Red Pine for Furniture?

[Fred Kremer]

This last fall two very large red pines on a piece of property I own gave up the ghost and laid down on the earth. I do not know how old they are but friends that are in their 60's tell me they were big when they were small. I will need to do something with them this spring. Firewood was one idea, but then a friend hit me upside the head while we were trying to square the un-squareable lumber and suggested I use the pines for furniture. Hmm, the are big. They are long. And, I like to make sawdust and stuff that resembles furniture. Does anyone have any experience and recommendations regarding using red pine for furniture? Thank you.

Fred

[Jack Vines]

Red pine is not a variety with which I am familiar. Where are you? Secondly, pine deteriorates unbelievably quickly lying on the ground. If you are going to do anything with it, sooner is better.

thnx, jack vines

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Jack that you need to get this wood milled as soon as possible or it will become unusable. I see no reason that you cannot build furniture with it after it is properly dried. I personally would not use pine for firewood due to the sap/pitch issues it introduces, outside of campfires, etc., where there is no chimney involved.

[Matthew Voss]

...I personally would not use pine for firewood due to the sap/pitch issues it introduces, outside of campfires, etc., where there is no chimney involved.


That's good advice - The creosote buildup can lead to a chimney fire.

[Travis Gauger]

I agree that the pine logs start to rot out really fast. If they fell in the fall and sat all winter it may be too late already. I had some jack pines that I was going to have sawn up a few years back. Old growth beautiful trees that were in a tract that was slated for a highway expansion. Dropped them begining of August and had them skidded out to the landing where they sat till mid October. With Winter around the corner I went to get them sawn and most of them had started to rot.:mad: Ended up still sawing them but there were a lot of boards that had soft spots. The worst part of it is that I paid someone to cut and dry rotten wood. When I got everything back only about half of it was usable for anything but burning. Figured out what my per bd ft cost was after paying everyone for what i could use and I would have been better off just buying select pine from my local sawmill. Live and learn, you know. Check them out before you invest a lot into converting them, you can tell when they start to rot out pretty easily. Best of luck to you, it could be a great score.

[Greg Stanford]

I think that's what is also called "norway pine"? No good for firewood as has been said, you'd wind up w/ a chimney fire. Pine's are farmed down here (mississippi) mostly for construction & the wood's not all that pretty, wide grain, not much character. What you have's likely to have a nice tight grain as it grew naturally.

g

[Joe Chritz]

Since I wasn't familiar with red pine I did some looking.

I see that pines get "blue stain" relatively fast from laying dead. Many people do it on purpose for the effect.

Red pine is supposed to be a bit stronger than white but once cut most people have a hard time telling the difference.

If the tree is old and natural with tight grain it would most likely make nice furniture. New growth pines aren't the same as they once were.

Poke around some on the commercial sawing web forums, there is a ton of info out there on sawing and drying lumber.

Joe

[Chris Padilla]

Wood is wood. Take care of it in the proper manner (as has been outlined above by many) and you can do lots with it.

[Izzy Camire]

I milled some red pine logs on my sawmill for the barn I am building. They were decent sized logs so I made 2x10s out of them and used them for floor joists.
Red pine will get the blue stain in it pretty quick you should get them milled as soon as possible. The other thing with it is that it is more prone to twisting and bending than other woods. You may want to mill it over sized and then resaw it once it dries and sets up.
You can easily tell red pine from white by the weight. Its strength is on par with spruce and hemlock.

As far as burning I do not think much of the tales of a chimney fire especially with the new stoves. I burn some pine every year with no problem. I would not load a stove with it but adding some to a fire is ok. It does not create and more creosote than other woods once it is properly dried. The manual for my Vermont Casting stove lists white pine as an acceptable fuel.

Get those logs milled and enjoy your lumber.

[Reed Wells]

I live in the middle of red pine country. Plantations were planted in the wayback by the CCCs. I have had some milled for furniture and dried as I do my white pine. I will say it will make you good framing lumber, note; not structural beams, etc. But for furniture I would stay away from it. This is an extremely pitch laden type of pine, with no way to control it. Knots are very hard to work with when planing, with deep tear out.