Thanks John. I don't know if many people know the history of why certian woods were used to build homes,
years ago. I remember my father telling me , that when he built the home I grew up in, he hand picked the lumber that was used so that it would last longer without rotting. The pine boards had to have sap in them. I'm not sure , but I think the time of year when the tree was cut, determined how much sap would be in the lumber. What I do know is, you can't find lumber like that in the lumber yards any more. The pine lumber available today, is light and has no sap at all in it.
I suspect that the old "red pine" that Marc used to build accordions out of, was some of that old heartwood "sap pine" the old timers used back then. That would account for the fact that it hadn't rotted away by now.
Jude Moreau

That was the case back then Jude. Even when they used Cypress they wanted the heart wood which like you say lasted longer. Below is information from the U.S. Dept of Agriculture on red pine.

Uses: Red pine wood is moderately hard and straight grained. It is grown primarily for the production of wood used for poles, lumber, cabin logs, railway ties, post, pulpwood and fuel. The bark is occasionally used for tanning leather (Sargent 1961) This species is also planted and used as Christmas trees.

So it seems that it has some of the same attrabutes as heart cypress. I found that both make nice accordions though I prefer hardwoods. However I always let the client decide.

Jude
You would want to cut it before the first frost for maximum sap. I know this from sad experience, since I'm the kinda guy that would prefer to wait for cooler weather to do jobs like that .