Pine in general is a wonderful species to work with, it looks great, smells great and its hard to beat the charm that the natural warm colors that pine can bring to a room. What makes cathedral grain pine special is the way it is cut into lumber or veneers. Lumber that is cut radially to the rings with rings at angles of 45 – 90 degrees to the wide surface or parallel to the rays produces vertical-grained lumber which has a very uniform pinstripe grain. Lumber that is cut tangent to the annual rings, (parallel to the center of the log) which is how most lumber is cut, with rings at angles 0 – 45 degrees with the wide surface produces plain-sawed lumber with a distinct cathedral grain formed by the inner most annual growth rings as it is cut through the log.
