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.
- Cultivé hors d’Europe et importé par des dépôts européens.
- Groupe botanique. Les résineux sont des conifères, les feuillus sont des arbres à feuilles larges.
- Famille botanique à laquelle appartient l’essence.
Être informé du prochain arrivageEssence de référence. Aucun plateau en stock pour le moment.
Convient-il à votre projet ?
Idéal pour
- Structural beams and exposed framing
- Tabletops
- Flooring
- Exterior joinery
- Shelving with long spans
Aucun plateau en Douglas Fir dans la sélection actuelle
Essences similaires en stock
Aucun plateau en Douglas Fir pour le moment. Ces essences conviennent aux mêmes projets et sont disponibles.
Soyez informé des arrivages en Douglas Fir
Nous vous envoyons un e-mail lorsque de nouveaux plateaux en Douglas Fir arrivent chez KORENA. Chaque plateau est unique, mieux vaut donc être prévenu rapidement.
Aspect du bois
Son aspect
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.
Travail du bois
Son travail en atelier
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.
Finition
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.
Séchage
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.
De combien va-t-il bouger ?
Le bois gonfle et se rétracte en largeur selon que l’air devient plus humide ou plus sec. Estimez le mouvement saisonnier d’un plateau en Douglas Fir avant de concevoir les fixations.
Mouvement saisonnier attendu
environ 8,3 mm
Fixez le plateau avec des taquets ou des équerres à trous oblongs, sans colle ni vis trop serrées.
Modèle de retrait linéaire : largeur × (retrait ÷ 28 % de point de saturation des fibres) × variation saisonnière d’humidité. Utilise un retrait tangentiel de 7,3 % pour le Douglas Fir. Il s’agit d’une estimation de conception, pas d’une garantie.
Son prix
Sécurité et origine
- Cultivé hors d’Europe et importé par des dépôts européens.
- Statut sur la Liste rouge de l’UICN : évaluation mondiale de la conservation de cette essence.
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.
Lire le guide completNotes détaillées sur la figure, l’évolution de la couleur, le travail et la stabilité.
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.
Questions des acheteurs
Questions fréquentes des acheteurs
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?
Propriétés mécaniques
Données techniques
Valeurs de référence publiées. Lorsque les sources divergent, la plage est indiquée et la valeur courante sert aux échelles ci-dessus.
| Densité (kg/m³)Masse par mètre cube à environ 12 % d’humidité. Un bois plus lourd est généralement plus dur et plus résistant. | 510 kg/m³ |
|---|---|
| Dureté Janka (N)Force nécessaire pour enfoncer à moitié une bille d’acier dans le bois. Mesure standard de la résistance à l’enfoncement. | 2,760 N |
| MOR : module de rupture (MPa)Résistance à la flexion : charge à laquelle une poutre casse. | 86 MPa |
| MOE : module d’élasticité (GPa)Rigidité en flexion : fléchissement d’une étagère ou d’un plateau sous une charge. | 12.2 GPa |
| Retrait radialRetrait perpendiculaire aux cernes, du bois vert au bois anhydre. Les planches sur quartier travaillent dans ce sens. | 4.5 % |
| Retrait tangentielRetrait dans le sens des cernes. Les planches sur dosse et la plupart des plateaux travaillent dans ce sens. |
