# Brazilian pine?



## ferstler (Oct 5, 2008)

My ex boss (we are both retired) recently broke down an old, seven-foot bookcase at his place and gave me the pieces. The sides were 1×10s, 1.5-inches thick, with the shelves the same depth, but .75 inches.

I planed off the stain and varnish (rather rough varnishing work had been done on the pieces) and now have the items stacked and ready to turn into a desk. There are not quite enough for the project, so I will go get some regular white pine boards to make things like the hidden back board, drawer sides and back, etc. This will be a rather simple computer desk, with not much in the way of fancy design tricks.

My question is: just how does "Brazilian" pine stack up against regular pine or any number of other woods? The boards do have knots in them, but they add character and will make the desk actually look the way I want (rustic), and the stuff seems to "work" OK, at least so far. I will admit that age seems to have hardened the stuff beyond what I have found with regular pine from the big-box stores. Not exactly hardwood, but not exactly easy to dent, either.

Howard Ferstler


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## levan (Mar 30, 2010)

Hi Howard. I have never used the pine you refer to but, according to wikpedia janka hardess it is more like our yellow pine 690 than white 420. I wonder about wood movement if gluing together. Nice score and good luck


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## ferstler (Oct 5, 2008)

Hi, Lynn

I did some additional digging and one other name for the wood is "parana." If that is the case, then the janka rating is 780, which puts it right between sycamore and Honduran mohogany on the scale. Looks like it will be just fine for the desk project.

Howard Ferstler


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## jack1 (May 17, 2007)

be sure to post some pics when you are done. I'd like to see what it looks like.


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