A guy at the lumber yard in Tacoma told me something about old growth fir

He was an older guy, maybe 80, picking through the shorts bin. He pointed at a piece I was about to cut and said, 'That grain tells you it grew slow, you know. They don't make 'em like that anymore.' It was just a quick thing, but it made me think about all the wood we use now. Do you ever think about how the material itself has changed?

2 comments

2 Comments

thea_mitchell202d ago

Oh man, that hits home. I was fixing up a floor in an old house and the new pine boards I bought felt like balsa wood next to the original stuff. The old growth was so dense, you could barely drive a nail without pre-drilling. Now I always check the end grain for those tight rings before I buy, even if it means digging through the pile. It makes a real difference.

thomas3462d ago

But is it really worth all that extra work? Most people just walk on floors, they don't study the rings. New wood gets the job done for way less money. Seen plenty of modern pine floors hold up just fine for decades. Feels like chasing a standard that doesn't matter anymore.