What makes it “heart” pine and what is so special about heart pine?
Heart pine is literally the heart or middle of the tree. It only comes about by slow growth. Today’s pine trees grow quickly, so they haven’t had time to develop a heart core and are mostly sap wood. That is why today’s pine is considered a soft wood – not worthy of making floors out of. However, the heart pine that we recover is strong like red oak which makes great flooring. The special beauty of heart pine is its color and growth rings. If you look at a cross-section of today’s pine you will find 2-3 growth rings per inch. When you look at a piece of Riverwood heart pine it has more like 6-30 growth rings per inch.
