048 Balsam Fir - A True Fir of the Northeast

Know Your Woods Series

After looking at Douglas-fir, there is another fir that deserves a place in our Know Your Woods series — especially for those of us interested in the forests and woodworking history of the Northeast.

Balsam fir is a true fir.

Unlike Douglas-fir, which belongs to the genus Pseudotsuga, balsam fir belongs to Abies, the genus containing the true firs.

Its scientific name is Abies balsamea.

It is a beautiful, wonderfully fragrant tree that many people know from Christmas trees and wreaths. But balsam fir is also a lumber tree, a pulpwood species, an important part of northern forests, and another wood worth learning to recognize.

Where Does Balsam Fir Grow?

Balsam fir is very much a tree of the North.

Its natural range extends across a huge portion of eastern and central Canada and into the northern United States.

In the United States it occurs through northern portions of the Great Lakes states, New York, New England, and into Pennsylvania. Scattered populations extend farther south into mountainous portions of the Appalachians.

Balsam fir particularly favors cool, moist environments.

That is why it becomes increasingly associated with northern forests and higher elevations as we travel through the Northeast.

How Prevalent Is Balsam Fir?

This is an important question because a tree can be native to an area without necessarily being one of its most common trees.

Across the northern part of its range, balsam fir can be extremely abundant. It is an important component of the great spruce-fir forests extending across Canada and the northern United States.

It commonly grows with red spruce, white spruce, black spruce, paper birch, aspen, northern white cedar, eastern hemlock, and other northern species.

In some locations balsam fir occurs in nearly pure stands.

In others it is scattered throughout mixed forests.

In the Adirondack Mountains of New York, balsam fir becomes especially noticeable as elevation increases. On high mountain slopes it can become one of the dominant trees.

As we move south toward Pennsylvania, however, balsam fir approaches the southern portion of its primary natural range. It is therefore quite different from trees such as red maple, white oak, or eastern white pine that can be encountered throughout enormous portions of the region.

So when thinking about historic woodworking, we need to ask two separate questions:

Did the tree naturally grow in the region?

and

Was the wood plentiful enough locally to become a common building material?

Those are not always the same thing.

Recognizing the Tree

Balsam fir is an evergreen conifer with relatively short, flat needles.

The needles are generally dark green above and often show pale whitish bands underneath.

One of the easiest ways to distinguish a true fir from many other conifers is to look at its cones.

Fir cones stand upright on the branches.

This contrasts with spruce cones, which normally hang downward.

As balsam fir cones mature, they break apart while still attached to the tree rather than falling intact like many pine and spruce cones.

That Wonderful Balsam Smell

For many people, balsam fir is recognized by smell before anything else.

The needles and twigs have the familiar resinous fragrance associated with traditional Christmas trees and wreaths.

The bark contains small resin-filled blisters. The aromatic resin from these blisters is the source of the name balsam.

Historically, balsam resin even found specialized uses in optical work and in preparing microscope specimens.

What Does Balsam Fir Wood Look Like?

Balsam fir wood is generally light in color.

The wood ranges from creamy white to pale brown, and there is usually little dramatic difference between the heartwood and sapwood.

The grain is generally straight and the texture relatively even.

Compared with a strongly grained wood such as Douglas-fir or southern yellow pine, balsam fir can look rather quiet and understated.

A Lightweight Wood

One of the most noticeable characteristics of balsam fir lumber is its low weight.

It is a relatively soft, lightweight wood.

That makes boards easier to lift, carry, saw, and nail than many heavier construction woods.

Its light weight helped make it useful for applications where tremendous strength was not required.

Working With Balsam Fir

Balsam fir is generally easy to cut and machine, although its softness means sharp tools are important when a clean surface is desired.

Dull cutters can crush or tear fibers instead of slicing them cleanly.

Because the wood is relatively soft, fasteners can also pull through or loosen more easily than they would in harder woods.

It is not a wood normally selected when exceptional hardness, wear resistance, or shock resistance is required.

What Was Balsam Fir Used For?

Balsam fir has been used primarily for products where its light weight and availability were more important than extreme strength or decay resistance.

Common uses have included:

• Pulp and paper
• Light framing lumber
• Crates and boxes
• Paneling
• Cabin logs
• General utility lumber
• Christmas trees
• Wreaths and decorative greenery

In areas where balsam fir was plentiful, it made sense to use the resource that was growing nearby.

Is Balsam Fir Naturally Decay Resistant?

No.

This is an important distinction when comparing balsam fir with woods such as cedar.

Balsam fir has relatively poor natural resistance to decay. If it remains damp for extended periods, deterioration can occur fairly quickly.

That doesn't mean balsam fir could never be used outside.

Wood siding performs very differently from a fence post buried in wet soil. Properly installed siding sheds water, dries between storms, and is normally protected by paint or another finish.

Still, decay resistance would not have been one of balsam fir's major advantages as a siding material.

Balsam Fir Versus Douglas-Fir

The similar names hide two rather different woods.

Balsam fir is a true fir native to northeastern North America. It is relatively lightweight, soft, pale, and not especially decay resistant.

Douglas-fir is not a true fir at all. It is native to western North America and is generally stronger, harder, and more prominently grained.

Douglas-fir became one of North America's great structural woods.

Balsam fir became particularly important as pulpwood, light construction lumber, and, of course, the classic fragrant Christmas tree.

Can You Identify Balsam Fir From the Wood Alone?

This is where wood identification becomes tricky.

The wood of the true firs is remarkably similar. Identifying an individual true fir species from a finished piece of lumber can be extremely difficult and may not be possible from appearance alone.

That means a pale, lightweight old board should not automatically be labeled balsam fir simply because balsam fir grows in the region.

Location, age, construction history, growth rings, end grain, microscopic structure, and comparison with known samples can all become important.

Could Balsam Fir Be the Mystery Siding at Zehr Estate?

This brings us back to an interesting question.

Zehr Estate has old beveled clapboard siding on the original portion of the house. The wood is relatively lightweight, darker with age, and noticeably stringy when worked.

Could it be balsam fir?

It is possible, but we do not yet have enough evidence to say so.

Unlike Douglas-fir, balsam fir has one immediate historical advantage as a candidate: it is a northeastern tree and occurs naturally in New York and Pennsylvania.

But being native does not prove that it was commonly selected for exterior clapboards in the immediate area.

Eastern white pine and other locally available softwoods must remain part of the investigation.

There is another intriguing clue. An addition built at Zehr Estate around 1950 has somewhat wider clapboards, but the wood appears and feels remarkably similar to the material on the older house.

Fortunately, pieces of siding from both sections have been saved.

Comparing them side by side may tell us considerably more.

Wood Identification Is Detective Work

When we examine those samples, we should resist the temptation to begin with a name.

Instead, we can begin with observations.

• How heavy is each sample?
• How hard is the wood?
• How prominent are the growth rings?
• Is there a strong difference between earlywood and latewood?
• What color appears when a fresh surface is exposed?
• How does the wood splinter?
• Does it have visible resin?
• What does the end grain look like?
• Do the old and 1950 samples appear to be the same species?

Only after gathering those clues should we try to put a species name on the wood.

A Tree Can Be Common Without Its Lumber Being Familiar

Balsam fir provides an excellent lesson in understanding wood.

In northern forests it can be extraordinarily common. Millions of people know its shape and fragrance from Christmas trees. The forest products industry has consumed enormous quantities of it for pulp and construction lumber.

Yet many woodworkers would have difficulty identifying a balsam fir board sitting on a workbench.

That is partly because balsam fir does not have the unmistakable appearance of woods such as black walnut, cherry, white oak, or curly maple.

It is a quiet, practical wood from a very important tree.

Know Your Woods

Balsam fir may never have achieved the woodworking fame of eastern white pine or the structural reputation of Douglas-fir.

But throughout the northern forests of North America, it is an important tree — ecologically, commercially, historically, and culturally.

And unlike the Douglas-fir we explored previously, there is no trick in the name this time.

Balsam fir really is a fir.