Douglas Fir with pink grain

Dougf

Dougf

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I cut down a douglas fir on my property in the foothills that died last year, perhaps a victim of the drought. After splitting one of the rounds, I noticed some pinkish stain on some of the pieces at the transition from heartwood to sapwood. It will be interesting to see if it stays pink after a bit of seasoning, might make for some pretty soundboards.

pink stain.jpg
 

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Is it purely coincidental your username is DougF?
 
Recstar24 said:
Is it purely coincidental your username is DougF?
Click to expand...

I was kind of thinking the same thing -- my username is just my real name, but who knows.

weerpool said:
doug, i live 1.5 hrs away from you i'd love top buy a soprano set from you
Click to expand...

I'd be glad to send you a set for the cost of postage, but let's wait and see if it darkens with age. If it stays pink, I'll let you know.
 
The name says it all. It was meant to be Doug... I too live in Doug Fir country and I have also seen the occasional pink streaks in my firewood. I have no idea whether it will fade however so no help there. Never made a soundboard out of doug fir but I hear it makes a fine tone wood. I suspect however that the pink streaks will fade a bit over time as it is exposed to light. Kind of like cocobolo which looks great on my newest uke but I have no illusions of how it will look in 10 years. A cross between chocolate pudding and mud maybe?. Hey I say, live for the moment and appreciate the beauty of the now... Good luck Doug and send pictures.
 
How long do you Cure it for Doug if it's such a small log?
A year 2 maybe before it's usable??
 
There is a fungus which attacks box elder and stains it bright red. The red stain is very permanent, even in the presence of sunlight. If the pink stain was caused by a fungus (as opposed to some tree deposition), who knows.
 
ukuloonie said:
How long do you Cure it for Doug if it's such a small log?
A year 2 maybe before it's usable??
Click to expand...

It's pretty dry here this time of year, I'll probably try resawing some in a couple of weeks. The resulting pieces might be dry enough to use within a few weeks after that.

weerpool said:
thank you Doug!!!!!
Click to expand...

Sure, I'll keep you posted.
 
they say that color streaks in wood are mineral staining, who knows. pink tone does run in doug fir and that band looks like actual wood color rather than streaking. i would take a guess that the color holds up over time under e.g. nitrocellulose lacquer. maybe the entire enhanced pink band is as a result of minerals. the real question is how a fir soundboard plays. i have a preference toward more durable species and would choose doug fir over cedar. nothing like native wood.
 
update

Almost ready to string it up, maybe just a couple more coats of tru-oil.

The sap wood had quite a few pecky holes that I tried to work around by strategic placement of the sound hole and bridge, but I couldn't hide them all. The big ones I tried filling with the turquoise sand that I used for the rosette, the small ones on the other side of the bridge I just filled with ca glue.

Next time I think I'll just cut out the sap wood altogether.

pinkgrain.jpgdetail.jpg
 
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