Michelle Gawe
A wood-species identification mystery solved: The author’s known eastern white pine sample (left) appeared quite different from samples sent by reader Jack Nettleton from a South American species marketed loosely as “white pine.” At top right, a segment from one canoe rib that was steam-bent successfully shows differences from the one at middle right, which shows the wide growth rings and narrow latewood bands of juvenile wood—which failed in bending, exacerbated by its grain orientation relative to the bend. The “brash” break, abrupt and across the grain, is typical of bending failure in juvenile wood.