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I’m thinking of using DOuglas Fir for all the interior trim on a cottage I’m finishing up. I’ve seen photos of a job done using vertical grain doug fir and it looked great. Any experience doing this or suggestions?
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I'm interested in this as well, particularly what type of finish to use.
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Fir is very good for trim- works nice. Try orange shellac top coated with polyurethane.
*I love Doug Fir, Been out in the shop all day milling up hand rails and ballisters for a covered porch.True old growth VG is pretty expensive. I buy good sticks anytime i spot them in with the framing lumber. I call them the betters, you know #2&btr and std&btr. They are green (pond dried) around here so they need about 2 years stacked in the shop before they are dry enough for trim.I like a natural finish with the newer water borne urethanes in a satin finish.Flat grained fir is a bit loud for my taste and very prone to shaling.Doug Fir has splinters that are complete with barbs so gloves are a smart thing to use. More than 1 carpenter around here has stories about a thousand dollar splinter. Complete with a recounting of their near death experience. I suspect that many carpenters out east don't know what a wonderfull lumber Doug Fir is.joe d
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thanks for all the feedback. looks like it's gonna be doug fir trim in the new place. I'll post on how it goes (as well as other questions as they come up.
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I'm thinking of using DOuglas Fir for all the interior trim on a cottage I'm finishing up. I've seen photos of a job done using vertical grain doug fir and it looked great. Any experience doing this or suggestions?
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Joe is right on about Doug Fir.
Straight grain takes stain and varnish well. I like to use Minwax Cherry, with a wiping "Tung Oil" (actually probably a varnish) finish.
When routing it will chip and splinter, so I like to take very shallow runs, and sometimes on the final pass will run it backwards through the router with a very, very shallow pass.
Flat or Side Grain will split, but it has a wonderfull grain pattern, and I avoid spliting by aclimating the panels for as long as you can, and making sure they are very, very dry.