Author Topic: Douglas Fir? (Read 5729 times)

kevinsmith5 · « **on:** January 02, 2013, 11:03:09 pm »

I dropped by my local candy store (aka hardwood lot) and picked through the scrap pile after work today. Found an 8" x 3/4" x 40" piece of very straight grained aromatic wood. The guys at the lot thought it was either western cedar or Douglas fir. I haven't ever worked with either so I don't know myself. I took the piece home, ripped it into 12 strips and ran it through the dowel jig to form shafts. The shafts are are very straight, very light, and very flexible. Can anyone take a look and tell what type of wood it is?

Weylin · « **Reply #1 on:** January 03, 2013, 12:00:44 am »

I'm no expert on this but my guess from the picture is cedar, not Doug Fir. You should ask Carson (CMB). He knows a lot about arrow shafts and his father makes shafts out of old growth Doug Fir. They're great shafts.

Matt G. · « **Reply #2 on:** January 03, 2013, 12:21:07 am »

Looks like cedar to me too. DF isn't aromatic like cedar is

Jim Davis · « **Reply #3 on:** January 03, 2013, 01:30:46 am »

It does look like red cedar. If it is, you have a nice batch of decay resistant tomato stakes there.

Jim Davis

kevinsmith5 · « **Reply #4 on:** January 03, 2013, 08:19:47 am »

Based on how flexible the are (a homemade spine tester is on the to do list) in was already thinking youth arrows at most. I'd have posted a pic of the flex but my lovely assistant was in the tub.

I don't know about western cedar, but this is no where near red enough for eastern red. I've worked eastern red quite a bit and both the Color and smell are wrong. I can tell from the grain pattern on the board this is heartwood. The smell of this is not quite like anything I've worked before. I did some looking at archery supply sites last night and the Doug fir shafts for sale LOOK like this, but its hard to trust colors on the computer.

randman · « **Reply #5 on:** January 03, 2013, 06:28:54 pm »

That looks like Western Red Cedar to me. Doug fir is more orange in color (and it doesn't have an aromatic smell like cedar does). Cedar is also not quite as stiff as Doug Fir either. You must not be on the West coast kevinsmith or you would be very familiar with WRC. ;-) We use it for fenceposts and siding (although it would be a crime to use such a nice piece of old growth cedar like that for a either). My backyard has that wonderful smell every spring when I put new cedar playchips on it. The indians in Western Washington (and all along the coast) used it for everything from housing to cooking utensils and clothing (cedar bark hats and cloaks to repel the rain), artwork and transportation. They considered it the proverbial "tree of life"

kevinsmith5 · « **Reply #6 on:** January 03, 2013, 09:47:29 pm »

I am on the east coast. I have a coworker from Washington state who is familiar with both woods though, I'm taking a piece to him tomorrow.

Weylin · « **Reply #7 on:** January 03, 2013, 09:52:18 pm »

Look at the 'Arrow Shafts' section on the link in my signature. There is a picture of doug fir shafts and bolts.

kevinsmith5 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 03, 2013, 10:00:49 pm »

The center portion of one of the old growth bolts LOOKS like my board did...I just can't tell from pictures on computers. I'm gonna take a piece to work. The guy there is a wood worker and one time archery, pretty sure he'll know. I think I'm making some low spine arrows out of these shafts one way or another.

kevinsmith5 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 03, 2013, 10:19:03 pm »

This is a picture of old growth D. Fir vertical grained heartwood from a wood supplier's site. This picture looks almost identical to my board once I'd surfaced it. (The pic i posted wa rough cut). I'm leaning toward it being fir, but we'll see what my friend at work says.

Jim Davis · « **Reply #10 on:** January 04, 2013, 01:31:17 am »

Kevin, you are wishing too hard. I can almost sink my thumbnail in your first picture, that red cedar is so soft.

The picture of the Douglass fir sample looks exactly right. Notice that in your wood, there is not the color contrast between spring wood and summer wood.

No matter how long you think about it, no alchemy is going to turn red cedar into Douglass fir.

kevinsmith5 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 04, 2013, 09:48:10 am »

My cell phone pics don't show it well but yes, there is a visible difference between the summer and spring growth on my piece.
The coworker looked at it and smelled it and pronounced it definitely vertical grain Douglass fir. Says he worked with it quite a bit wrapping the windows in his house in Washington when he remodeled it. (Was also positive it was NOT cedar.)

burchett.donald · « **Reply #12 on:** January 04, 2013, 09:51:53 am »

I ordered 2 doz. douglas fir shafts this season and recently straightened, sanded and fletched a doz. I promise you they hardly have any scent and are no where near as aromatic as cedar. They are heavier also. If it's aromatic it's most likely cedar...The shafts I have also are very tight grained and very very straight grained unlike most cedar today. If you have worked cedar just once you will never ever forget the smell and would be able to tell right off. There is no comparison.
Don

kevinsmith5 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 04, 2013, 10:14:04 am »

This is no where close to the smell of ERC. My coworker had initially told me when I asked him about ID'ing Douglass that it would smell "a lot like hemlock". I had to point out to him that I had just as much idea what hemlock smelled like as I did D. Fir....
6 one, half dozen the other, I'm still making youth arrows.

Primitive Archer