Weatherlawyer coughed up some electrons that declared:

On Jul 10, 9:04 pm, "Arthur2" wrote:
Hi all.
I've been searching T & P's site and see they have 38mm x 300mm
southern yellow pine...also 25mm x 250mm.
Is this SYP the right stuff for the string and treads?

I am surprised that you can get yellow pine these days if it is.

I got some last year from the timber merchant in Tonbridge. It wasn't cheap,
and I didn't explicitly ask for it. I went in with a cutting list and a
request for "something dimensionally stable that won't turn into a banana
in 5 minutes". Yellow pine was what I got.

True, it was pretty stable. A fractional curl but almost neglible for 300mm
wide planks. It's being shelving in my lab right now. I expect I was boned
on the price (I don't have a feeling for wood prices so I let myself get
shafted, I expect) but I'm pleased with the product, function being
important here.

It is oiled, for no other reason that I wanted a quick finish and I'm not a
big fan of painted finishes. The result is more "rustic" than "fine
furniture" but it gives a nice ambience to where I spend a lot of time
sitting, so I like it.

Cheers

Tim