Is spruce a good wood for woodworking?
Most spruce is a low grade softwood used for framing lumber. It can work for simple (ie crude) projects that don’t need to be rot resistant. This can be a way to get into woodworking. The material is cheap and your lack of skills can add to the crude charm of the finished piece. It’s also soft and easy to work.
What furniture can be made from spruce?
Banisters, toe kicks, runners, and veneers can all be made from spruce wood as well. These pieces of furniture or accents generally don't get exposed to as much moisture, and since veneers are usually glued or otherwise secured to another structure, the spruce will be far less likely to warp or crack.
What does spruce wood look like?
Spruce is a light-colored wood that has a little variation between sapwood, heartwood. The knots and rings are also light and do not stand out. Spruce is white to yellow and sometimes has pink shades. Spruce wood has a straight-grained look with a smooth and silky texture. While the grain pattern is subtle, spruce may contain visible small knots.
What are the disadvantages of spruce wood?
The wood is resinous and has a smooth structural surface with a straight grain. Resistance from Weather: Spruce is generally durable, but it cannot handle moisture well. If not coated with preservatives, this wood can rot quickly. If left in its raw form, the wood decays in about two years. Natural spruce can splinter and break easily.
What are the disadvantages of spruce wood?
Spruce trees are prone to numerous needle, branch and root diseases, including spruce needle rust, needle blight, cytospora canker, root rot and the parasitic Eastern spruce dwarf mistletoe.
Is spruce wood durable?
It is quite capable of resisting rot and remains in top condition for a long time. For making round timber, red spruce is ideal. Similarly, Sitka or Silver Spruce have common use in construction of beams, joists, foundations, factories and cabins. The wood has a high durability, making it ideal for siding construction.
Is spruce better than pine?
For all structural applications, pine and spruce are interchangeable. This includes studs and beams, struts, braces and framing for shelf supports. Because spruce has a higher strength-to-weight ratio, it may have a slight advantage over pine for structural applications.
Which wood type is best for furniture?
Best woods for furnitureMaple Wood Furniture. Maple may be the ideal furniture wood. ... Mahogany Wood Furniture. One of the more traditional woods in furniture making, mahogany is a beautiful wood. ... Oak Wood Furniture. ... Cherry Wood Furniture. ... Pine Wood Furniture. ... Cedar Wood Furniture.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of spruce wood?
Pros and Cons of Spruce Wood As a SoftwoodProsConsLightweightPoor decay resistanceExcellent compressive and bending strengthPoor hardness and densityHigh flexibilityLess durabilityAttractive uniform textureLow weather resistance5 more rows
Is spruce good for indoor use?
Like other softwoods, spruce wood is susceptible to rot, cracking, splitting, and other water damage, so it is not advisable to use this type of wood for furniture that will be used outdoors or in damp locations indoors. Chairs, tables, bureaus, hutches, dressers, and even bed frames can be made using spruce wood.
Is spruce considered a hardwood?
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SOFTWOODS AND HARDWOODS They tend to keep their needles throughout the year. Softwoods are frequently used as building materials. Examples of softwood trees are cedar, Douglas fir, juniper, pine, redwood, spruce, and yew. Hardwood refers to wood from broad-leaved trees such as oak, ash or beech.
Does spruce wood rot?
Rot Resistance: The heartwood is rated as moderate to low in decay resistance. Workability: Overall, Spruce Pine works fairly well with most tools, though the resin can gum up tools and clog sandpaper. Spruce Pine glues and finishes well.
Is spruce easy to stain?
Spruce is an extremely accepting wood for coatings. Cabot Clear Solution, Australian Timber Oil, Semi-transparent, Semi-solid and PRO. V.T Solid Color Stain all work extremely well with spruce. Choose from Cabot's broad line of wood finishes to get just the appearance you want.
What is the cheapest wood for furniture?
Pound for pound, the cheapest wood to buy is maple. Poplar, Alder, white oak and beech are also quite inexpensive. Maple, specifically, is one of the most common woods among entry-level woodworkers and general-purpose woodworks because of its affordability and availability.
What wood does IKEA use?
All acacia we use comes from FSC certified plantations. Together with our suppliers, smallholder farmers and partners like WWF, IKEA ensures that acacia is grown in a way that is better for the environment and the local communities.
What is the most durable wood for furniture?
Teakwood is one of the hardest and most durable of all natural woods. It is resistant to rotting, sunlight, rain, frost, and snow, making it suitable for outdoor construction and furniture. However, it is expensive and sometimes hard to find. Color – Heartwood is golden or medium brown and darkens with age.
What is aircraft spruce used for?
It's also used for sound boards in other instruments. But all that's been said as it relates to furniture and building is pretty accurate. If you want a bit more info about where it is successfully used, check out Aircraft Spruce.
Can I use spruce for furniture?
Spruce can be used for decorative ceiling treatments or wall treatments but I would not use it for anything structural and certainly not furniture. It's too soft.#N#SPF woods (spruce, pine and fir) are all readily available from the big box stores. But spruce (like Hemlock) is too soft for most things.#N#I live in an area where a lot of yellow pine is sold. YP is much harder than Spruce or Hemlock. YP is also bad about twisting, bowing and dripping sap if not thoroughly dried.#N#Strength test:#N#If you take a length of Spruce and stomp it, it breaks.#N#Do the same stomp with Yellow Pine and you may break your foot.#N#I don't even want Spruce pickets for a privacy fence because it won't hold up as well as Cedar outdoors.
Is spruce furniture soft?
Spruce is just too soft to make furniture out of. You could do it but you would have to handle it very carefully. If you had a table you could just walk buy the table and throw your keys down on the table and leave a dent. Spruce is also difficult to finish if a stain is used. You would have to use a good wood conditioner and then use a dye stain to get the majority of the color and then use a oil stain to give it some warmth.
Spruce: Hardwood or softwood?
A Spruce tree is a softwood. Spruce trees have a great capacity for drying out. Spruces have a high fuel value, which means they burn up very readily and quickly while producing warmth and light. Spruces also produce a good deal of heat while burning.
Spruce BTU's
Because spruce trees are part of the pine family most of them don't burn extremely hot. There are a few that have a fairly high heat output. Most spruce trees produce between 14 and 16 million btu per cord.
Burning spruce as firewood
Most spruce is not very dense when it is dry. This makes spruce burn fast. It also makes it tend to smoke some. If it is dried really good then it won't smoke much.
Cost
Spruce firewood cost between $250 and $400 per cord. If you can't pick the spruce up, you will have to pay a delivery fee on top of the price per cord.
Where is Spruce Good to burn
Spruce is best burned in a campfire and fire pit. You can burn it in a stove or fireplace, but be sure it is very dry.
Spruce smell
Spruce puts off a slight odor when it is burned. If it seasoned well, it doesn't smell much. Some people feel that it stinks a lot when they burn spruce. The smell will vary depending on which type of spruce you are burning. White spruce seems to be the one that many people report as stinking.
Spruce smoke
Spruce will smoke and even smolder if it is not dry enough. Let the wood dry thoroughly before burning it and you won't have a big smoke issue.
What is a spruce tree?
A spruce is technically any tree that falls within the genus Picea. This genus contains just over three dozen species of coniferous evergreen trees. These trees are often used as building lumber. It can be used for general construction as well as for more specialized use, such as in wooden aircraft construction.
How much heat does Sitka spruce produce?
Sitka spruce has a heat content of 21.7 million BTUs per cord. This is about average when compared to other softwoods though not nearly as high as the best-burning hardwood species (live oak has a heat content of 36.6 million BTUs per cord). Of all the spruce species, Sitka is perhaps the best in terms of the heat it produces .
Is spruce firewood easy to burn?
Spruce firewood is relatively easy to split and burns quickly. It has a relatively low BTU but, since spruce is readily available, it’s not a bad choice when it comes to looking for wood to burn. If you’re thinking about burning spruce firewood, you may want to wait until the spring or fall to do so. Both make heat control easier, ...
Can you use spruce in a fireplace?
Spruce might not be the most popular when it comes to firewood, but that’s not to say that you can’t use it in your fireplace or wood stove. It is a low-density softwood that has a tendency to produce lots of creosote inside of your chimney. However, when allowed to season and age properly, it shouldn't present any major problems - at least, ...
Can spruce trees split?
Those knotty sections can be super tough to split! Look for sections lower on the trunk as they tend to split better. Some people find that spruce trees tend to have more limbs and nubs to contend with during the cutting and splitting process, but this really does vary.
Does spruce give off smoke?
Of all the spruce species, Sitka is perhaps the best in terms of the heat it produces . Spruce does throw some sparks, as mentioned, but it doesn’t give off heavy smoke. This is surprising, given the fact that it can be loaded with sap. You won’t have to worry about it fogging you out of your home though!
Is spruce good for burning?
However it’s easy to burn and easy to split, so it offers a good compromise - especially if you have lots of spruce growing on your property or otherwise available to you . Another benefit of spruce is that it doesn’t throw off a heavy aroma.
