by Olly Wilson
One of my thrills in life is working out the species name of a mystery piece of timber that has made its way into the mill. Whether it’s from an old log at the back of one of the piles of hardwood or, more often, from a client walking in with some timber that they would like us to process.
This happened recently with some large backs (the barky half round, left over pieces of timber from milling a log) that they wanted us to turn into big slabs for picnic table tops.
They were unsure of the species, but believed it to be a Fir.
‘ A-ha!’ I though, the smell of the chase.
Now these were large trees, so abnormal growth and figure was to be expected. The colour, once milled, was very light, almost as though it had been painted with white wash and there were light coloured nots. Hemlock, I thought, but once the clients showed me a photo of the needles it was more Hem-not. The needles showed that it was clearly from the Fir family, the needles had white silvery undersides.
This narrows it down to the 10 species, perhaps silver fir?
We continued to process the timber, which had some of the best figure I’ve seen in a fir. But I was not content with Silver Fir. Then, on the final stage of processing, sending, as these boards were heated slightly, the aroma of citrus was strong, which is common for firs, but …an undertone of latex. This may have been from the slight spalting in the timber, but there is one species of Fir that is noted for a more chemical scent due to higher levels of pinene and myrcene, giving a latex smell. Now I would love to say I am the Sherlock Holmes of the timber world, but the truth is I looked that last bit up. But that is an important thing, I don’t know every wood but using all my scenes, summation of what I do know, and asking for help I can find the answer and know for next time, that this tree was a Grand Fir. So maybe not a hardwood tale this time, but a woody mystery solved.
