Is this Pitch Pine?

[Blackswanwood]

I have just rescued what looks like a cut up church pew from a skip and am wondering if it is pitch pine? Any thoughts? Also - if anyone has any tips on how to convince a wife that keeping wood as it will come in handy one day is not the onset of madness please share!






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[clogs]

pitch pine is a bit rare and expensive even in the old days...
could be red deal....

 

[TheTiddles]

That looks like what I think is pitch pine.
How’s that for a non-committal answer?

aidan

 

[Trevanion]

The wider piece definitely looks like Pitch Pine.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Thanks - just started tidy the smaller pieces up and the smell is amazing



My wife is stubbornly refusing to share my joy!

 

[Droogs]

if it smells amazingly of turps proper and is hard for pine then it probably is pitch pine. When you plane it with a good edge it should almost glow

 

[TheTiddles]

It’s lovely stuff to work with

 

[SammyQ]

Thats pitch pine. It us VERY brittle and spliinters when you look at it sideways, unless sealed. The smell, when planed, is the giveaway. I have a benchtop made from.it, very heavy, very stable
Sam

 

[Lons]

Yes lovely stuff, can't mistake the smell.

As for the question about the wife, just don't tell her until you need to use some then price that up and say " look how many £s I've saved by hanging on to that "old" wood. Then persuade her to come with you to do some skip diving.

 

[skelph]

In my neck of the woods all the old church pews were made of pitch pine which seems to be almost impervious to everything except fire (makes brilliant but expensive kindling!). Many of the really old big houses had pitch pine window lintels on the the inner face of outer walls and these lintels seemed to survive damp, beetles, rot etc.
Watch out for splinters as they turn septic quite quickly if you leave them in place -they're a bit painful for a few days then you can just squeeze them out.
I've been using pitch pine pew ends recently to make parts (buffers and wheels) for some big oak planters which look like railway rolling stock. The original parts had been made from plywood and softwood which had rotted and fallen apart - the new parts in pitch pine should last for many, many years.
The Tiddles is correct, it is nice stuff to work with and the turpentine smell from it is lovely.
Tell the wife that saving this wood for the correct project is definitely not a waste of time or space.