Some "Old-Growth" Douglas Fir timber

[Kevin Hampshire]

Okay, admittedly this is possibly a slightly strange request. I have 5 or 6 old-growth Douglas Fir 4" x 4" (nominal) posts that I originally bought to make an 18th cent style rope bed. For various reasons, the bed is totally out and now I have these posts taking up space. I should mention that I’m generally interested in making late 17th through very early 19th century North American style furniture.

My next option was an English work bench using the laminated Doug Fir as the top, but I hate to use this old timber in a bench. Each of the posts have incredibly tight rings with well over a century of growth in them. Besides, it just makes more sense to build the work bench out of some Borg SYP and call it good.


Any thoughts? Anyone seen some furniture or something useful and interesting for this type of material?

[Bill Houghton]

Tight-grain Doug fir is a lovely wood, although a bear to work. I've seen pics of a table using it; the table design was very simple, straight legs, simple apron. The dead-straight grain lines accentuated the simplicity of the table quite nicely.

I wouldn't aim for Art Deco with this wood. It wants shapes like the table I described.

And, no, don't use it in a bench. For one thing, as it gets older, the splinters hiding in it will rise up and irritate you constantly. For another, that wood deserves honoring.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I have some old growth Douglas fir from a sailboat mast. It is lovely wood, but it loves to tear out and split along the grain. A shaker table would be ideal for your wood. That would highlight the grain and the natural color of fur would lend itself to the piece.

[Andrew Hughes]

I made this table from some Doug fir 4x4s.The wood was also a century old. It's was very challenging to make since the wood was soo dry.At least the pitch was set.
It my own personal piece.That I use.

[John Sanford]

Anarchist's Design Book, it can be a source of some good ideas that you may find appropriate for such timbers. If you weren't in NoVa (whereabouts?? I lived out in Floris in the mid 70s) I'd try to take it off your hands.

[Kevin Hampshire]

Andrew, that's a good looking table

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice work Andrew!

No chance I would use old growth DF in a workbench. There are plenty of good softwoods/hardwoods available that are inexpensive and not Borg SYP.

[Mark Gibney]

Do you need a new dining table? I love doug fir, and sounds like you have some really nice boards.

Here's a link to a guy who makes furniture from doug fir, very much in the Krenov style, for what it's worth -

http://laelgordon.com/gallery/

[Gene Davis]

Very nice table, Andrew.

My local craigslist has a posting offering a whole storage cube of CVG tightgrain doug fir 2x4s, priced at $1.25 a foot. Photos show bunks of 8, 12, and 16-foot lengths. Came from bleacher seats in a school built long ago.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Very nice table, Andrew.

My local craigslist has a posting offering a whole storage cube of CVG tightgrain doug fir 2x4s, priced at $1.25 a foot. Photos show bunks of 8, 12, and 16-foot lengths. Came from bleacher seats in a school built long ago.

That would be $1.88/bft. That's good for fresh lumber, but for reclaimed lumber it depends- is this already resawn, planed, and clear of former holes for screws and bolts? If so, that's not bad. If you have to plane it of old varnish, and cut around former mounting holes, it may not be.

[Kevin Hampshire]

I hadn't thought about doing a search on Doug Fir furniture. I'll have to try that.

Since I'm starting another build, I'm going to look for a place to stash those Doug Fir posts until I can come up with an interesting project for them.

On the plus side, I just got back from a long drive south to pick up some SYP for a Moravian Workbench build. I found a few boards in the bung that were clear and relatively tight grained, so all my faces for the frame laminates will show that older growth grain instead of the typical borg fast grown SYP.