pitch pine

[skipperscouse]

just a quicky. what tree does pitch pine come from ?

also as i'm having difficulty getting decent boatbuilding quality,
what alternatives have any of you had experience with ?
cheers

 

[tritonofnor]

"Real" pitch pine is, I'm informed, almost impossible to get now as has been replaced by faster growing species of pine. When I had a couple of planks to replace a year or two ago, I used some larch sourced via a friend who's a cabinet maker. Lovely straight grain, and still got that lovely "resiny" smell when cut. OK so far.....

 

[stephenh]

Google : "honduras pitch pine timber" using the UK button and you will find quite a few importers.
There used to be a lot in Nth Wales from reclaimed slate cutting shed roofs - in very good sizes too...

 

[Peterduck]

My understanding of it is that it is synonymous with the Southern Longleaf Pine, [Pinus palustris] a native of the southeastern corner of the United States. It was cut like there was no tomorrow in earlier days, and now "tomorrow" has arrived! I saw in a technical magazine where a large warehouse was founded on thousands [well, maybe hundreds] of Longleaf Pine piles, each one a lovely, straight tree. In the same way it is exhorbitantly expensive to buy spar-quality Canadian Douglas Fir because it has been bought while the tree is still standing by the Japanese to cut into use-once chopsticks! The rest of us, who have less frivolous purposes, have to resort to using recycled timber.
Peter.

 

[old_salt]

Telegraph Poles are made from pitch Pine. Get some old ones off the GPO.

 

[ianc1200]

The American "Wooden Boat" magazine had an article on this several years ago. What they called "Pitch Pine" was largely felled by the American Cival war, what we call "Pitch Pine" was largely felled by World War 2. We imported a great amount and used to build a lot of workboats and cheaper yachts with this "Pitch Pine" up to WW2. I've seen boats advertised as being built of pitch pine but have been BC Pine or Douglas Fir (and aren't they the same?)

IanC

 

[Peterduck]

Pitch Pine and Douglas Fir are as different as chalk and cheese. Good quality Douglas Fir is quite fine-grained [growth rings 1mm wide] whereas Pitch Pine is much coarser. The difference between the earlywood [soft] ring and the latewood [dense] ring is much more marked in Pitch Pine than In Douglas Fir. Overall, Pitch Pine is among the hardest of the softwoods.
Peter.

 

[Gordonmc]

As an aside I was present as breakers moved into an old church sold off by the CofS for conversion. The demolition men were about to deal with the pews with sledghammers when they were persuaded by a few of us to have a tea break.
We recovered about forty five-metre long pews in pitch pine, each made up of single length boards.
All of the ends were retrieved and joined together with short sections to make trendy sofa-sized pews for resale to pubs. The boards went for a variety of uses, including a "genuine" victorian bar gantry.
It was fine wood with about a hundred years' worth of beeswax.
Architectural salvors with church contacts might be a source.

 

[Mirelle]

Peter, what I think ARC was saying is that he thinks "Douglas Fir" and "British Columbian Pine" (BCP") are the same. I think so too, but am happy to be corrected.

In my experience yacht brokers, led on, no doubt innocently, by generations of hopeful owners, often describe any softwood built boat as "pitch pine" when in fact the boat is built of BCP.

 

[JRMacGregor]

SkipperScouse

PeterDuck has given you the best definition of the tree which gives us "true" pitch pine.

There is a small industry in the USA today, dragging sunken 100 year old pitch pine logs out of the rivers where they were lost in the days when that HUGE forest was virtually destroyed.

The advice of others on where you can get it (reclaimed) in the UK is also good.

If you are looking for a suitable UK alternative (for planking I assume), Scottish LARCH is good (although not as good as pitch pine) and there are several suppliers left in the UK. You don't need to look for foreign equivalents.

 

[ianc1200]

Just to clarify, yes I meant I believed Douglas Fir and BC pine to be similar/the same. I've seen some sister boats of Straight Across (my boat, built of mahogany on oak) advertised as being of pitch pine. The builders offered the choice of planking in mahogany or BC pine. As noted above, it's hopeful owners and unknowing brokers.

IanC

 

[Captain Coochie]

A pine tree /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
SLHardwoods may be able to help , look under loose boards .