Treatment of wood with various chemicals play an important role on their surface characteristics including as roughness and hardness for further processing such as finishing and machining. The objective of this study is to evaluate surface roughness of Southern pine (Pinus taeda L.) treated with oil extracted from eastern redcedar (Juniperus viginiana L.). Both tangential and radial surfaces of pine samples were treated two non-pressure methods, namely brushing and cold soaking in the oil. Surface quality of the samples were determined using a stylus technique at the end of each type of treatment. Three roughness parameters, average roughness (Ra), mean peak-to-valley height (Rz), and maximum roughness (Rmax) were used for the quantification of treated surface of the samples. Janka hardness method was also employed to evaluate if there was any effect of treatment on hardness of the samples. Average Ra values of 5.42 µm and 3.67 µm were found for tangential and radial surfaces of 24 hrs soaked samples, respectively. Roughness parameters taken from the surface of control and treated samples did not show any significant difference from each other at 95% confidence level. Average Janka hardness value of radial samples was 2.5 times higher than that of tangential. However, hardness values of control and treated samples also did not show significant difference from each other at above confidence level. Based on the findings of this preliminary study eastern redcedar oil could be considered as alternative treatment chemical for wood products without having any adverse effect on their surface roughness and hardness.

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