Select Boards from Menards

[1Brotherbill]

I was digging through the lumber yard at Menards the other day and I came across these select boards that had remarkable grain in them.  There wasn't anything stamped or stapled or marked in anyway on what type of tree it was except for Select Boards product of New Zealand. 

The wood was white like an aspen or a white pine.  I did some flexing of the wood and it seemed to have about the same flexing power of oak of the same thickness.  Grain spacing was really close together on most boards.

I did some research and it seems that the most common tree harvested in New Zealand is Radiata Pine.  I was wondering if anyone has used this in a bow before?

Also I guess the Radiata Pine is also called the Monterrey Pine.

[Hamish]

I wouldn't get my hopes up for a bow. Its very resinous and quite knotty.My friend's dad used to make bows out of saplings when they were kids. Radiata bows broke after they dried.
If you tried it,+2&1/2" wide flat limbs would be the go.

[DarkSoul]

Woods from New Zealand are not especially well known for their strength. Not knowing what wood it is, is a very risky business. If your research indicates it could possibly be some sort of pine, it's not hard to identify the wood in the store. Keeping softwoods from heartwoods apart is not difficult. Google some images of radiata pine and compare that in the lumber yard. You could also just ask someone working in the store to identify it for you. If you still don't know the species, you can determine the specific gravity, which is a quick and pretty effective indicator of the strength of the wood. Measure the board and calculate the volume in cubic centimeters (cc). Weigh the entire board with a luggage scale (in grams). Divide weight in grams by volume in cc.

Still, since the chance is high the wood is radiata pine, I would never use it for bows. Avoid all pines in bows. An experienced bowyer might pull it off, but pines are generally at the bottom 10% of all potential bowwoods.

[JW_Halverson]

Radiata pine grows as a scraggly, sickly scrub in California.  Planted in concentrated stands down in Chile and New Zealand this stuff will grow nearly 60 ft high in 20 years!  I've seen radiata pine with on inch growthrings!!!  It makes incredible straight grain, knot free lumber without much load bearing strength.  Our local woodworker's lumberyard carries 18' long 1x10's without any knots.  Kinda wondered about using it for making a strip built canoe since I can never find any cedar like that around here.

[PatM]

Worth noting that trees from exotic locales are often named after trees they resemble rather than what they actually are. I don't think any of the Aussie or NZ varieties of pine are even remotely related to typical pines.
 It's an appearance thing that is based on explorers naming them after what they were familiar with.

[DarkSoul]

Very valid point by PatM!
Yet, this tree is actually exotic in New Zealand and native to the USA! Radiate pine is an actual pine species; Pinus radiata. The species was introduced into New Zealand, where it is a plantation species.

[PatM]

That actually surprises me. So many times I have seen the NZ /Australia "pines "referred to that I didn't think a NA species would be planted there. Or at least not one that sounds exotic.