DOUGLAS FIR - COMMERCIAL WOOD Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) is an interesting timber because there is more of it than any other species in the United States, the greater proportion being in the northern Rocky Mountain and Pacific States. With the exception of redwood, Douglas fir trees are larger than any other in our forests; and they are capable of yielding timbers of practically any length and size desired.
The wood of Douglas fir is of medium weight, strength, stiffness, and toughness among the softwoods. It is used for the same general purposes as Southern yellow pine ; and specifications for structural timbers often carry the two woods on the same basis.
More than half of the total output of Douglas fir lumber goes into general building operations and heavy construction. The more important factory uses reported are indicated in Table 80.
Table 80 Factory Uses of Douglas Fir Purpose Per Cent Mill Work 87 Tanks and Silos 4 Car Construction 4 Ship and Boat Building 2 Pumps and Wood Pipe 1 Other Uses 2 Total 100 More specifically Douglas fir is used for: Boats (beams, cabins, decking, finish, frames, keelsons, knees, masts, planking, spars, stems), boxes, bridge timbers, broom handles, car construction, cement pipe jackets, columns, crates, crossarms, decoy ducks, dump cars, elevator equipment, and mission furniture, mirrors, spring frames, tables), fencing, fixtures (backs, counters, facings, shelves), furniture (book cases, cabinets, chairs, cots, couch frames, drawers, kitchen foundry flasks, gutters, hop baskets, interior work (casing, ceiling, finish, flooring, moulding, stair work, veneered doors, wainscoting), ladders, musical instruments, panels, patterns, paving blocks, pulleys, refrigerators, rug poles, saddles, sash and doors, silo and tank stock, slack and tight cooperage, surveyors' stakes, turnery, veneer, vehicles, washing machines, windmill parts, wood stave pipe.