Pseudotsuga menziesii
Douglas Fir
Not a fir, and the stiffest softwood KORENA lists. Bold orange ring figure, structural strength, and a splinter you do not want to ignore.
- Cultivada fuera de Europa e importada a través de almacenes europeos.
- Grupo botánico. Las maderas blandas proceden de coníferas y las duras, de árboles frondosos.
- Familia botánica a la que pertenece la especie.
Avísame cuando llegueEspecie de referencia. Ahora mismo no hay piezas en stock.
¿Es adecuada para tu proyecto?
Ideal para
- Structural beams and exposed framing
- Tabletops
- Flooring
- Exterior joinery
- Shelving with long spans
No hay Douglas Fir en la selección actual
Especies similares en stock
Ahora mismo no hay Douglas Fir. Estas especies sirven para los mismos proyectos y tienen piezas disponibles.
Recibe avisos sobre Douglas Fir
Te enviamos un correo cuando lleguen a KORENA nuevas tablas de Douglas Fir. Cada pieza es única, por lo que conviene enterarse pronto.
Aspecto de la madera
Qué aspecto tiene
Warm reddish tan to light brown heartwood with a distinctly orange cast, against pale sapwood. The ring figure is bold and high contrast because the latewood bands are dense and dark, giving flatsawn faces a strong flame pattern. It is one of the stiffest softwoods available, which is why it dominates structural engineered timber.
- Reddish tan to light brown with a warm orange cast
- Bold high contrast growth ring figure
- Pale narrow sapwood, deepens with light exposure
- Straight grain with bold, high-contrast growth rings from dense dark latewood. Reddish tan to light brown with a warm orange cast against pale sapwood.
Cómo trabajarla
Cómo trabajarla
Machines well but has a moderate blunting effect on cutters, noticeably more than spruce or pine. It accepts stains, glues and finishes well. The dense latewood bands are the machining challenge: they are much harder than the earlywood between them and can tear out where grain rises, leaving a ridged surface. Sharp tooling and light finishing cuts matter, and a helical head is a real advantage.
Acabado
Takes oil and clear finishes well and the colour deepens attractively toward a richer red brown. Like all species with strong density contrast between earlywood and latewood, it blotches under pigment stain, so a conditioner or dye is the safer route. Its natural colour is warm enough that most makers leave it clear.
Secado
Dries reasonably well but is prone to surface checking in thick sections if pushed, and European grown fast ring stock is more troublesome than slow grown material. Volumetric shrinkage at around 11.6 percent is the lowest in this group, which combined with a favourable tangential to radial ratio makes properly dried Douglas Fir one of the more stable softwoods in service.
¿Cuánto se moverá?
La madera se hincha y se contrae a lo ancho cuando el aire gana o pierde humedad. Calcula el movimiento estacional de un tablero de Douglas Fir antes de diseñar las fijaciones.
Movimiento estacional previsto
unos 8,3 mm
Fija el tablero con lengüetas o soportes ranurados, no con cola ni tornillos apretados.
Modelo de contracción lineal: ancho × (contracción ÷ 28 % de saturación de la fibra) × variación estacional de humedad. Usa una contracción tangencial del 7,3 % para Douglas Fir. Es una estimación para planificar, no una garantía.
Cuánto cuesta
Seguridad y abastecimiento
- Cultivada fuera de Europa e importada a través de almacenes europeos.
- Estado en la Lista Roja de la UICN: evaluación mundial de conservación de esta especie.
Reported to cause skin irritation, nausea, giddiness and runny nose, along with an increased likelihood of splinters becoming infected. That last point is worth taking seriously: Douglas Fir splinters are notorious for going septic. Gloves when handling rough stock and proper extraction during machining are advisable.
Leer la guía completaNotas detalladas sobre el dibujo, el cambio de color, el trabajo y la estabilidad.
What Douglas Fir actually is#
Pseudotsuga menziesii is not a fir. It sits in its own genus, separate from the true firs of Abies, and the name is a historical accident that never got corrected. The distinction is not pedantry. Silver Fir is the softest wood in this catalogue at 1,420 N Janka; Douglas Fir is nearly twice as hard at 2,760 N, considerably stiffer, more durable, and much harder on cutting edges. Expecting one to behave like the other leads to bad decisions.
It is native to western North America and has been planted across Europe since the nineteenth century. That matters when buying, because European plantation stock and North American old growth are the same species performing quite differently.
Reading a Douglas Fir slab#
The colour is the immediate draw: a warm reddish tan with an orange cast that deepens under light toward a richer red brown. Against the pale narrow sapwood the contrast is clean.
The ring figure is the real signature. Douglas Fir lays down dense dark latewood bands against much softer earlywood, and on a flatsawn face that produces a bold flame pattern with high contrast, closer to a ring-porous hardwood than to the quiet figure of spruce.
That same contrast is what you must read for quality. Ring spacing separates slow grown material, with a high proportion of dense latewood, from fast grown European plantation stock with wide soft earlywood bands. The slow grown board is stronger, more durable and more attractive. The fast grown one is neither wrong nor a bargain, it is simply a different material, and for structural or exterior work the difference is not cosmetic.
Preguntas de compradores
Preguntas de compradores
Is Douglas Fir actually a fir?
No. Pseudotsuga menziesii is its own genus, distinct from the true firs in Abies such as Silver Fir. The name is a historical misnomer that stuck. The practical consequence is that it behaves nothing like Silver Fir: it is far stiffer, harder, more durable and considerably more difficult on cutting edges.
How stiff is it compared to other softwoods?
Its elastic modulus is 12.17 GPa, the highest of any softwood KORENA lists and above European Larch at 11.80 GPa. Stiffness is why it dominates structural glulam and why it is the right choice for a long shelf or an unsupported span where deflection matters more than hardness.
Can I use it outdoors?
It is rated moderately durable regarding decay but is susceptible to insect attack, so it sits below European Larch for exterior work. It performs well in protected exterior joinery such as windows and doors under a maintained finish. For unprotected decking or ground contact, larch is the better choice from this group.
Why do Douglas Fir splinters get infected so often?
Propiedades mecánicas
Datos técnicos
Valores de referencia publicados. Cuando las fuentes discrepan, se muestra el intervalo y se usa el valor habitual en las escalas anteriores.
| Densidad (kg/m³)Masa por metro cúbico con aproximadamente un 12 % de humedad. La madera más pesada suele ser más dura y resistente. | 510 kg/m³ |
|---|---|
| Dureza Janka (N)Fuerza necesaria para hundir una bola de acero hasta la mitad en la madera. Es la medida estándar de resistencia a las abolladuras. | 2,760 N |
| MOR: módulo de rotura (MPa)Resistencia a la flexión: la carga a la que se rompe una viga. | 86 MPa |
| MOE: módulo de elasticidad (GPa)Rigidez a la flexión: cuánto se comba un estante o tablero bajo carga. | 12.2 GPa |
| Contracción radialContracción perpendicular a los anillos de crecimiento, desde verde hasta completamente seca. Es la que afecta a las tablas aserradas radialmente. | 4.5 % |
| Contracción tangencialContracción paralela a los anillos de crecimiento. Es la que afecta a las tablas de aserrado tangencial y a la mayoría de las tablas. |
