Heart Pine ( viewer discretion advised)

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Yea, I bet some ole fat boy sit down on a bench on a hot summer day and when he got up so did the bench. ;D ;D  Then when he put his arm out the window of the truck on the way home he could not get it loose. :D :D
  Nothing is safe left out in the woods unless you are around to guard it.  Any one who would steal a cane pole is a real low life.
  I like that good heart pine as the trimmings start a fire most quick.
ARKANSAWYER

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Since I am foolish enough to do chain saw milling ( as you have already noticed), I normally cut large.

Before I was really convinced of the fact that people will steal anything "not nailed down",  I had cut a 32" Sweet Gum along a roadside widening project.   The slabs were over nine feet long, by 3-1/4" thick, ranging from 29 to 32" wide!  Weight? Maybe 300lbs to 325 each?   The intent?   Table tops and desk tops.

You guessed it!   Before I could get back after a couple rainy days to get 'em, they got ... GOT!   What makes it worse is that six months later a friend said, "Oh, I saw a couple of guys loading those and thought they were helping you."
Sheeesh! :'(  Yep, they help me a lot!
Phil L.

[AtLast]

 :-[...OK...OK.....ummmmm....what IS " heart pine" n e way  :-/

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Atlast, surely ya read this page??? ???  Arky posted some fine pics, about 9 posts up from this one ??? ??? ;D

[Tom]

Heart Pine

Heart Pine is the heart wood of a pine tree. Nothing more and nothing less. It carries connotations of age, history, virgin lumber, resin impregnation, and other subjects but it is really just the heart wood of the pine tree. When a tree grows, it puts on girth and those cells never go up as the tree gets taller. They stay right where they were created and are created in the cambium layer of the tree. As the Cambium layer puts down a new layer of cells it creates the rings of the tree based on what part of the year the cells were laid. The sapwood of the tree is alive. It passes food to the rest of the tree. As years go by, for some reason, the cells die and that forms the heart wood. They still will carry liquids but aren't alive and they begin to harden. They will provide the tree with structural stability. As they grow older, the pine heart cells are sealed with resin and even the fluid movement is curtailed. The resin crystallizes and that is the image people have of Heart Pine. The Heart wood grows darker in color as it ages, leaning toward reddish Brown. The crystallized resin causes the wood to appear glass-like. It is a comfortable, warm looking wood but, difficult to machine and finish because of the resins.


Southern Yellow Pine

Southern Yellow Pine (SYP) is the title given for four southern lumber trees. They are longleaf, slash, loblolly, and shortleaf pine.

Some call Longleaf pine, Southern Yellow pine and they aren't wrong but it isn't the only one. Longleaf is the premium SYP tree because of its pruning characteristics, its tendency to grow straight, tall and with minimum taper. It is also a slow grower so the rings tend to be tighter than the other pines.
Since controlled burning has almost been eliminated, Long leaf (which depends on fire to produce pure stands)is difficult to find in marketable quantity.

Slash is the next best tree but only because it is plantation grown and grows faster.

Loblolly is a very quick grower and produces wood with very wide growth rings unless crowded in thick plantings or maturing in canopied swamps.

Shortleaf is a lesser used pine and has tendencies in most areas to retain its limbs causing knotty wood.

These four Pine trees comprise the term Southern Yellow Pine. There is no distinction made between species once the trees are sawed. Education and familiarity can make one aware of the differences if you want to be selective, but, even then identification is almost impossible.

Heart pine can be the heart wood of any pine, not just Southern Yellow Pine. Being Southern Yellow Pine doesn't make the board Heart Pine either.  
  

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Like Tom says,   the heart of a pine tree is the heart of a pine tree, but Arkansawyer's picture shows the old good stuff. ;)

In about two weeks, I and my fine better half are making a trip to a place where there are still never-been-kissed examples of Long Leaf Pine, as well as Cypress.   The place is 30-minutes southeast of Columbia South Carolina - Congalee Swamp National Monument.  It is described as,  "the largest intact tract of old-growth flooplain forest in North America".   Many of the trees are record holders for size.

Only one problem:   No chainsaws allowed. :-/
Phil L.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Bet they allow CAMERAS, hint,hint : :D :D :D :D :D