Balsam Fir

[Paul_H]

Has anybody worked much with Balsam Fir(abies amabalis,or lasiocarpa) ?

We log a fair amount of it,and it grows at higher elevations along side of Western Hemlock,and Mountain Hemlock.The lumber from Balsam,and Hemlock stays a light colour,doesn't tend to darken like D-fir.I have seen some interior finishing done in both species,but not as much as I'd expect.

A freind had three boards planed and finished,Spruce,Balsam and White Pine,and asked me to pick out the Pine.I couldn't,and he told me most people can't.

Does it have many other good or bad traits?

[Jeff]

It makes a DanG good flag pole. I'll have to take a picture when I get to the cabin again. Forest tech up near the cabin told me that when they are doing an aspen cut they have the skidder operator try to run over all the small balsam in the area to try to weed it out.

[Tom]

Everything I've read about it says it's Americas first and favorite Christmas tree.  Weed it out!  :  Sounds like a hidden industry there waiting to happen to me. 8)

It's all that non-wanted stuff that begins to smell like Money.

[MrMoo]

Jeff,
Run the skidder over the weeds. Sounds like a great weedin trick. Think I'll try that in the veggie garden next summer...now I'll need to convince the wife we need a skidder to do the weedin.
Hmmm, wonder how that'll go over.

[Minnesota_boy]

Paul,
Our balsam fir grows with a straight taper, that is, it tapers pertty evenly from the butt to the top.  It is a light weight wood with fair strength and usually stays straight.  It also saws easily.  If it weren't for the pitch it leaves on the clothes, it might be my favorite wood to saw.  Your Douglas Fir is stronger, but balsam fir has plenty of strength for a stud wall.  I'd be cautious about using it for rafters because it isn't as strong as I'd like and is a bit brittle.

[GarryW]

I cut some of it last summer. I thought my blade was dull because it looked like it was just ripping the wood apart when I was cutting it.  :D But I found that if I slowed down a bit it cut really nice. And I did notice that on some of the logs, the pine beetles were in there chewing away.  

I gave the wood to my friend that is building a large shed, he used it for siding. The wood has stayed white so far.

[Kevin]

They harvest it for pulp here.

[Paul_H]

I'm glad to see that balsam is appreciated.I have seen it used as houselogs a couple of times,and they looked great.The loghome that was built here,burned down about 4 years ago.Has anyone had experience with Balsam as houselogs?

I'm guessing that the Balsam are weeded out of Aspen plantations because they are shade tolerent,and would eventually take over.



This picture shows a piece of Western Hemlock that was used in our stair railings.It was a worm eaten ugly old 6x6,ripped in half.The Fir has darkened a lot in 2 years,but like Balsam,the Hemlock has stayed light.

It would be interesting to know how it holds up as siding.
  
Minnesota_boy,  it sounds like we have the same species.Straight and round,and brittle.

[Minnesota_boy]

Places where my grandmother grew up in Canada east of lake Huron the old barns were verticle sided with unfinished hemlock.  Still looked OK after 100 years.

[Tillaway]

Paul,

The Amabalis (Pacific Silver Fir) is used for a variety of interior uses in Oregon or Washington.  It only grows at either high elevation in the Cascades or on poorer sites in the coast range there.  It is rare any of it ever makes it to market since it grows mostly on Federal lands were timber harvest is largely not allowed.  If any is cut it usually goes to the pulp mill since there usually isn't enough to make a load out of any one side.

The Lasiocarpa (Subalpine Fir)  rarely makes it to a mill even if you have lots of it.  It too is mostly on Federal lands so therefore unobtainable.  I heard, don't know how true this is, that it makes low grade kraft pulp only or nonstructural lumber.  The form of the tree is pretty poor, lots of taper and loaded with limbs.  Its a great Christmas tree though.

[Ron Scott]

Mostly used for christmas trees (has good needle retention) and pulpwood here. It also provides good thermal cover and escape routes for wildlife.

[wiam]

I would have run over the aspen and saved the balsam. :D :D

[burlman]

here in western Quebec, it is hard to find a balsam over 12 in. dia. All of it is currently cut along with spruce tree length and shipped to "chip and saw" mills. Trees are chipped square, and the cants are sawed into 2by lumber. the chips are trucked to the pulpmills to the south of us. Trees are usually centre rot, hard to get a good one. Also the spruce bud worm is causing alot of havoc, loosing alot of spruce and balsam in areas where they can't spray. Itis lovely wood to saw, alot better than the spruce around these parts. As to the hemlock, we use it alot here for barn siding, except for the weight, it is a great framing lumber in 2x10's etc.doesn't seem to twist all to hell like spruce when it dries. We have alot of it and a small market for the logs. Can buy it for about $300/1000 bf.

[WyMan]

I bought about 1 1/2 semi load of subalpine fir in montana from a burn last year.  The burn was three years ago so the wood is nice and dry.  The bark falls off and the wood looks nice.  Nice long straight 40 to 50 ft, 8 to 12 inch tips with not very many knots.  I have been trying to decide what to do with it and am getting to the point where I need to get my money back out of it.  I would think it would make nice house logs because it is light wood.  I do know that the stud mills allow a certain amount of subalpine fir to go through the mill and there is no distinction in the species of the end product.  I would love to just make a log home out of it, but unfortunately there are too many mouths to feed now.  I passed up many more loads of the same stuff because of not enough money, but could probably get the stuff as I don't think they have sawed it yet.

Good to know about sawing it slowly.

[L. Wakefield]

Also the spruce bud worm is causing alot of havoc, loosing alot of spruce and balsam in areas where they can't spray.

   Is that still bad? I know that it was horrible multiple years back- led to huge clearcuts (that were necessary to get anything at all back, but which led to the public perception that clearcutting is a horrible ugly thing- if you didn't know the history of the insect devastation you would indeed question why such a large area would be clearcut..) I hadn't heard it was bad recently. Do you know the current distribution and intensity? I am down in Maine and presently the fir is looking a lot better than it did a while back. They are afraid of the adelgid here on hemlock but I haven't seen but 1 but that I recognized, and I routinely look when I'm out in the woods (not been too much of that in the last couple months- the snow is right up to the top of some of the fences..if the cows could walk over there without sinking they could just keep right on walking..)   lw

[burlman]

where we are in south western Quebec, The Spruce bud worm is supposed to be the worst hit area in the province. We have a huge crew of scientists, and technecians running all around private bush lots, measuring and marking out plots for tests. They spray bht. on the larger stands. I guess because of all the lakes in our area they can't get in all places. I'm forever being called out around cottage country to cut dead spruce and balsam on cottage lots. You can see a few hills around us here that have been wiped right out. Every summer you could see the green of the hill slowly fade away to a now dull brown of dead trees. Pulp sells by the ton around here, so not a very paying proposition. I cut a trailer load in 8 foot that had died ,off the side of a hill, compared to the same load cut in the green wood there was a differance in weight comparable to 6 cords. Kinda kills the profits. Plus the extra work  to cut a dry dead spruce, it won't fall down, if it does it sits up on the branches, the trunk is taller than you can reach. So to say the least, tree removals mostly end up as land fill now. have a good weekend.  burlman

[L. Wakefield]

   Not to quibble- I read your post and asked Mike- 'what is bht'?- He guessed maybe you meant bth- bacillus thuringensis? I dunno about how you fight the budworm but I guess maybe that stuff would do it. I likeit a lot that it's not an environmental toxin. (but I don't know that the budworms would agree with me..)

   They were bad here for a while and then it got better.  lw