Wood Species In Detail – Pine
At Osborne Wood Products, we supply the cabinet and furniture trade with the highest quality decorative wood components. Naturally, we work hard to source the highest quality wood possible. In an effort to better help our hobbyist and DIY customers make the right choice in which wood types to use in their projects, we are introducing a new blog series in which we go into detail discussing our various wood types and answering any common questions our customers may have.
One of the least expensive and most commonly purchased wood types we offer is knotty pine. It is a lightweight wood, characterized by a straight grain and a fine, even texture. Knots tend to be prevalent in the wood, though they are often small and tight. This gives knotty pine its signature look. Knotty pine is also one of our least dense woods, coming in at a 380 on the Janka hardness scale.
Knotty pine is a favorite among our customers for rustic and farmhouse applications. This wood is not recommended as a paint grade wood due to the fact that the knots absorb paint differently than the rest of the wood. Because of this, even though they may be covered with paint at the time of finishing, the paint may be absorbed over time and cause the knots to “bleed through” and become visible, sometimes in as little as a few days.
However, many builders of farmhouse-style furniture seek out that particular look, which makes knotty pine an ideal wood type for projects such as the increasingly popular farmhouse table and bench sets.
Rustic designs, however, tend to favor a light stain or clear coat to bring attention to the grain, using the wood’s natural characteristics to their advantage.
Whether you’re interested in a more farmhouse-style or rustic-style application, we offer a weathered wood service for pine woods that will make your brand-new product look as if it’s actually decades old. The weathering service uses either a sand blaster or a large brush with heavy bristles to wear away part of the surface, which emphasizes the grain pattern. The surface will not be smooth to the touch, but will instead have a rough, worn look and feel to it.
We also offer heart pine as a specialty wood type. Heart pine refers to the heartwood of the pine tree, which is the non-living center of the tree trunk. The preferred species of pine harvested for heart pine is the longleaf pine, but unfortunately it has nearly gone extinct due to logging. Currently, only about 3% of original longleaf pine forests remain. Due to this, heart pine is most often reclaimed, which makes it more expensive than most of our other wood types.
Heart pine is one of our denser wood types, ranking 1225 on the Janka hardness scale. Colors can range from a dark, rich amber to various shades of golden yellow. When heart pine is exposed to light, it does cause the wood to darken and yellow with time. It has an open, broad grain, and does often contain knots, too. This wood is best finished with a conditioner and stain.
All of our wood types are sorted into a Traditional, Premium, or Specialty selection. You can find knotty pine under Traditional and heart pine under Specialty.
Additionally, if you’re looking for a specific species of pine not listed above, you can contact us for a custom quote by filling out our online form, emailing info@osbornewood.com, or calling 800-849-8876 and speaking with a representative today.
Check out the links below to read more in-depth about all the other wood types we offer:
- Maple (hard, soft, tiger/curly)
- Pine (knotty, heart, specialty) – this post
- Oak (red, white, rift vs. quarter sawn)
- Rubberwood
- European Beech
- Cherry & Alder
- Hickory, Mahogany, & Walnut
- Miscellaneous & Specialty Woods
