Banana pine.

[Mykee]

I used to work in a shop where we had some wood that one chap referred to as banana pine. I've recently been looking to find out what it was but haven't found mention of it anywhere. Anybody ever heard of it? It was like pine but beautifully yellow with deep red in it.
Mykee

 

[marcros]

most b and q pine is shaped like a banana.

could it have been parana pine? https://www.wood-database.com/parana-pine/

 

[Mykee]

Wouldn't that be a turn-up for the books. All these years I thought he was saying banana. From the pictures it doesn't look anywhere near rich enough and I can't remember what it was for but it was cheap work.
Mykee

 

[marcros]

I worked at a builders merchant when I left school 20 years ago and we sold it as a window board. I haven't heard of any for years, not that I have looked, so I don't know how easy it is to come by. That pic may not be the best example, I remember it being nice timber.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

https://www.wood-database.com/parana-pine/

 

[Jacob]

https://www.gshaydon.co.uk/blog/parana-pine-find

 

[kevinlightfoot]

Piranha Pine was frequently referred to as banana pine I remember making some fitted wardrobes with it many years ago,it didn't move at all!I think the joints helped as I made traditional raised and fielded panels.Th wood displayed beautiful grain pattern.Its right to say it was used for window boards before mdf became popular,it was used because of its lack of knots.Lovely wood to work with.I suppose Custard will know its Latin name and maybe other uses for it.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It was commonly used for staircases around here.

 

[kevinlightfoot]

Just remembered we also used to use it for making step ladders and benches for sports equipment in schools,it may be worth watching out for schools throwing them away,they changed them for cheap and nasty alluminium ones because of the weight.I have a set of the step ladders and fourth years on they are still in good condition,even have the original sash cord opening stays.Those were the days when things were made to last.

 

[kevinlightfoot]

I meant to write forty years on,I hate computers!

 

[Sgian Dubh]

Araucaria angustifolia, aka Parana pine (although it is botanically not a true pine), commonly corrupted by us in the workshop and elsewhere in the trade to 'banana pine': it's also known as Brazilian pine, which indicates its native range of South America. Relatively weak (compared to similar softwoods), fairly stable, works quite easily, and glues, polishes, etc, well. Slainte.

 

[skeetstar]

Twas all the rage in the 80s. One of the few decent woods stocked by Jewson's etc.
I think there was a catchline on one advert that portrayed a customer asking at B&Q or somewhere... 'Got any Parana, mate?'

 

[Doug71]

Twas all the rage in the 80s. One of the few decent woods stocked by Jewson's etc.
I think there was a catchline on one advert that portrayed a customer asking at B&Q or somewhere... 'Got any Parana, mate?'

"It's a bit knotty mate, you got any parana?" sticks in my mind, bet all the timber merchants got fed up of hearing that!

 

[woodbloke66]

Araucaria angustifolia, aka Parana pine (although it is botanically not a true pine), commonly corrupted by us in the workshop and elsewhere in the trade to 'banana pine': it's also known as Brazilian pine, which indicates its native range of South America. Relatively weak (compared to similar softwoods), fairly stable, works quite easily, and glues, polishes, etc, well. Slainte.

You've been dipping into that book Richard...haven't started it yet - Rob

 

[Sgian Dubh]

You've been dipping into that book Richard...haven't started it yet - Rob

More accurately, Rob, apart from recalling my experience of working with banana pine (sic), mostly in the 80s and early 90s, I dipped into research I undertook to write my book Cut & Dried. The only reference to the material in the whole of my book is in the appendix; it's listed in the table of Shrinkage Factors for a Selection of Wood Species. Slainte.

PS. Now you have the book, I hope you have chance to crack it open and have a bit of a read of it at some point, ha, ha.

 

[Steve Maskery]

My recollection of it, again from the 80s, is that it stank. I made a tambour bread bin with it and it had to throw it out because the bread tasted horrible. I don't just mean for a few days, months.
Pretty, though, nice pink streaks, IIRC.