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Wood for second build: Pinotea

jmorbita

jmorbita

May 15, 2006
1,696
87
48
buenos aires, argentina
myspace.com
#1
I still haven't started this, (still haven't finished my first bass :hiding:) but I thought this might be of interest to some. I know I find it very interesting.

I've got this wood that here is called Pinotea. It's some sort of pine, though I'm not sure which. Maybe someone can help me and identify it. I once was told it's Oregon Pine, but I'm not sure.

The thing is, this wood is not longer available. Here it was mostly used for flooring, but also for roof beams, which I find really interesting.

The piece I have and plan for using as a body came from a demolition. As far as I know, it's either an endangered species or it's not being harvested any more. The only way to get it here is from demolitions/reconstructions. My house's flooring came from a demolition sale, and that's where this piece comes from as well:

DSCF0074.jpg


(that's centimeters by the way):

DSCF0077.jpg


As far as I know this wood came from USA. I've been told that back in the day ships sailed out from our port packed with cereals, and they had to come back with something to put weight on the ship, so they came back with, among other things, wood.
My brother recently remodeled his house's roof, and he found this:

DSCF0029.jpg


That's an old roof beam he took down, it's pinotea, and it's not so clear in this picture, but the beam is stamped "PRODUCT OF USA". So indeed, this wood came from the states! My brother's house was originally built around 1910. I don't know how old the wood I have is, but I'd say it's pretty old. Still, when you cut it it has the distinctive smell of pine.

I suppose this must have either been very cheap wood, or the only available, because though it's so beautiful and makes for beautiful floor boards, it was also used for roof beams, that are not seen, and I guess there must have been a valid reason to hide such beautiful wood in the roofs. It's quite possible there were no wood mills around here at the time, I don't really know.

Ok, just wanted to share this with you, hope you find it as interesting as I did, and didn't find it boring. :ninja:
I'd love to hear what you may know about this wood.
 
#5
mikeyswood said:
So many of the old pines look like this. It would be impossible to identify this piece without a microscope.
Click to expand...

Yeah... yet some of the pictures I've seen look exactly like my home's floor. I've seen other pines listed as "western pine" and those don't look exactly like what I have. Maybe my pictures are not as good.
Plus I've even found an article that says Douglas fir is also referred to as Oregon Pine.. and also it's Oregon's state tree... I think I might have found a match.
 
#6
Sorry to disagree, but that looks like North Eastern Red Pine(pinus resinosa) the term "Pinotea" is a spanish reference to "Tea wood" otherwise known as pine heartwood. Because of the distinct color I am going to guess Red Pine as opposed to a Western Pine, as most of the Western pine population is of the Yellow or white variety. No Matter, it's pine either way.
 
#7
Musiclogic said:
Sorry to disagree, but that looks like North Eastern Red Pine(pinus resinosa) the term "Pinotea" is a spanish reference to "Tea wood" otherwise known as pine heartwood. Because of the distinct color I am going to guess Red Pine as opposed to a Western Pine, as most of the Western pine population is of the Yellow or white variety. No Matter, it's pine either way.
Click to expand...

Yeah, when I heard of Tea Pine I thought pinotea was a clear reference to that, but frankly the pictures I've seen don't look like it. The name red pine would fit it's look, I'll check that, thanks.
I'll try to post more pictures of what I have later.
Maybe someone knows which species was the most exported some 100 years ago? I'm just curious of course, no practical reason to know. I just find this interesting.
I am sure it's pine, i'm not doubting that ;)
 
#8
Having handled literally thousands of bf of it over the years in my career, I'm pretty durn sure that's pseudotsuga menziesii or douglas fir. It has a long and storied history on the west coast and was a major export at the turn of the 20th century - also a time when it was classified as spruce, pine, hemlock, fir etcetera, depending on the seller at the time. It has an orangish hue that is remarkably similar to tigerwood (without the stripes).
 
#10
Well you can't argue with that...LOL. My quick research also shows that from the 1880's to 1920's the lumber industry was shifting to the Far Western US from the Great Lakes and Central states. This is probably correct, so in essence Mike would be correct also.

Don't know about the aroma....was never a big fan of cut pine, and if you are talking about Goncalo Alves....I guess it's about personal likes. Some people like the smell of gasoline too....LOL
 
#11
thanks for the info!

As a matter of fact, I do like the smell of gasoline... :hiding:

sorry Beej, what do you mean by "bf"?

what i have is quite orangish, and does have a very nice, strong aroma. I was quite surprised at how much sap it still has inside, in spite of being so old. when I put a piece of it through a planer the aroma was quite noticeable, and my hand plane became a bit sticky after a couple of passes. This didn't happen to me with new oven dried regular pine. It makes me wonder wether I might have trouble when gluing it.
 

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