# what is pumpkin pine?



## dan81 (Dec 17, 2012)

Hello fellow Lumberjocks. I recently was given some pine roof rafters that were being discarded at a renovation site. The beams are about 9"X3.5"X18' - the growth rings are TIGHT and the wood itself is heavy and solid. I was milling some of it when an old timer came by that used to be a woodworker. He looked at it and thought it was "pumpkin pine." The shakers used pumpkin pine a lot according to a book I have about them. So, my question is, what is pumpkin pine? How can you tell if that's the wood you have on your work bench?

Thanks guys!

Dan


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## pmayer (Jan 3, 2010)

I believe that it is not actually a different species, but rather just white pine that has aged and taken on a brownish orange hue over time as the planks age.


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## bondogaposis (Dec 18, 2011)

I believe it is slang for old growth pine. Back in my timber cruising days we referred to big old growth Ponderosa pine trees as pumpkins or pickles.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Pumpkin pine is white pine but if yours is heavy and solid, my guess would yellow pine.


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## AandCstyle (Mar 21, 2012)

First cousin to a porcu pine.


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## dan81 (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks for all the responses guys!

*bondogaposis:* I think what you wrote makes sense. I read that the shakers used pumpkin pine for a lot of the things they built and they were really just up the road from me (when they existed, of course). And, I suspect they cut down and milled their own lumber - which means it must have come from the same woods I'm living in. So, again, I think that makes sense that it's old growth pine - the rings are amazing - tight and very uniform.

Then again it could be a first cousin to porcu pine…so maybe the jury's still out! 

Thanks again guys.

Dan81


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## Woodendeavor (Apr 7, 2011)

I have heard this used to describe Heart pine before. The old pine trees grew for a long enough time to develop heart wood that has a deep orange color. It is harder to come across but can be found allot in old demolitions.


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## juststeveb (Oct 19, 2013)

Heart Pine…get it alot from demos n remodels from 1700s I do in No Va, and I hoard it too. Pretty coloring


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## Henry6 (Nov 6, 2012)

It is an homogeneous close-grained wood of especially fine old trees of the white pine.


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## Henry6 (Nov 6, 2012)

It is an homogeneous close-grained wood of especially fine old trees of the white pine.


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## dan81 (Dec 17, 2012)

Thanks again for all the responses guys. I'll post whatever I make with it, but that may take me all winter to get something done. We'll see. It sure is a nice wood though!

Dan


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