# Wood supply
**URL:** http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220
**Category:** General Discussion
**Created:** [February 29, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220 "2012-02-29T12:43:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 44
### Author:  [@mggibb](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/mggibb)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2017, 2:02am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/861 "2017-01-15T02:02:17Z")
Phew, 2 1/2 cords split and stacked is a nice warm feeling
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### Author:  [@taitgarry00](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/taitgarry00)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2017, 5:09am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/862 "2017-01-15T05:09:56Z")
> [@JO\_Olsson](#):
>
> If they are free of nots and no bark it’s sometimes hard to tell if a board is pine or spruce.
The pine you will be referring to must be “Scotch”, or “Riga” pine. (Picea pungens) It is introduced here and grows quite well, but it’s the softest pine I have seen. Most pines are more dense and have more resin in the wood, more like larch (tamarack). Pine tends to plane beautifully, but be careful of splinters running a hand along the board, unlike spruce. 🙂 The scent of the wood distinguishes too.
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### Author:  [@JO\_Olsson](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/JO_Olsson)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2017, 10:53am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/863 "2017-01-15T10:53:06Z")
Hm… This is a lot trickier than I thought.
> [@taitgarry00](#):
>
> The pine you will be referring to must be “Scotch”, or “Riga” pine. (Picea pungens)
After some research I found out our pine is “Pinus sylvestris” (maybe same as yours?). It’s rather dence and rich on tar. Also used for powerline poles and railway tracks due to it’s weather resistance. In a smaller scale I know the North American “Pinus contorta” has been introduced, but I’m not sure how well that turned out.
Just for the record, our spruce is “Picea abies”.
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### Author:  [@DanNH](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/DanNH)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2017, 11:59am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/864 "2017-01-15T11:59:02Z")
I guess my knowledge on pines is pretty limited seems the two types I know of are very regional to the north eastern corner on North America.
What I know as white pine or just pine are very soft and use for old pine floors or sawed into boards.
> **[Pinus strobus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_strobus)**
>
> Pinus strobus, commonly called the eastern white pine, northern white pine, white pine, Weymouth pine (British), and soft pine is a large pine native to eastern North America. It occurs from Newfoundland, Canada west through the Great Lakes region to southeastern Manitoba and Minnesota, United States, and south along the Appalachian Mountains and upper Piedmont to northernmost Georgia and perhaps very rarely in some of the higher elevations in northeastern Alabama. It is considered rare in The...
We also have a harder pine that isn’t very common on my property but there are some. Norway pine or red pine. Which is hard enough for structural timbers. I had no idea that these where do regional.
> **[Pinus resinosa](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_resinosa)**
>
> Pinus resinosa, known as red pine (also Norway pine in Minnesota), is a pine native to North America. It occurs from Newfoundland west to Manitoba, and south to Pennsylvania, with several smaller, disjunct populations occurring in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and West Virginia, as well as a few small pockets in extreme northern New Jersey and northern Illinois.
> The red pine is Minnesota's state tree. In Minnesota the use of the name "Norway" may stem from early Scandinavian immigrants...
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### Author:  [@taitgarry00](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/taitgarry00)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2017, 3:58pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/865 "2017-01-15T15:58:20Z")
> [@JO\_Olsson](#):
>
> After some research I found out our pine is “Pinus sylvestris” (maybe same as yours?).
Yes Jo, my mistake, typing from memory when tired. Picea are spruce, pinus pine. Sorry for that careless information. I had cited what is actually Colorado blue spruce. Yes, pinus sylvestris, and the shorter more contorted variant have been planted extensively here for landscaping and shelter belts, and are now going wild. Once established they grow very well. But typical of fast growing trees the wood is fairly soft.
Regards,
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### Author:  [@kmrland](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/kmrland)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2017, 4:48pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/866 "2017-01-15T16:48:05Z")
We have both soft needles and the sharp picky pines, they seem too grow well in my sand yard 3.7 accers. Up too when they slow down growing and get the drought bugs/aints.
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### Author:  [@taitgarry00](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/taitgarry00)
#### Post date: [January 15, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/867 "2017-01-15T16:55:43Z")
Our native pine here is jack pine, (pinus banksiana). It’s a denser and more resinous wood. It has the interesting characteristic that it needs fire to open the cones. As a result it’s found in areas prone to burning.
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### Author:  [@Strawman](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Strawman)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2017, 5:33am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/868 "2017-01-16T05:33:58Z")
Quite a few Norway Spruce in my area. I have two great big ones in my front yard. Those big monster cones dropping some years probably adds up to a cord of “wood” between the two of them! You want to stay clear when I’m mowing out front, they’re always dropping off, and I’ve noticed cone chunks on my porch roof😄!
[ ](https://wildaboututah.org/images/kervin-norway-spruce-cones.jpg)
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### Author:  [@KristijanL](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/KristijanL)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2017, 3:18pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/869 "2017-01-21T15:18:29Z")
There are over 200 sorts of spruce, l have seen at least 5 native for our place (central Europe)
As for pine/spruce/fir diyng, looks like its a global thing. Happens here a lot too.
Althugh the biggest enemy of all is a bug that grows under the bark, eating the cambio layr thus makeing the tree to dye. Its an epidemic here.
When it comes to trees with needles, l only saw you guys talk about pine, spruce and fir. What about larch (larix)?
This is considered premium outside wood, with lots of tannin to make it rotproof. It has a red collored wood, similar to nahagony.
As far as l know, its allso the only needle tree that looses its needles in the winter.
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### Author:  [@TomC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/TomC)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2017, 4:24pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/870 "2017-01-21T16:24:19Z")
I have one in my yard, but we call it “Tamarack” here. It normally grows in low lands and I was told it would not grow in my yard — it is now about 20 feet tall. TomC
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### Author:  [@dbaillie](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/dbaillie)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/871 "2017-01-21T16:31:14Z")
Lots of tamarack/larch around here only problem is it hits about 20 or 30 yrs and is infected with a beetle that kills it. We have lots on our 10 acres they make great firewood and as you said are very Rot resistant. They are prone to twisting as lumber though.
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### Author:  [@taitgarry00](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/taitgarry00)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/872 "2017-01-21T19:34:59Z")
I love larch / tamarack. Probably the best wood in the north for fence post and rails. Almost always perfectly straight, small branches that self prune in dense stands. The smell and colour of the wood are quite attractive. The corkscrew grain can be an issue, but I’ve observed that some populations can be fairly straight, one tree I saw had spiral grain like a Damascus welded gun barrel. European larch (Siberian larch) is better suited for dry land and warmer conditions and was introduced here to good effect by a government agency for shelter belt planting.
Regarding the many comments of members about observing conifer die off around the world, I fear that the underlying cause is climate change. Tree populations are stressed, probably due to many factors, too high summer temperatures, too inconsistent winter temperatures, problems with drought or excessive rain, the appearance of non native disease agents and insects. Lodgepole pine has experienced widespread die off in the Canadian Rockies. The official story has been to blame the mountain pine beetle, but the beetles only attack trees in trouble, so in a healthy forest they maintain health by removing sick trees. Now entire forests are sick. The future isn’t looking good, I fear that optimal forest zones are experiencing drastic climatic dislocation. If a new stability can be achieved it will take active stewardship and a forest generation of regrowth.
Regards,
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### Author:  [@Chris](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Chris)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/873 "2017-01-23T14:08:05Z")
8 posts were split to a new topic: [On climate change](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/on-climate-change/2993)
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### Author:  [@Carl](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Carl)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 4:39pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/874 "2017-01-23T16:39:56Z")
Something new? And dangerous?
[https://www.facebook.com/RocketStoveScience/videos/1039398979505864/](https://www.facebook.com/RocketStoveScience/videos/1039398979505864/)
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### Author:  [@madflower69](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/madflower69)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 5:14pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/875 "2017-01-23T17:14:31Z")
It is new to me. It is neat idea! probably dangerous because if you trip and fall towards the bar it is going to accelerate.
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### Author:  [@DanNH](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/DanNH)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/876 "2017-01-23T18:39:20Z")
I would much rather have one of the old cord wood saws where you tip the table and the wood passes into the blade. I have used those a few times and they work great
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### Author:  [@mggibb](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/mggibb)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 3:52am UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/877 "2017-02-08T03:52:50Z")
We had a 8" snowfall which probably does not sound like much to some of the Northern folks but is paralyzingly in the Seattle area.
Last time we had more than 2" was 5 years ago.
Beautiful but one of my yard trees could not take the 8" of snow followed by 1/2" of freezing rain.
So more firewood and limbs to convert to wood chunks.
`
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### Author:  [@DanNH](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/DanNH)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/878 "2017-02-08T22:08:11Z")
Be safe cleaning up that mess. Trees with all that weight on them can do unexpected things as they shake and the weight comes off. We had about 6 inches of snow and ended in ice here in NH stopped raining late morning. I just finished cleaning out everything myself. And we have another storm just like it comming tomorrow. I hate it when a storm ends in freezing rain that is the most dangerous stuff you can have.
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### Author:  [@mggibb](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/mggibb)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/879 "2017-02-08T23:24:04Z")
About 10 years ago we had a rare freezing rain that put 3/4" of clear ice on everything
It sounded like the 4th of July due to the tree tops and limbs breaking.
Unfortunately all of those lovely limbs went into large bonfires!
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### Author:  [@Bobmac](http://forum.driveonwood.com/u/Bobmac)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](http://forum.driveonwood.com/t/wood-supply/220/880 "2017-02-08T23:37:53Z")
Wow Michael, that is alot of snow for your area. We have been getting the same , but it just keeps coming day after day, if it keeps it up, we are going to have record breaking total snow fall on the ground for the East Wenatchee area. It makes it impossible to drive on wood with my two wheel drive, which really means one wheel turning to make the truck go down the road. If the truck was a 4×4 there would be no problem. The snow is just to deep around my place now.
Hope you can shovel out soon.
Bob
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