Fir and Hemlock uses

BoyZinthewoods · November 13, 2014, 07:56:29 PM

Hey all, first time poster long time reader.

trying to find uses for all my downed trees!

Due to a recent blizzard here in Maine I've taken a hard hit to the home's woods. No building damage but we lost about 1/10 of our trees. some uprooted, the rest broken half way up. There's a substantial ammount of spruce, fir, hemlock and white cedar. The cedar I will use mostly for fence posts for a new pig pasture although a couple logs look good enough to mill for boards. The spruce are mostly 10-18" and will work nice for timbers in the future timber frame workshop, i'll burn the rest in the woodstove. The hemlock and fir (balsam) i am unsure of. a few of them are 20"+ at the butt and seem like they should be good for something??

Can the hemlock or fir be used for lumber or am i wasting my time. I've seen hemlock used here and there in timber framing but i've also seen it check pretty bad on the growth rings. Does it need to dry a certain way??

Would it be worth splitting for firewood? Seems like fir especially would make pretty junk firewood.

thecfarm · November 13, 2014, 08:01:44 PM

BoyZinthewoods,welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear of the damage. Lucky in my area,no damage at all.
Hemlock can be used for lumber. I use to burn it in the basement.I have used alot of it,for lumber and for heat. It does kinda ok for firewood. It will coal down some. With fir,once the wood is gone,so is the heat.

Billbob · November 13, 2014, 08:27:21 PM

Welcome to the Forum BoyZinthewoods. Bad luck on the storm damage. But since the timber is down you might as well make good use of it. Hemlock and fir make good lumber. Up this way hemlock is getting scarce as there is a big demand for it. The logging companies use it for bridge work because of it's strength. Half of my horse barn is built of hemlock and tamarack. I wish I had hemlock on my woodlot but there's none. You can burn hemlock or fir as firewood. The hemlock burns up quick but does give off a lot of heat. As a fella once said, come the middle of March you'll be thankful for a dry piece of spruce.

BargeMonkey · November 13, 2014, 09:01:22 PM

Hemlock can be so so. We tend to know which areas have ok hemlock before we buy it, but you can be suprised. "Shake" is your enemy, sometimes it will clear up, we try to leave the logs sit for 2-4wks before we do anything with them, it will open up and you can tell right off.
Down here it doesnt pay much, logs are going for 50-60$ mbft on the stump. We stay away from fir and spruce, leave that to the CTL boys with deep pockets and small brains. :D
The problem with hemlock, its not a deep rooted tree, like alot of other soft wood, if you cut a hole around them more are going to blow over at somepoint. I cut a large hemlock job 3yrs ago that the farmer had knocked just about every tree in the woodlot skidding with a farm tractor over 40yrs, none of it was any good.

BoyZinthewoods · November 13, 2014, 09:15:42 PM

If i understand correctly, that's a great point about the 'hole' exposing previously protected trees with shallow roots. Our lot was cut out of 60+ yr old woods In my situation the 'hole' is the clearing for our house. there are a dozen spruces and hemlocks on already shallow soil that are too close to the house but fortunately didn't fall in the storm. i've been eyeing for a while wondering if they are weaker since they were protected most of their lives and are now exposed. Nice trees but i'm thinking they'll have to go...

chester_tree _farmah · November 13, 2014, 10:00:45 PM

Most studs are graded as SF which means they can be spruce or fir. The reason u don't see as much fir used in these parts is because our Balsam fir is short lived and heart rots early. So u don't get very many good sized spruce saw logs to turn into lumber.

Hemlock is very usable as dimension lumber. The only issue is shake and it tends to split easier when nailing compared to spruce and fir. But shake is obvious to see in sawn lumber so it is easy to avoid. If u cut a hemlock and see a distinct black ring some where in the growth rings that tells u the log has shake. But if the log is big enough there can still be good wood in it if u mill yourself.

rockwall · November 15, 2014, 12:17:40 PM

Here in Central Maine I've used a lot of hemlock from 12x12s to boards for renovating a barn and building a sugarhouse. Some will say hemlock is hard to nail when dry but that has not been my experience. I have used a lot of fir, too. We have burned the slabs in our maple syrup evaporator and found hemlock to burn real hot but doesn't build up a lot of coals.