It's 4' long, pressure-treated southern yellow pine. It came to me as dunnage for a picnic table made of the same stuff. I've never seen a piece of wood like this. Not really sure what to do with it. My initial thought was a new stock and fore-end for my Hahn Super-repeater. I'm a little intimidated by what I can only imagine are the internal stresses, should I decide to cut/shape it.
It's beautiful stuff when you finish it and can end up looking almost like teak, but it's the very devil to work with. It will be considerably harder material than you would first expect for being a "pine" wood and will be more challenging to cut than other hardwoods with how the grain is structured. Cherry heart wood and tiger maple were a joy to work with after using a scrap piece of pine like that when I was making some revolver grips.
Here again, I know almost nothing about woodworking, but I do know that pressure treated lumber is not good for you and you should never use it for "skin contact" kinds of things. Someone with far more knowledge than me might say it could be coated, ie painted to seal it but I wouldn't have it next to my skin. Better safe than sorry.
When selecting lumber, IF you go though a large enough quantity, there will be a fancy piece.
We frequently got though an entire bundle, to pick out 2 dozen GOOD boards. (no heart, no unsound knots)
I'd guess this shape would be found in every 6th bundle.
BUT...
With that much internal tension, and having been saturated with solution, it will be a near miracle if it dries without splitting to high.... dunnage you say hmm?
Must be dry already! Woot! Your board has already beat the odds!
Here are a couple pics showing the behavior of wood with humidity changes.
Print one these off, and next time you go lumber shopping, you'll KNOW WHICH defect to look for!
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Thanks for your insightful response. It's been in my basement since late summer, 65F and around 45%RH. There are a couple of small drying cracks, and a few scoops of grain that have sluffed off, but it remains remarkably straight and true. It is still quite heavy, feeling more in weight like an oak, rather than a SYP 2X4. I'm pretty sure it's about as dry as it will get in ambient conditions.
I've been a woodworker for a long time, and this is a most intimidating piece of dunnage!
If it were me I would stay away from this piece of wood for stock material. As mentioned above there is going to be lots of internal tension on it and just about zero chance it stays straight after cutting. Looks cool though but would probably make a better decorative piece using it for something else.
Just my $.02 worth.
I'll throw in a couple more cents. Nice figure, but pine does move a bit and this piece may move a lot. Should you decide to proceed, I would 'rough cut' whatever stock you wanted out with the bandsaw and and put then back it on the shelf for a couple more months. Do a little more roughing and put it aside again. This will allow the drying to continue and let you see what twists and turns the tension is going to take. You can decide then where you'd like to go from that point without too much work invested.
