The tree family that builds and connects America
Tawny and two-toned. SYP’s golden hues tend to darken and become richer with time.
In the early days of the American South, cotton may have been king, but southern yellow pine (SYP) was—and still is—the crown prince. Early European settlers used the lumber for everything from houses and ships to railroad ties. The trees and roots were also tapped for chemical “naval stores,” such as pitch, rosin, and turpentine. Today SYP is in high demand as utility poles, framing lumber, pressure-treated lumber, plywood, and flooring; and for a wide range of paper products including corrugated cardboard and high-pressure laminate. In fact, the print version of this magazine may even have SYP content.
For woodworkers, SYP is a great choice for shop furniture, though perhaps not for your bench top because it can be a bit restless, refusing to stay flat. It’s also great for making inexpensive full-scale project prototypes. Inside your home, SYP’s character is well-suited to all types of rustic furniture, cabinetry, and millwork. Outdoors, you can utilize the wood for patio furniture, planting boxes, trellises, and other structures. The raw wood isn’t very rot resistant, but holds up well if painted or finished properly.
All in the family
Southern yellow pine (SYP) is not a single variety of tree, but any of ten species that grow from southern New Jersey down to Florida and westward to east Texas. Of these, four species account for 90% of SYP timber products in the US: shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), slash pine (Pinus elliottii), longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). While each of these trees has distinct characteristics, the milled lumber is so similar that the US Forest Service admits that “pieces of wood are impossible to separate into species.” As part of the Pinus genus called hard pines, shortleaf and loblolly pine have a Janka rating of 690, with longleaf at 870. Old growth heart pine, the dense heartwood of hard pines, scores 1225. For reference, red oak is only slightly harder at 1290 whereas white pine, at 380, is much softer. These days, heart pine is generally only found as reclaimed wood from rivers or old buildings. Lumber from modern plantation-raised trees consists almost entirely of sapwood. Trees in the SYP group typically grow straight, tall, and fast. As conifers, or softwoods, SYP trees have resin instead of sap, and it moves through microscopic canals instead of the pores typical of hardwoods. These canals make SYP well-suited for pressure treatment with chemical preservatives. Note, if you’re working with treated SYP, never burn the scraps. The flames produce toxic ash and other unsavory compounds.
Finding and working with SYP
Depending on your location, your local big box store may stock SYP. In Kansas City, one nearby store has clear, S4S SYP in an extensive selection of widths and lengths. They weren’t giving the stuff away, but I didn’t hyperventilate either. Working with SYP is straightforward. It rips cleanly, though I experienced some minor tearout from crosscutting. I got slicker results than I expected at the thickness planer and jointer. Past experience with other pine species taught me to use a light touch when power sanding to avoid gumming up the paper. Edge routing presented no problems, but if you use a lot of SYP, all cutting edges are likely to experience buildup from this resin-rich wood. SYP does an outstanding job of gripping mechanical fasteners, an enviable quality in construction lumber. The wood glues well, but finishing SYP can be a bit tricky given the wood’s resin content. Imperfectly dried boards can sometimes exhibit tacky areas where the resin has oozed. If you can’t cut away and discard this part, use a card scraper to remove the resin, then seal the area with shellac. Resin also inhibits uniform stain penetration, producing blotchy results. Some stain manufacturers offer a conditioning treatment that you slather on the surface, then apply the stain while the conditioner is still wet. To finish the plant stand pictured below, I experimented with a homebrew: 80% pine tar cut with 20% turpentine. An all-pine finish for a pine project. My goal is to develop a sealing stain for exterior use, as opposed to a film-building finish. So far, my research indicates that a warm mix applied on a hot day gives the best results.
Golden beauty. On this plant stand, a clear finish emphasizes SYP’s contrasting hues.
One tree, two flowers. SYP trees are monoecious, which means that each tree produces both male and female flowers/cones. The male cones open in April, coating the surrounding area with yellow pollen. The female, seed-bearing cones have hard, stout prickles.
Shooting upwards. SYP trees are noted for their tall, straight, fast-growing trunks. Loblolly pine is particularly notable, growing up two feet or more per year.
SYP trivialities
Get a grip in the orchestra pit. Pine rosin in stick form is an essential part of the kit for every musician bowing a stringed instrument. It helps the bow achieve the correct grip on the strings. Without it, both symphonic music and bluegrass fiddlin’ would be impossible.
The “Pine Tar Game” and the Hall of Fame. The Royals were playing the Yankees on July 24, 1983 when Kansas City slugger George Brett blasted a home run off pitcher “Goose” Gossage in the ninth inning that would have put his team in the lead. But New York protested that Brett’s bat had too much pine tar. The umpires agreed, nullifying the home run and calling the batter out. Brett and the Royals stormed out of the dugout and started a wild argument. In the confusion, Royals player Gaylord Perry stole the bat and tried to hide it. Brett, Perry, and Gossage were all later inducted into the Hall of Fame (for completely unrelated reasons), and the bat is there too.
Timber as a liquid asset. In the late 1800s, pine trees were frequently floated down river to awaiting sawmills. Along the way, an estimated 15% of the timber became so waterlogged that it sank. Modern sawyers are now salvaging these old-growth logs, converting them into premium-priced heart pine flooring.
That name’s a little tacky. North Carolina residents were once called “tarboilers” and similar derogatory names related to the production of pine tar. But the citizens at large and the University of North Carolina sports teams in particular turned the attempted insults into the proud nickname “Tar Heels,” denoting steadfast courage in the face of adversity.
