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Color/Appearance: Heartwood is light reddish brown, demarcated sapwood is pale yellow to nearly white. Color tends to darken with age.
Grain/Texture: Grain is straight, with a medium, even texture.
Rot Resistance: Heartwood is rated as non-durable to perishable regarding decay resistance. Sumatran Pine is also susceptible to termite/insect attack.
Workability: Overall, Sumatran Pine works fairly well with most tools, though the resin can gum up tools and clog sandpaper. Sumatran Pine glues and finishes well.
Odor: Sumatran Pine has a mild, resinous odor when being worked.
Allergies/Toxicity: Working with pine has been reported to cause allergic skin reactions and/or asthma-like symptoms in some people. See the articles Wood Allergies and Toxicityand Wood Dust Safetyfor more information.
Pricing/Availability: Frequently mixed with Khasi Pineand sold as construction lumber.
Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, but is on the IUCN Red List. It is listed as vulnerable due to a population reduction of over 20% in the past three generations, caused by a decline in its natural range, and exploitation.
Common Uses: Paper (pulpwood), flooring, furniture, matchsticks, and construction lumber.
Comments: Sumatran Pine is the only true pine (Pinus genus) that has a natural distribution that is south of the equator. It is sometimes grown on plantations, not only for its lumber, but also for the copious amounts of resin which the trees produce.
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