Pitch Pine

A slightly 'off-topic' post here. They are doing some 'improvements' to our local Baptist Chapel that have involved ripping out some of the pews. We found the 'carpenters' had dumped the timber pews in a skip outside - It is pitch pine and has graced this chapel since 1869.
Unsurprisingly I liberated this 'unobtainium' of the timber world and stowed the pews (now in kit form) in the boatshed. What surprised me is how dense and heavy this timber is... I know the lengths here are too short to be of much use for anything other than small joinery on my projects.

Some years ago I owned a lovely carvel built 26' launch built of pitch pine on rock elm timbers - she is over a hundred years old now and still survives at Evesham, I believe. Her hull planking was all full length i.e. no scarfs. I have heard this timber referred to as the 'Queen of softwoods'. The resin content gives it a resistance to decay that few timbers can match.