I have no direct experience with tanalised wood as it is not common here. Our pressure-treated woods use quite different chemicals and some can be problematic as stickers, so I had to do a little research... It looks like tanalised pine would be a great choice.
You are correct on the grain flow issues at the buttress level. That marbling however may go farther up the tree, may be along the side of a buttress, or just may be incredible enough to just cut it and forget about the perfect grain flow and cut a two-piece blank for use with a stock bolt model. There are lots of options in a tree like that.
And, yes you figured out what I was trying to say about FSP despite my best efforts at confusing the hell out of you! The weather description is ideal for drying quality stuff through the most difficult stages.
The trick to deciding when to tarp is fairly easy... Cover it and watch for codensation... Remove it if there is water running. This will also show you how important it is to control water loss. The surface will have been dry enough for you to think it was pretty dry on surface, yet the wet interior rewetted the outside, obviously.
The bottom course of stickers should be exactly level and should be shimmed as required to make them so. I prefer to use much thicker stickers on bottom with a strip of plastic sheet or tar paper between the wood and the concrete. It will not make a difference until later in the drying, but it is easier to put it down first.
art
Last edited by Sitka deer; 08/04/10. Reason: typo
