Market for white pine?

[scsmith42]

I have a customer that wants to give me a few trailer loads of what he claims are 16" - 20" diameter white pine. It does not commonly grow near me, and I've never milled or marketed it.  

Apparently his property is an old nursery and 50+ years ago the owners planted a lot of white pine around the property.  The logs appear to be mixed grade with a lot of bumps on them, so probably would yield a #1 or #2 common lumber.



What is this commonly used for?  As I recall clear boards are typically used for in-home projects in the NE.  I'm wondering what is the best market for the lumber or if I should even invest the time and money to mill and dry them.

Thx.

Scott

[jpassardi]

Scott,

One common use in the Northeast is for board and batten siding on barns, garages or sheds. One advantage is it can be sold green or just air dried for this use.
Another use is for timber frames. I'm in the process of rough sawing cants I will use to add on a timber frame.
Some air dry and use it for paneling rough cut in basements or out buildings.
Moulded into V-groove paneling.

Personally, I like the character of the dark knot to blonde wood contrast when used in a timber frame.

There are uses, not sure how marketable in your area though. I would take those logs. Good luck.

[Bostonstrong]

I can only speak to what would be successful in my area, but if I had those logs, I would definitely mill them for timber frame beams and would have no difficulty selling them very quickly.
Best of luck with them!

[John S]

I agree, Timber Framing!

[cutterboy]

smith, some of those logs look pretty good. I have no problem selling air dried 4/4 boards. People use them for barn siding, building sheds and chicken coops, fence boards, bird houses and any repair job.
Just so you know, fresh cut white pine is very sappy and the sap is sticky.

[Dave Shepard]

If you are cutting timbers, you need a list and an agreement on the grade. They look knotty to me. I use lower grade pine for roof boards and siding.

[scsmith42]

Thanks all for the insight.  I've sold a lot of SYP for timber frames in my area, and some oak, but didn't know how well WP was suited for it.

It's not very rot resistant is it?  

Sounds like it would be similar to SYP in terms of outdoor uses.

[mudfarmer]

No not very rot resistant but nobody can ever have enough 4/4 ewp boards   'knotty pine' interior paneling seems to be making a comeback in the $$$$$ camps and cabins here. It was big locally in the 70s/80s/90s because it was cheap and looked nice 👍

[Cdaniels1377]

I was reading the Stumpage reports and white pine averaged at about $73 /mbft. That's in upper Michigan. That being said several mills are and have closed up here and I have a few people looking for bids on loads of white pine. At that price I could afford a few loads because the lumber is still rlly sought after so the demand is going higher. Issue for me is it cost me 800$ per load for trucking from 45 min away so I'm currently weighing options to see if it's smart. I'm not a full time sawyer and run a lt28 with log deck and auto feed but I'm wondering if I should bid anyways. I'm still a new guy to sawmilling so opinions (at this point) are always welcome!

[Bruno of NH]

White pine is a staple in most New England sawmills . Big or small . Folks us it for lots of things. The logs look like a good candidate for 1x boards.
If dried you could mill them into any pattern to sell or just sell square edge.