Has anyone used norway pine for timberframes?
this is the pine with yellow/golden bark up high, it tends to grow a bit crooked. I have a client who has some decent trees in norway pine that she would like to use.... I haven't tried it before and wanted to check.
thanks,
-Mark in Ontario.

In these parts, Norway Pine is another name for red pine (pinus resinosa). NOT recommended for timber framing - twists like a politician caught in a lie.

Mark,

Can you send a pic? Red pine in this area grows extremely straight and is rarely crooked. My hewn log cabin is red pine and most hydro pole companies use red pine as their source log. I would certainly not hesitate to use it, just stay away from the plantation grown trees.

B

This is not red pine, we have lots of that on the farm.... norway pine has browner bark and, like I said, it gets yellow up top(especially the branches) and appears to be shedding it's bark a bit. Maybe this is a Canadian phenomenon???

Scotch Pine?

http://www.fw.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/psylvestris.htm

That's what I was thinking, Bruce. It's not native to N America, but I don't know anything about it's properties, or suitability for timber framing. Here's an excerpt from the wikipedia article:

BINGO!!!!!!!!!
amazing that I did not connect the xmas trees so common in our area with the mature specimen.
So now we know the tree, has anyone worked these guys into timbers?????
Now that I think of it, I have seen references to these pines on euro timber sites.... time for a surf!
and many thanks for the link, Bruce, the photos make it quite obvious

here is a link to the home page of the site with the "scots" pine info.
It's a good site, with plenty of info on trees.
http://www.fw.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/main.htm

Well as a student I have planted 250,000 trees in the forests across Canada and by the description I knew it was a Scotch Pine although the name slipped my mind!

Would I use it.... there is something majestic about a fir or a white pine to me and when I look at a Scotch pine it just does not appeal to me as a tree.

I think you will find that once it is cut and lying on the ground you will find that the thing is crooked as heck and you would not get any useful timbers of any length out of it.

I was called to a site in Carp to look at some cheap logs that were headed to a pulp mill and once on the ground those trees are hockey sticks...so off to the pulp mill they went.

I would not hesitate to use them for board & batten though

Hi Daiku & Bruce,

As a native born Scot I would not take offence at being offered a scotch under the shade of a Scots Pine tree !

Pinus sylvestris is the most widely grown and utilised timber tree growing from Scotland right across the Baltic and into Russia and beyond. The trees growing in the Baltic states and northern Scandinavia are just superb.

England fought wars to ensure that the timber trade with the Baltic states was kept open to feed her navy with Scots pine mast spars allowing the British navy to venture abroad and capture the odd country or two.

Regards

Ken Hume