Has anyone worked with Southern Yellow Pine?

[SlowSteve]

I am looking for a cheap tough wood for all sorts of jobs and builds around the house that Mrs SlowSteve has demanded/requested/begged for.

The nice people at the John Boddy website have nice pages on lots of different woods - I saw this:
http://www.johnboddytimber.co.uk/Pics/g ... low_a.html

And it turns out that Southern Yellow Pine is much tougher than regular pine, in fact "one of the strongest structural timbers in the world" and it's very reasonable in price - although a deal more expensive than regular pine wood.

It does say however that it can be somewhat tough to work with.

I was wondering if anyone here has used it, and if so, what was your experience?

Thanks

Steve

 

[Beau]

Used it on a few jobs over the years and did not notice any problems working it either by hand or with the machines.

 

[RobinBHM]

Douglas fir is very similar as an alternative

 

[gasman]

I made a 4" thick roubo bench from it in 2013 and there is a WIP on that if you are interested. If I knew how to link to it I would! Very tough and unforgiving. Don't get a splinter in yourself if you can help it - they are like marlin spikes! 2 years on the bench is still quite flat and tough and takes everything I have thrown at it. There is a very slight dip in it so when I have finished building the kitchen etc I am going to flatten it. SYP gets my vote. Regards Mark

 

[James-1986]

Loads and loads and loads of it, the company I worked for used it for any softwood stairs for paint. As you say it is heavy and strong for a pine, so good for stringers. I still use it a fair bit, 2" by 12" and is easy to get hold of. It always seems to be well seasoned for interior work and dries very quickly once brought into the warm. It works very well with the grain, especially with machines and routers. However it can be tricky to work across the grain, especially chopping work, the early wood is quite soft which tends to 'crush' and the late wood is hard. Routing it across the grain is OK.

From what I know "southern yellow pine" covers three different species and they vary a lot. Same old rules of thumb apply for a decent bit, I'd avoid stuff with wide early wood rings, you'll notice how light it is. The Heartwood is usually full of splits and can cause a lot of problems with stability when you start planing so I usually rip that out and use it for something not very important, or put it on the stove.

 

[cornishjoinery]

I built some bookcases not that long ago from it. Very few knots I noticed and daily stable. Cleaned up well. I managed to get some wider boards than you would normally purchace from regular redwood.

 

[dickm]

Wasn't it used extensively for pattern making? Implies it's pretty dimensionally stable, but doesn't say anything about strength or durability.
But bigger problem - does John Boddy still exist? Didn't they go under a few months ago?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

SYP takes Danish Oil well.

 

[custard]

I am looking for a cheap tough wood for all sorts of jobs and builds around the house that Mrs SlowSteve has demanded/requested/begged for.

The nice people at the John Boddy website have nice pages on lots of different woods - I saw this:
http://www.johnboddytimber.co.uk/Pics/g ... low_a.html

And it turns out that Southern Yellow Pine is much tougher than regular pine, in fact "one of the strongest structural timbers in the world" and it's very reasonable in price - although a deal more expensive than regular pine wood.

It does say however that it can be somewhat tough to work with.

I was wondering if anyone here has used it, and if so, what was your experience?

Thanks

Steve

Very strong, reasonably stable, takes glue and fastenings well, and not expensive.

What's not to like?

Two things.

The grain can be really loud and garish in a very dated 1970's sort of way. It's the woody equivalent of swirly carpets!

Clogs up your tooling. Not an insurmountable problem but you'll need to clean router cutters, saw blades, etc much more frequently.

 

[Argus]

As all have said above.

I have used it on occasion, mainly for hand work after thicknessing on a machine.

One thing that I have noticed is that it has two defined annual growth rings - hence the distinct grain patterns.
The fast, pale growth is very soft and very absorbent in terms of taking in liquid finish - it drinks! It will also bruise easily. Dents will come out with just a wetting, but the resultant raised grain is difficult to sand flat, so be careful how you throw it about!

The darker grain is, in contrast very hard - hard to the point where a plane needs to be very sharp. A blunt-ish blade will literally skate off it.
Not my first choice for dovetails, but good wide boards make excellent bookcases.

That said, it is excellent stuff, good value, wide and untarnished boards with few knots or inclusions and it takes a paint finish well.

Hope that this helps