Pinus strobus
DISTRIBUTION
Eastern North America (also widely grown on plantations throughout its natural range)
TREE SIZE
65-100 ft (20-30 m) tall, 2-4 ft (.6-1.2 m) trunk diameter (historically older-growth trees were much larger)
AVERAGE DRIED WEIGHT
25 lbs/ft 3 (400 kg/m 3 )
SPECIFIC GRAVITY (Basic, 12% MC)
.34, .40
JANKA HARDNESS
380 lb f (1,690 N)
MODULUS OF RUPTURE
8,600 lb f /in 2 (59.3 MPa)
ELASTIC MODULUS
1,240,000 lb f /in 2 (8.55 GPa)
CRUSHING STRENGTH
4,800 lb f /in 2 (33.1 MPa)
SHRINKAGE
Radial: 2.1%, Tangential: 6.1%, Volumetric: 8.2%, T/R Ratio: 2.9
COLOR/APPEARANCE
Heartwood is a light brown, sometimes with a slightly reddish hue, sapwood is a pale yellow to nearly white. Color tends to darken with age.
GRAIN/TEXTURE
Grain is straight with an even, medium texture.
ENDGRAIN
Large resin canals, numerous and evenly distributed, mostly solitary; earlywood to latewood transition gradual, color contrast fairly low; tracheid diameter medium to large.
ROT RESISTENCE
The heartwood is rated as moderate to low in decay resistance.
WORKABILITY
Eastern White Pine is easy to work with both hand and machine tools. Glues and finishes well.
ODOR
Eastern White Pine has a faint, resinous odor while being worked.
ALLERGIES/TOXICITY
Working with pine has been reported to cause allergic skin reactions and/or asthma-like symptoms in some people. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety for more information.
PRICING/AVAILABILITY
Eastern White Pine is widely harvested for construction lumber. Prices should be moderate for a domestic softwood.
SUSTAINABILITY
This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, and is reported by the IUCN as being a species of least concern.
COMMON USES
Crates, boxes, interior millwork, construction lumber, carving, and boatbuilding.
COMMENTS
Eastern White Pine is one of the most common and widely used timbers for construction lumber in the northeast United States. It’s one of the three primary commercial species of White Pine, with the other two—Sugar Pine and Western White Pine—being found on the west coast. The long, straight trunks of Eastern White Pine were once prized for use as ship masts. The king of England’s aggravating habit of marking out and reserving all the biggest and best of these trees for use in his navy lead to the Pine Tree Riot of 1772, and played a role in the events leading up to the Revolutionary War.