How to Identify Eastern White Pine Wood (Pinus strobus)

Eastern White Pine, Pinus strobus: color, grain, end grain, Janka hardness (380 lbf) and weight, and how to tell it from Ponderosa Pine, quoted from the USDA Wood Handbook and The Wood Database.

Download on the App Store

At a glance

Scientific name: Pinus strobus
Type: Softwood
Origin: Northeastern United States, Great Lakes region, and eastern Canada
Color: Heartwood a light brown, sometimes with a slightly reddish hue; sapwood pale yellow to nearly white.
Grain and texture: Grain is straight with an even, medium texture.
End grain: Large resin canals, numerous and evenly distributed, mostly solitary.
Janka hardness: 380 lbf
Specific gravity (12% MC): 0.35
Other clue: Faint, resinous odor while being worked; long, straight trunks were historically prized for ship masts.

What Eastern White Pine looks like

Heartwood a light brown, sometimes with a slightly reddish hue; sapwood pale yellow to nearly white. Grain is straight with an even, medium texture. End grain: Large resin canals, numerous and evenly distributed, mostly solitary.

Hardness and weight

Janka hardness 380 lbf (side hardness: the force needed to embed a 0.444-inch steel ball to half its diameter). Specific gravity 0.35 at 12% moisture content, so a cubic foot weighs roughly 22 lb. Weight in the hand is one of the quickest checks: compare a piece of known size against a board you already know.

Eastern White Pine vs Ponderosa Pine

Both are soft, low-density pines with similar pale color, but Eastern White Pine grows only in the East and is slightly softer (380 lbf vs ponderosa's 460 lbf); Ponderosa Pine is technically a yellow (hard) pine group member yet shares white pine's low density, so region of origin is the more reliable separator. The Ponderosa Pine page has its own details.

Smell, weight and other clues

Faint, resinous odor while being worked; long, straight trunks were historically prized for ship masts.

Where you will meet it

Crates, boxes, interior millwork, construction lumber, carving, and boatbuilding.

Working it

Easy to work with hand and machine tools; glues and finishes well; pine has been reported to cause allergic skin reactions and/or asthma-like symptoms in some people.

How to photograph it for identification

Photograph a freshly cut or sanded face in daylight, not a finished or stained surface, since stain hides color and finish flattens grain. Add a close-up of the end grain: cut a clean end, wet it or sand it to 220, and shoot from straight on; pore pattern and rays are the most reliable marks. Put a ruler in frame. The app suggests the likely species; confirm with the end grain and weight.

FAQ

How hard is Eastern White Pine?

Janka hardness 380 lbf. For comparison, Red Oak is about 1,290 lbf and Eastern White Pine about 380 lbf.

How do I tell Eastern White Pine from Ponderosa Pine?

Is Eastern White Pine a hardwood or a softwood?

Eastern White Pine is a softwood: it comes from a conifer. The terms describe the kind of tree, not hardness.

What color is Eastern White Pine?

Heartwood a light brown, sometimes with a slightly reddish hue; sapwood pale yellow to nearly white.

Find out what tree that really is.

Start with a single photo.