Liquefaction of southern pine wood in phenol in 30-40 : 70-60 weight ratios resulted in homogeneous liquefied materials, which were directly used to synthesize phenol-formaldehyde (PF)-type resins. The synthesized resins showed good physical and handling properties: low viscosity, stability for storage and transportation, and resin applicable by a common sprayer. Particleboard panels bonded with the synthesized resins showed promising physical properties and significantly lower formaldehyde emission values than those bonded with the urea-formaldehyde resin control. One deficiency observed for the synthesized resins was lower internal bond values, which might be overcome the use of a hot-stacking procedure. Overall, the process of wood liquefaction with limited amounts of phenol as a solvent was shown to have the potential of providing practical, low-cost PF-type resins with very low formaldehyde emission potentials. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 112: 1436-1443, 2009