Abies alba

Silver Fir

Spruce without the resin. The softest species in the KORENA catalogue, and the best softwood here for a painted finish.

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Passar det ditt projekt?

Passar bra för

Wall and ceiling panelling
Painted furniture
Lightweight carcass work
Shelving
Interior joinery

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Få besked om Silver Fir

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Träets utseende

Så ser det ut

Very close to Norway Spruce in appearance and routinely sold interchangeably with it. Silver Fir is a shade duller and greyer, entirely without the resin pockets that mark spruce, because the species has no resin canals in its wood. Grain is straight, texture fine and even, and the overall impression is flatter and quieter than spruce.

Near white to pale grey-brown, duller than spruce
No visible heartwood boundary
No resin pockets, the clearest way to tell it from spruce
Pale, straight grain; almost no resin canals.

Bearbetning

Så bearbetas det

Generally easy with both hand and machine tools, and it glues, stains and finishes better than spruce because the absence of resin canals makes absorption more even. The same softness caveat applies: sharp cutters are essential or the earlywood crushes and fuzzes. It holds detail poorly under carving tools, so it is not a carving wood despite being soft.

Ytbehandling

Takes stain and finish noticeably better than spruce, though it is still a softwood with uneven density and a conditioner remains sensible before pigment stain. It is one of the better softwood choices for a painted finish, since the fine even texture needs little grain filling. Clear finishes leave it looking pale and slightly cool.

Torkning

Dries readily and without much degrade, and because there are no resin canals there is no resin bleed to manage, which is a genuine advantage over spruce in thick sections. Wet pockets of bacterially infected wood, sometimes called wetwood, occur in older trees and dry slowly and unevenly. A yard that has kilned the stock properly will have caught these. Movement in service is moderate at around 12.8 percent volumetric.

Hur mycket kommer det att röra sig?

Trä sväller och krymper över bredden när luften blir fuktigare och torrare. Beräkna årstidsrörelsen hos en skiva i Silver Fir innan du utformar infästningarna.

Skivans bredd800 mm

Sågsätt

Miljön där den ska stå

Förväntad årstidsrörelse

cirka 9,9 mm

Fäst skivan med sargar eller beslag med spår, inte med lim eller hårt åtdragna skruvar.

Linjär krympningsmodell: bredd × (krympning ÷ 28 % fibermättnad) × årstidsvariation i fuktkvot. Använder 8,7 % tangentiell krympning för Silver Fir. Ett planeringsvärde, inte en garanti.

Vad det kostar

Säkerhet och inköp

Species in the Abies genus have been reported to cause skin irritation, though severe reactions are uncommon. Standard dust extraction and a P2 mask for extended machining cover it.

Läs hela guidenFördjupning om ådring, färgförändring, bearbetning och stabilitet.

What Silver Fir actually is#

Abies alba is the tree most people have looked at without knowing it. It is a major component of central European mountain forest, it is the traditional Christmas tree across much of the continent, and its timber is sold through the trade as whitewood alongside Norway Spruce with little distinction drawn between them. For most construction purposes that conflation is harmless. For slab work it is worth separating, because the one structural difference between the two species changes how the wood behaves.

Silver Fir has no resin canals. Spruce does. Everything that follows from that, the absence of resin pockets, the cleaner behaviour under paint, the more even stain absorption, the lack of bleed in thick sections, is the reason to choose fir over spruce rather than treat them as the same board.

Reading a Silver Fir slab#

Colour range is narrow: near white through to a pale grey-brown, with no heartwood boundary to speak of. Against spruce it reads flatter and cooler, a fraction duller, and without the amber flecking that gives spruce its visual interest.

Because colour gives you so little, judge the slab on ring structure and defects. Tight rings from slow mountain growth mean a denser, stiffer, more stable board. Knots are the usual limiting factor, and fir knots are somewhat less hard and less prone to tear-out than spruce knots, which makes them slightly easier to machine through when you have no choice.

The specific thing to look for is wetwood, a bacterially affected zone carrying abnormally high moisture that occurs in some older trees. It dries slowly and unevenly and can leave a localised darker stain or a collapsed area. Properly dried stock has already revealed any of it. Since every KORENA slab carries a measured moisture value rather than an assurance, an unevenly dried board shows up in the data.

Köparnas frågor

Frågor som köpare ställer

How do I tell Silver Fir from Norway Spruce?

Look for resin pockets. Spruce has resin canals and shows amber pockets and streaks; Silver Fir has none at all, so a clean pale board with no resin marks is almost certainly fir. Fir also reads slightly greyer and duller. The two are close enough that they are frequently sold interchangeably as whitewood.

Is Silver Fir better than spruce for painted work?

Yes, generally. The fine even texture needs little grain filling and the absence of resin canals means no bleed-through under paint. Spruce resin pockets can telegraph through a painted finish months later unless sealed with shellac first.

Can I use Silver Fir outdoors?

Not untreated. It is rated non-durable to perishable with little resistance to insect attack, which is the lowest durability in this group. European larch or Douglas fir are the appropriate choices for exposure.

Is it hard enough for a desk top?

At 1,420 N Janka it is the softest species KORENA lists, softer even than spruce. A desk top in fir will mark under a pen pressed through paper. It works for a light-use surface finished in a refreshable hardwax oil, but for daily writing use a harder species.

Mekaniska egenskaper

Tekniska data

Publicerade referensvärden. När källorna skiljer sig åt visas intervallet och det typiska värdet används i skalorna ovan.

Densitet (kg/m³)	415 kg/m³
Janka-hårdhet (N)	1,420 N
MOR: böjhållfasthet (MPa)	66 MPa
MOE: elasticitetsmodul (GPa)	8.3 GPa
Radiell krympning	4.0 %
Tangentiell krympning	8.7 %

Abies alba grows through the mountain systems of central and southern Europe, from the Pyrenees across the Alps to the Carpathians and the Balkans. Most slab stock comes from managed mixed forests where it grows alongside beech and spruce, and EU certification coverage is good.

Not listed in the CITES Appendices and assessed by the IUCN as Least Concern. Silver Fir declined across parts of its range during the twentieth century from air pollution and heavy browsing pressure, and it is now recovering under managed forestry. Certified supply is readily available.

Fir works easily with hand and machine tools, and it glues, stains and finishes better than spruce for the reason given above. The softness caveat that governs all of this group still applies, and applies here hardest, because at 1,420 N on the Janka scale Silver Fir is the softest wood KORENA lists.

Sharp cutters are not optional. A dull plane iron will crush the earlywood rather than cut it, and the crushed fibres lift when finish goes on. Light cuts and a card scraper produce a far better surface than heavy cuts and sandpaper. Stop sanding at 180 grit.

One thing fir does not do well is hold carved detail. Softness suggests it should be a carving wood, but the fibre is stringy rather than crisp and fine detail tears out at the edges. Small-leaved lime is the species in the KORENA catalogue built for that job.

Gluing is reliable with moderate clamping pressure. Screws hold adequately with pilot holes and coarse threads, though as with all light softwoods, through-bolts and washers are better wherever the load is real.

Drying and movement#

Fir dries readily and without much degrade. The absence of resin canals is a practical advantage in thick sections, because there is no resin to bleed when a slab warms in sunlight or over underfloor heating. Spruce in the same position may weep at the pockets years after finishing.

Volumetric shrinkage sits around 12.8 percent, close to spruce, with tangential movement at 8.7 percent against 4.0 percent radial. That ratio, better than two to one, means flatsawn boards want to cup as humidity swings. Quartersawn stock is meaningfully more stable and worth paying for in a wide top.

Let a slab acclimatise in its final room for a couple of weeks before final flattening. This matters more for softwoods than hardwoods because the movement is faster.

Where Silver Fir is the right answer#

Painted work is where fir clearly beats the alternatives here. The fine even texture needs almost no grain filling, and with no resin canals there is nothing to telegraph through the paint film later. A painted fir carcass will still look right in ten years, where a painted spruce one may show resin ghosting at the pockets.

It also suits wall and ceiling panelling, lightweight carcass work, and shelving where the span is short or supported. Its stiffness to weight ratio is decent, but at this density long unsupported shelves will sag.

It is the wrong answer for any working surface that must resist marking, for anything outdoors, and for carving.

Not CITES listed and assessed as Least Concern. Silver Fir declined across parts of its range through the twentieth century under air pollution and heavy deer browsing, and current populations are recovering under active management. Certified supply from Alpine and Carpathian sources is readily available, and the documentation path for EUDR is the same short one that applies to the other managed European conifers in this catalogue.

What is wetwood and does it matter?

Wetwood is a bacterially affected zone of abnormally high moisture found in some older firs. It dries slowly and unevenly and can leave localised staining or collapse. Properly kilned stock will have revealed it already. Every KORENA slab carries a measured moisture reading, so a slab that dried unevenly is visible in the data rather than a surprise at the bench.

Naturlig beständighet (EN 350)	Class 5 — Perishable

Källor

The Wood Database — European Silver Fir (Abies alba)(hämtad 2026-08-12)
USDA FPL Wood Handbook FPL-GTR-190 (2010)(hämtad 2026-08-12)
Meier, E. — WOOD! Identifying and Using Hundreds of Woods Worldwide (2015)(hämtad 2026-08-12)

Tänk på

Tryck på en etikett för mer information.

I korthet

HårdhetMjukt

Janka: 1 420 N

71 % mjukare än europeisk ek

ViktMycket lätt

415 kg/m³

StabilitetGenomsnittligt

12,8 % volymkrympning

BearbetningMåttligt

3,9 / 5 i genomsnitt vid bänken

UtomhusbrukEndast inomhus

EN 350 klass 5

Vad virke i Silver Fir säljs för i Europa just nu, per kubikmeter före moms. Tryck på ett pris för mer information.

Vanliga stockar per land

Varför kostar en planka mer än detta?

Detta är priser på råvirke. En planka är det bästa snittet ur en stock, torkat i minst ett år och därefter kontrollerat och uppmätt planka för planka. Bara en liten del av varje stock blir en planka.

Källa: KORENA Timber Index · Senaste uppgifter 24 sep. 2026

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