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does red pine make good lumber

by Rahul Klocko II Published 2 years ago Updated 1 year ago

Red Pine is a slow-growing native tree found mainly in Eastern Canada. Since the wood grain is straight and readily treated with preservatives, Red Pine is an excellent species for outdoor applications. It can also be used for structural lumber because of its relatively high strength.

The relatively high strength value of red pine makes it a desirable wood for structural uses. Because the wood is straight, has little taper, and is easily treated with preservatives, it is used in roundwood form for poles, pilings, cabin logs, and posts.

Full Answer

Can you use red pine for construction lumber?

In this form, Red Pine should be widely available as construction lumber for a modest price. Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, and is reported by the IUCN as being a species of least concern. Common Uses: Utility poles, posts, railroad ties, paper (pulpwood), and construction lumber.

Is red pine hard or soft wood?

Red pine wood is hard and straight-grained. Red pine is harder than white pine. It has medium density and is widely used for paper, construction lumber.

What is red pine used for?

Red Pine is readily treated with preservatives and can thereafter be used in exterior applications such as posts or utility poles. Workability: Red Pine is easy to work with both hand and machine tools.

What are the pros and cons of red pine?

Workability: Red Pine is easy to work with both hand and machine tools. Glues and finishes well, though excess resin can sometimes cause problems with its paint-holding ability. Odor: Red Pine has a distinct, resinous odor when being worked.

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Can you build with red pine?

The wood meets the needs for strong dimensional stock in construction and for flooring, door and frames, and other millwork. Red pine logs are also popular for rustic homes and cabins.

Can red pine be used for lumber?

Pricing/Availability: Red Pine is sometimes mixed with various species of spruce, pine, and fir and is stamped with the lumber abbreviation “SPF.” In this form, Red Pine should be widely available as construction lumber for a modest price.

Is red pine or yellow pine better?

If your yard has a good combination of some sunlight and moist leaf build up then Souther Yellow Pine is your best option. While Southern Yellow doesn't hold up as well as Red Pressure Treated Pine in direct sunlight it provides immense protection against moisture and termite damage.

Is red pine rot resistant?

White Pine / Red Pine / Southern Yellow Pine Not naturally resistant to rot or insects.

Whats is red pine good for?

Red pine's reddish, bolder grain makes this species an excellent choice for flooring, paneling, roofing and truck decking. A common tree found in western North America, Lodepole Pine is a good species for manufaturing furniture, paneling, shelving, siding, and moldings.

How strong is red pine lumber?

Red pine is medium in strength and stiffness. The bending strength (MOR) averages 11,000 psi. Hardness averages 560 pounds. Stiffness (MOE) averages 1.63 million psi.

What is the strongest pine wood?

Yellow pine is known as the strongest pine wood. it even considered one of the strongest softwoods. Yellow pine is strong in terms of, Compressive strength with 8470psi.

Whats the difference between a red pine and a white pine?

Red pine crowns tend to be sparse and rough, especially if they're close together. Red pine bark is also uniformly reddish-brown and flaky, while white pine's bark changes from dark brown and blocky at the bottom to smooth gray farther up the tree.

What is the difference between red pine and jack pine?

Red Pine is a large evergreen with an open, rounded crown and red bark when mature. This long-lived tree thrives in well-drained soils. Red Pine makes an attractive landscaping tree for larger properties. Jack Pine is a cold tolerant native species that can survive on dry, sandy or gravelly sites.

What is a red pine tree?

Comments: So called because of the tree’s reddish-brown bark. Red Pine is the state tree of Minnesota. The alternate common name of “Norway Pine” is somewhat mystifying, as the tree did not originate from Norway, and there’s no clear link with Norway.

What is the color of heartwood?

Color/Appearance: Heartwood is light reddish brown, sapwood is pale yellow to nearly white. Grain/Texture: Grain is straight, with a medium, even texture and a somewhat oily feel.

Can red pine be used on poles?

Red Pine is readily treated with preservatives and can thereafter be used in exterior applications such as posts or utility poles. Workability: Red Pine is easy to work with both hand and machine tools. Glues and finishes well, though excess resin can sometimes cause problems with its paint-holding ability.

Is red pine lumber a construction lumber?

In this form, Red Pine should be widely available as construction lumber for a modest price. Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, and is reported by the IUCN as being a species of least concern.

Does pine have a resin smell?

Odor: Red Pine has a distinct, resinous odor when being worked. Allergies/Toxicity: Working with pine has been reported to cause allergic skin reactions and/or asthma-like symptoms in some people. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.

Physical Properties of Red Pine Wood

Color of Wood: This wood differs from light red to reddish-brown. Sapwood is white, and it has a yellowish luster. Sapwood is generally of 50 to 100 millimeters (2 to 4 inch) width.

Mechanical Properties of Red Pine Wood

The wood is moderately strong and stiff, moderately soft, and moderately high hit tolerable.

Uses of Red Pine Wood

Red pine wood is mainly used as sawing wood, which means lumber. A small amount of the wood is used for the piling of the building, pole of the electrical transmission, distribution and telephone network, cabin logs, posts, the mold of paper, and as fuel.

What type of pine is used for timber frames?

Tedd Benson wrote a book (The Timber Frame Home, 1997). He discusses oak, eastern white pine, shortleaf and longleaf pine, Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, and white spruce as being commonly used for timber frames, but doesn't discuss what to stay clear of. Red pine has a tendency to twist as it dries.

Is red or white heavier?

From Professor Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor: Although red is considerably stronger and stiffer than white, it is also quite a bit heavier.

Is white pine a weaker wood?

I've worked white pine on timber frame jobs and the wood is wonderful to machine or chisel on. Yes, it is a little weaker species.

Does red pine shrink?

Red pine has a tendency to twist as it dries. A local forester told me if the timbers are harvested and milled in the winter, that the timbers are not as prone to rotate. I do not know for certain if it is true. White pine does not shrink as much.

Which is better, white pine or red pine?

White pine may be a better choice for furniture but depends on what kind of furniture building. 3. Crates and Boxes. Red pine is not used much for boxes and crates because it is denser than white pine. The second reason is that it gets a little more expensive and heavy for box applications.

What is red pine used for?

The treated red pine is used for exterior projects such as posts or utility poles. Chemical and Pressure treatment is the special process to make it more durable and less susceptible to decay, insect infestation. Treated pine wood is more expensive than normal pine wood.

Why is red pine called red pine?

The reason for its name being “ Red ” pine is that some red color may be seen in the fissures of the bark. Its leaves are needle-like and it is producing fruit like the cone. Red pine wood is hard and straight-grained.

How many needles does a white pine tree have?

The size of needles is 4 to 6 inches long. White pine has five needles in each cluster, the size of each needle is 3 to 5 inches long. In starting, it is blue-green, later it becomes dark green and drops in the fall. You might be thinking that pine is evergreen, which is always green.

What is the difference between red pine and white pine?

Red Pine bark is reddish-brown or gray bark. In the beginning, the bark is light gray or gray and smooth, later it turns dark brown and becomes rough with age. The fissures in its bark also increase. Young white pine’s bark is thin, gray-green, and smooth.

How long does it take for a red pine cone to mature?

Cone. The Red Pine cones are egg-shaped and 2- 3 inches long. Its forming pollen cones and seed cones on the same tree. Red Pine cones take 12 to 18 months years to mature and release their seeds that depend on the atmosphere and locations.

What is the difference between heartwood and sapwood?

Because they have an effect on location and environment. All these are softwood evergreen species of pines. heartwood is light or reddish-brown and the sapwood is white to a pale yellow.

How much does red pine weigh?

Red pine averages about 33 pounds per cubic foot at 8 percent MC. This is roughly 20 percent heavier than ponderosa pine and 33 percent heavier than white pine, and about 10 percent lighter than Southern pine. Some zones of compression wood may be higher in density. Drying. Red pine is an easy-drying species, but the wood near the center ...

How tall is a red pine tree?

This wood is weak and shrinks lengthwise causing warp. The mature tree (75 years) is about 80 feet tall and up to 3 feet in diameter.

What does "softness" mean in wood?

The softness means that the wood is somewhat forgiving, if gluing conditions are not quite perfect. At times, the resin can interfere with gluing, so fresh, clean surfaces are required. PUR adhesives may be required. Stability. Red pine is subject to modest size changes when the MC changes - about 1 percent size change running across ...

Why do trees have black knots?

Because the dead lower branches remain attached to the tree for many years, the wood will grow around these knots and encompass them. The lumber that includes these knots will have a black ring around the outside of the knots where the bark is attached. Hence the name "black knots.".

What is the final moisture content of red wood?

Shrinkage in drying is 6 percent. Final moisture contents for red should be between 8.0 to 9.5 percent MC, which is higher than most hardwood lumber. Excessively dry wood will require increased glue spread to avoid a starved joint and will likely develop torn grain, planer splits and brittleness when machining.

What is the difference between sapwood and heartwood?

The sapwood is white, while the heartwood is red to reddish brown. The grain is straight with a medium texture. The growth rings have quite high color and density contrast. This makes durable painting difficult. The wood does have a slight pleasant "pine" odor with an oily resinous feel.

Where is Norway pine found?

Red pine ( Pinus resinosa ), also called Norway pine, is found in the northern tier of states, east of the Mississippi River, and into eastern Canada. For many years, it was the choice of people planting trees in the cut-over white pine forests of the North. In some ways, the wood is better than the white pine it replaced.

Where is red pine found?

This softwood species is naturally found in the northern Great Lakes region. Red pine is characterized by its “black knots” caused by dead branches remaining attached to the tree for years.

What is white pine used for?

This lightweight yet stable wood provides for strong insulation, and is resistant to shrinkage. Due to the tree’s large size, it is often used for exterior walls in log cabins and log homes.

What type of wood is used to build log homes?

Cedar, pine, spruce and douglas fir are all fine choices—but what are the core differences between these common wood species used to build log homes? Although the particular wood species you choose for your logs is irrelevant to the success of your home, the color and grain of the wood contribute substantially to a certain look.

What is the color of cypress wood?

Cypress. Cypress is a light- to mid-weight species that ranges from medium yellow brown to dark amber brown, based on age. It features a straight grain with fine texture. Cypress wood is durable, insect-resistant, decay-resistant, and smells similar to cedar, making it a popular choice of wood species for log homes.

What is the color of Douglas Fir?

Douglas Fir. Douglas fir is a western species whose tones vary from rosy red to yellow, depending on age. Because the douglas fir tree grows to majestic heights, the wood offers an excellent strength-to-weight ratio that makes it a fine choice for log homes built in areas prone to storms, high winds and earthquakes.

Where is Engelmann spruce lumber made?

The lion’s share of Engelmann spruce lumber is produced in Idaho, Colorado and Montana. This log home from BigLog Homes in Jefferson City, MO, is built from Engelmann spruce.

What is the color of spruce?

Spruce. Native to New England but also available in the Midwest, South and West, spruce is classified as red, white or black, although there's little difference in color, which trends toward creamy white or pale yellowish brown.

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