Heart Pine, also known as "fat lighter," "lighter wood," "rich lighter," "pine knot," "lighter knot," "fat wood" or "lighter'd" (sic), is derived from the heartwood of pine trees. The center of any tree is considered the heart of the tree whereas the outer rings are called sapwood.
This heart wood is very resilient to insects and rot. Which made it a go-to source for builders here in the southeast part of our great nation for the last 100 years or so. Longleaf pine is readily available and was a cheap building material at the time. So more than likely, all those old barns you see when you are driving in the country are made with longleaf "heart" pine.
Fast forward to now and you have a good amount of these barns not serving any purpose or becoming structural dangers on farms and in turn are being torn down. Most people burn the leftover wood being as it is a pain to haul it off. PLEASE DONT DO THIS! We at the Antique Attic LOVE LOVE LOVE this wood. It makes the best tables and has a beautiful color and even smells good! Here are some examples of pieces made of heart pine.
A traditional "Heart Pine" Farm Table...
A coffee table made after something in Restoration Hardware...
This was a small sofa table made out of heart pine.
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