re: Knotty pine

If you use your guidelines. Chris, I would say not much weaker. It would be like a truss. The top (regular wood grain) would be in compression and the bottom (regular wood grain) would be in tension. The middle (where the knot is) would just be a spacer and as long as the knot wasn’t huge it should have almost no effect. I’m thinking of the bed rail you referred to originally.