Syp

[MarvinWatkins]

So, my family and I just finished a vacation to Historical Williamsburg. Of course, I had to stop by the various carpenter shops. It appears that for a lot of their secondary wood, they used local Souther Yellow Pine (SYP), among others. Its supposed to be strong and abundantly available. Today, that latter one translate to 'cheap' or 'inexpensive' for those of you that want to avoid the 'c'-word.

I went to my local BORG, which carries 'select 1x#' SYP and general 2x# SYP. I was thinking about just playing around with SYP to see how it works. Should I be able to resaw general 2x8 SYP and have anything worth working with?

Just thought I would ask before I invested any time in it.

 

[manfre]

Why resaw it instead of buying 1x8? The thinner wood should be less than half the price.

Mt Gomer made bunk beds out of construction grade lumber from Lowes (WIP, complete). When just playing around, wood is wood.

 

[Joe Scharle]

Framing, floors, doors and furniture were made of SYP throughout the south for 200 years. A lot of it still around, too. The best SYP in the BORGs will be in the larger structural members i.e. 2X8, 10, 12.
Studs, shelving and 1 by in the BORGs will usually be SPF and of far lesser quality.
So, resaw away and create some colonial copies! However, true SYP will gum up any cutter :BangHead:
And don't forget the pics!

 

[Pokey]

I made a bed, a dresser, two night stands, a mirror frame and a blanket chest out of yellow pine in 1975 so that I would have some furniture when I was married later that year. I used SYP because it was readily available and it was cheap. I knew that my skills were limited and that if it did not turn out, I would not be out of much.Turns out it was not cheap, just inexpensive, because I am still using every piece that I made in 1975. It looks nearly as good as it did in 1975 except for a small spot that one of our dogs chewed. If you want a better grade, go to a building supplier or lumber supplier and ask for "C and better yellow Pine".

 

[wooduser]

SYP, aka, southern yellow pine is the common framing lumber for structural building applications such as joists, rafters, headers, trusses and treated material. It comes ingrades that start as dense select structural, select structural, #1 dense, #1, #2 dense, #2, #3 and stud grade (listed in order of strongest to weakest. Most of the stuff in the big box stores will sell you spruce pine fur (SPF).
As with anything there are pluses and minuses to both. From a cabinent making view, don't confuse SYP with the older heart pine. That was the old growth trees that were her when the white came to the new world until the modern timber era, say after WWII.
SYP lumber will gum up your equipment but it is good strong stuff. My workbench top was made from 2 x 6 DSS SYP that I ripped in half and glued together.
As wfor the 1x material, it is okay but not as strong and does not pass the same grading rules as its thicker brothern.

 

[bluedawg76]

+1 for Joe's comments.

Framing, floors, doors and furniture were made of SYP throughout the south for 200 years. A lot of it still around, too. The best SYP in the BORGs will be in the larger structural members i.e. 2X8, 10, 12.
Studs, shelving and 1 by in the BORGs will usually be SPF and of far lesser quality.
!

SPF and SYP are very different. Also, at the borg, the longer the board the straighter they tend to be.. 12' and up. The 2 by's can be a little wet still, they're only dried to ~20% so you may want to let 'em dry a bit before starting (or risk being sprayed in the face)

as for the select stuff, don't pay the borg price for a wavy warped board. call the hardwood store of nc and get a straight one!

Sam

 

[MarvinWatkins]

Thanks everyone. I knew this was the place to get a lot of good answers!

 

[Bas]

I made my workbench out of SYP. Definitely get the 2x8 and rip them down, the quality is much higher than the 2x4's or even the 2x6's. The smell of SYP in the shop is wonderful. Just make sure you give it plenty of time to finish drying in your shop before using it, or you'll have all sorts of fun with the boards binding on the saw blade. Four weeks worked for me.

Also, don't buy SYP in the weekend. Get it Tue-Thu. Contractors come in during the week and buy the good straight pieces, leaving the pretzels in the rack. That's what's left Friday - Sunday for the homeowners.

 

[MtnWing]

We built our retirement log home in Boone in 1999 and used "stick dried" SYP hand hewn logs, as well as SYP flooring throughout. When we were planning the house my wife said that she never wanted to have to have painting done on a home again, so other than the drywall fire-wall between the garage and the house, we have wood throughout. Bas mentioned the smell of SYP and he is right. For the first two or three years living in this house the smell was absolutely awesome.

 

[TBradley190]

+1 for Joe's comments.



SPF and SYP are very different. Also, at the borg, the longer the board the straighter they tend to be.. 12' and up. The 2 by's can be a little wet still, they're only dried to ~20% so you may want to let 'em dry a bit before starting (or risk being sprayed in the face)

as for the select stuff, don't pay the borg price for a wavy warped board. call the hardwood store of nc and get a straight one!

Sam

I built a dining table out of 2x8s with breadboard ends ten years ago that I still use today. I slotted the tongue 1/2 inch on the end for the breadboard to allow for movement and it was a good thing b/c the field shrunk that much in two months and I had to cut the ends and refinish. So if you use it, let it aclimate in a DRY location.

Tim

 

[Jeff]

Just curious here. The Williamsburg era (18th century) would suggest to me that they were using longleaf pine; what we now refer to as old-growth or reclaimed heart pine. That resource was nearly eradicated through over harvesting by the late 1800s. Today there are very few longleaf pines in NC, but those that have survived are being managed to support their survival.

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-colonial/4069

Today our generic SYP comes from a variety of other species that grow much faster so it's a renewable resource.

http://www.southernpine.com/faqs.asp

The old stuff is not cheap, but it makes beautiful furniture. The newer stuff is reasonably priced and also makes beautiful furniture when finished correctly. Nothing wrong with either one. :icon_cheers

+3 on the terrific smell when working with them. +3 on gumming up our equipment too!

 

[cpw]

Marvin,

Another interesting thing about working with SYP is since it is a very resinous wood it gets harder over time as the resins set up. This can be an advantage since it is essentially a soft wood that is easier to work in a lot of respects but in 4-5 years it will be almost as hard as oak.

Cheers,
Charles

 

[CrealBilly]

FredP and I (mostly Fred ) just finshed making a whole kitchen full of base and wall cabinets out of 4/4 SYP. I had my doubts about SYP but the wife wanted her kitchen cabinets in SYP. I must admit the wood kind of dictates the cabinet style. We made the face frames 2 1/2" wide, base cabinets doors are flat panel and the top cabinet doors are 7/8" wide grilled with glass behind the grills. The cabinets match the house which was built in 1899. As for workability... go for rift and quartered lumber, the grain really stands out and sets off the style. Make sure the lumber is kiln dried and the pitch is set. Be weary of blue stain as it really spoils the look if a glue up panel. So insist on the sawyer quartering fresh fallen large diameter logs and kiln drying ASAP to avoid blue stain. I bought my lumber from Jack (saw4you) he did me up right :thumbs_up

SYP will gum up paper on a drum sander in a heart beat, nothing you can really do about it except to mill for light sanding or just plan on lots of replacement paper.

Would I work with SYP again? yes I would, if the style dictated SYP but I wouldn't mess with flat sawn or blue stained SYP lumber.