Gave'r a whirl tonight. Jointed an edge, that is.
IMG_5213.jpg
This being my first time working with yellow pine, it was a learning experience with some ups and downs. Overall it cuts very nicely and I, personally, find it to be a very pretty wood. There was a significant crook in the board I picked so that combined with the fact that it was 78" long and 2-3/8" thick meant it took me a solid couple hours to joint an edge.
The tough parts:
IMG_5214.jpg IMG_5216.jpg
I still can't figure out a decent way to work around knots. Taking a super-light cut and sharpening frequently is annoying when there's a lot of wood to be removed, as there was here. My jack plane has an A2 blade and when taking heavier cuts it seems to go through the knots easily enough, though it tears out significantly. It's the jointer that gives me trouble. The way I like my jointer set up the shavings it takes are too thick for tougher end grain so if skewing the plane doesn't work then I just skip over the knots and after so many passes I pare it down with a chisel, file it down with an Iwasaki carving file, or even bust out the sandpaper. So dealing with these knots was a pain but not the end of the world.
IMG_5215.jpg
This, the darker part in the photo, is what I didn't think about before this ordeal. At least, I think that darker, kinda translucent stuff is pitch. Anywhoo, this wood being air-dried, it is pretty sappy. I ended up having to wipe my plane soles and blades with denatured alcohol every ten minutes or so. I tried waxing it all but, at least on the sole and blade, the wax would wear off pretty quickly and didn't seem to help much.
So that part of the experience leads me to what might be the first bump in the road. This stuff is probably gonna feel kinda sticky and ooze a little sap for the next 100 years if I leave it as is. Should I find someone with a kiln and get this stuff baked to "set" the sap? Working pitchy wood is not the end of the world to me. My bigger concern is that my workbench will be pitchy and sticky, and everything that touches it will end up with a little mixture of sap and dust on it.