through paintwork applied over it it could similarly prevent gross penetration of sap like this but only time would tell if this worked. To be an effective barrier the shellac couldn't be just a thinly wiped coat so it would of course change the look of the piece fairly significantly....

The resin pockets may not be an issue. The resins from some trees such as pine are commonly eaten (or made into hot drinks) in certain parts of the world, that's how non-toxic it can be. But without specific info on the exact species you're using I don't think you should make any assumptions. "Canadian oregon" is better known to much of the rest of the ...

I’m building a coffee table out of pine 12x12’s that I believe to be in the 200 year old range possibly much older. They were structural support beams in a building in the meat packing district of Manhattan, the building is at least 150 years old .and after cutting them to length one of them is oozing sap-pitch,it looks like I opened a pocket and out came ...

My answer is YES old wood has sap..that's what keeps me going. JK! The reason we dry kiln things is for heat.. not to dry sap particularly but to crystalize it. I understand that pine sap for instance, once 'set' to 150 degrees, will then crystallize on cool down, and will not liquify again, until reaching 151 degrees... This is why commercial dry kilns use ...