Be Familiar with Spruce Woods for More than Just a Home Project
Pine, mahogany, oak, walnut, birch, and many more are the most common types of woods which are used for furniture purposes as well as other home-based related projects.
In addition, other great uses of wood include plywood board materials, pulp and paper materials, structural or non-structural building materials, firewood making, and many more.
Apart from those uses, wood can also be used for the manufacture of musical instruments, mainly for guitars, organs, violins, etc., especially spruce woods.
Therefore, in terms of spruce woods, they are nowadays widely used. Spruce woods are in fact similar to pine and fir woods.
Commonly abbreviated as S-P-F, these woods are all from the pine family tree. They are used the most and are grown the most, especially in 4-season countries.
The level or quality of these woods also varies, such as the furniture level, construction level for house-structure making, as well as the economic level.
Thus, spruce woods are a form of economic level which is usually used for pallets or other alternative materials.
Spruce Woods Characteristics
Spruce wood is one of the wooden materials made of pallets, mainly found in North American territory.
For the most part, this wood is a type of softwood as an alternative material that is quite affordable and has several features related to the fiber and number of eyes on one board, capable of creating a unique and rustic-look design.
When you imagine the spruce tree, what do you think? Is it the tree people used for Chritsmas, or perhaps it’s another name for evergreen or pine tree? In general, the main characteristics of a spruce tree resemble that of a fir tree.
As mentioned previously, spruce woods come from the family of the pine tree. For this reason, fir and spruce trees have the characteristics of holding twigs and leaves that grow along the tree trunk.
The branches and leaves that grow on the lower part of the trunk are thicker and longer, then they get shorter and narrower at the top of the tree, up to a height of 200 feet.
So, to answer the question above, yes, spruce trees are one type of trees used as Christmas trees, other than pine or evergreen trees.
Furthermore, there are other characteristics of spruce woods you might never know:
● Wood Color
The heartwood is pink to reddish brown. Sometimes also found spruce wood with blackish heartwood. While the sapwood is lighter in color with yellowish brown accents.
● Wood Texture
Even in texture with a natural medium luster look. The grains are generally straight with very few joints.
● Wood Durability
Spruce wood is in fact a group of plants consisting of many species. The resistance of the wood itself also varies greatly depending on the species.
But in general, spruce wood is not very resistant to pests and weather. Thus, the durability class of this type of wood is only at level III or IV.
● Wood Odor
There is no specific wood odor, other than refreshing.
● Easy Cultivation
Species with higher densities tend to be more difficult to cultivate. But in general, it is still workable. For instance, other than grown for Christmas trees, some species are made for ornamentals.
Best Usage of Spruce Woods
What exactly can spruce woods be used for? Up to this day, the wood from this spruce tree is often used for the manufacture of wooden floors, cabinets, some furniture types, and other wooden materials.
Given its durable classification, the use of this wood is more recommended for indoors only. In addition, the usage of spruce woods in a thicker form is recommended to make it more difficult for any pests to damage the woods directly.
In fact, long, long time ago, spruce woods were often used for firewood. In modern homes today, this type of wood is often used as a material for flooring and for handling various types of tools.
Thus, this wood can obviously be used for various needs, especially in the furniture industry.
So, any indoor furniture can be done with spruce woods, only if you use them properly. In other words, from the level of durability, the most important thing is that preservation is essential in order to keep the wood more durable.
To do this, you need to do a preservation process, either by applying antifungal drugs, insecticides or by using moisture absorbents in the warehouse room, as well as providing silica gel in the product box, hoping that the natural substrate can be protected from damage.
That way, post-finished any damages can be minimized as well. Therefore, spruce woods furniture examples include bed frames, tables, chairs, dressers, and more.
Spruce Woods Advantages
When popular woods such as mahogany, oak, birch, maple, walnut, or pine began to become increasingly difficult and expensive to buy, then in this condition, spruce wood is often used as an alternative material.
However, with the various advantages of spruce wood, it still has its own enthusiasts. Well, of course, this wood have several advantages that have been described through all the explanations above.
For that reason, let’s describe one by one. So, the advantages of this wood are:
● Appearance/Color
The heartwood is pink to reddish brown. Sometimes also found spruce wood with blackish heartwood. While the sapwood is lighter in color with yellowish brown accents.
● Price
The price of this wood on the market is quite cheap and affordable because it is a popular wood for use as a material for making furniture. Thus, the affordable price is due to the fast growth of spruce woods.
● Weight
The weight of this wood is actually quite light or not too heavy compared to other types of woods because of its softwood characteristics.
● Density
This wood has a very good density, you can use it for making wood floors. Therefore, the strength and high density of this type of wood make it an attractive choice.
● Texture/Grain
It has a straight wood grain pattern with a medium texture. In addition, spruce woods have specific striped patterned grains and also a clear structured surface.
● Easy Lumber Work
This wood type works easily with siding and trimming. Some common decorative siding styles include bevel siding, lap siding, groove siding and tongue siding.
Meanwhile, trimming dimensions include standard rough and smooth sawning, especially for doors and windows.
● Environmentally Friendly
Spruce trees grow rapidly so that the trees that have been felled are immediately replaced by new trees. Spruce tree plantations also do not have a big impact on the environment.
In terms of where this typical wood came from, the spruce tree itself also plays an important role not only in the good growth of the wood, but for human needs as well.
From the roots to the fruit, it has benefits for humans, because this tree has a fairly perfect composition. Consider the following benefits of spruce trees for human needs:
- Tree leaves that have wilted and fallen to the ground turns into humus are natural fertilizers that can fertilize the soil.
- In agricultural areas it is very susceptible to crop failure if strong winds or tornadoes occur. By planting this tree around the agricultural area, it can be an antidote to these strong winds.
- The conifers and leaves of the spruce trees are often used for various types of home decoration. For example, the cones that are dried and then painted in various colors will become works of art that enhance the aesthetics of a room.
Spruce Woods Disadvantages
Although there are many advantages to spruce woods, unfortunately there are the downsides too. In other words, although spruce woods are strong, durable, sturdy, and light, it also has several weaknesses.
● Damaged Easily
In some cases, this wood is known to be soft and easily damaged so it is used for wood products with light processing such as wooden pallets for shipping goods, matches, indoor furniture, and interior building materials.
Therefore, you need to be careful in choosing the right wood types and materials for a particular project or construction.
● Extra Attention
If neither processed nor applied properly, paints and stains can increase the wood’s resistance to damage.
● Moldy Easily
Spruce wood molds easily. Therefore, after this type of wood is chopped down, it must be dried immediately.
If this wood has been used as furniture, don’t put it in a damp room so it doesn’t get moldy.
● Easy to Expand
This particular wood can expand, bend and scratch easily, so you have to be careful when having furniture made of this type of material.
● Not Flexible
The stiff nature of wood makes spruce woods inflexible and not easily formed. Therefore, this type of wood is not suitable for use as a modern furniture material.
Therefore, if all this time you only know the use of spruce woods only as small-typed furniture materials, after knowing the information about the facts above, at least you will know that this North American wood has a variety of useful functions.
