Hard pine now in stock at hardware stores and timber merchants

I'm not going to complain about the quality PAR pine you find in the stores at the moment, because finding such hard pine is normally not an easy task. However, having used this pine at some of our DIY Divas workshops there are a couple of things you need to be aware of.

The PAR pine on the right - (above and below) - is an example of the type of pine you need to avoid if you are going to be routing out, planing or chiselling. The resin rings in the pine make it extremely hard to cut. On those occasions where we used this pine in our workhop we were drilling out holes with a spade bit, which proved hard work indeed.

Unless you are using the professional range of spade bits, you are going to find making holes in this pine quite a task. You will also need to drill countersunk pilot holes when attaching PAR pine sections together, whereas you don't need to do this with softer pine. Additionally, take care when using a jigsaw or Dremel Trio, as you may experience quite a bit of bucking bronco activity from your power tools on this hard wood. Make sure timber is tightly clamped down and use only new blades when cutting.