When you go to a lumber store, there are some pretty looking boards there, begging to be turned into gorgeous furniture. Maple. Walnut. Cherry. And, many of these boards come with some pretty steep prices – six, seven, eight or even more dollars a board foot. Often times, though, there’s another pile somewhere in the back of softwood boards.
Domestic conifer. You know… pine.
Many times, woodworkers start out with white or yellow pine while building their first projects, but ‘graduate’ to working with hardwoods as their skills improve. But, there’s little doubt that there have been many pine furniture masterpieces built by skilled woodorkers.
Today, tell us what you think about pine as a wood for building furniture.
I’ve built some nice furniture out of old recycled pine– it can have a wonderful patina. https://picasaweb.google.com/110231984118705348818/WoodworkingFurniture#
But the ‘new’ wood? So hard to find decent flat pieces, and little character! I did just finish a nice shop table for my scroll saw from 2x4s and simple boards. Sturdy and cheap, and it doesn’t look half bad! Just a little soft.
I’m actually doing a bit of a finishing experiment with pine right now and the results are so far rather poor. Anything but a natural finish has looked really bad. I’m finding that stepping up to birch gives you a ton more flexibility with finish options.
I have used it and will probably use it in the future but, I hate working with it. It doesn’t machine very well and the resin clogs up my tools. Mostly It is good for shop furniture and practice pieces in my shop.
Rog
For some projects pine is just the only way to go. It has character that is uniquely it’s own. Such as this bedroom suite project I madeca few years ago. http://lumberjocks.com/projects/7977
Jim
It’s all I’ve ever used – I’m still learning, and it’s cheap to replace when I screw something up 🙂