Tree identification

[buttercup]

Could be Spruce, could be Fir
Spruce have short needles
Pine have long needles
Can't tell without the needles and the cones

It's very difficult too see from pictures, I realized that when searching for it.
However I know this is spruce, because I now know the English name for it. It's a lot easier to see the difference in real life, I also know Fir quite well - now that I know the English name for it.
Spruce is very common in my country, it was planted big scale way back before the oil age. Fir is usually planted as Christmas trees for those who prefer that, and it's much more rarely growing wild here.
I prefer not to drag in whole trees in to my living room at all, but too me a Christmas tree is spruce...
Pine is lovely, I love pine, pine woods are beautiful - spruce woods are not, but pine is a little harder and stronger and it don't grow this straight.
In my post with 3 pictures attached there is a big tree just to the right of the baby spruce in the first picture, that's an old Pine.
I actually planted 7 baby pine trees (groups of 3 to make sure one grows up) along the perimeter of my property this year, I might not live to see them fully grown but it was fun doing it.
I also planted a hedge with 20 baby beech wood trees that I found in the wild.

 

[rarefish383]

I agree, pine can make beautiful flooring, and furniture. I like fir also. Again, I must agree, Spruce just does not make a nice finished lumber. In our lumber yards they stamp the 2X4's for a general identification. If it's stamped "SPF", it means it's Spruce, Pine, or Fir. That's what they have at most home owner stores. At professional Lumber Yards, most framing lumber will be stamped with "YP", for Yellow Pine. I've been told it's the best of the framing lumber. But, I guess Best is a relative term. I think they mean best for the money. I've seen houses that were 150-200 years old built with all White Oak and it's as strong today as the day it was milled. It would just be prohibitively expensive to build with White Oak now. Here's a pic of a White Pine table I made for my cabin in the mountains of West Virginia. The hinges are inlaid into the table top, and it folds up against the wall. My buddy puts his cot under it at night to sleep on. The second pic is a work bench I built out of Fir for my Wife's flower shed.

 

[buttercup]

I agree, pine can make beautiful flooring, and furniture. I like fir also. Again, I must agree, Spruce just does not make a nice finished lumber. In our lumber yards they stamp the 2X4's for a general identification. If it's stamped "SPF", it means it's Spruce, Pine, or Fir. That's what they have at most home owner stores. At professional Lumber Yards, most framing lumber will be stamped with "YP", for Yellow Pine. I've been told it's the best of the framing lumber. But, I guess Best is a relative term. I think they mean best for the money. I've seen houses that were 150-200 years old built with all White Oak and it's as strong today as the day it was milled. It would just be prohibitively expensive to build with White Oak now. Here's a pic of a White Pine table I made for my cabin in the mountains of West Virginia. The hinges are inlaid into the table top, and it folds up against the wall. My buddy puts his cot under it at night to sleep on. The second pic is a work bench I built out of Fir for my Wife's flower shed.

Well what I meant about spruce woods not being pretty is the woods as in lots of trees growing tight together suffocating any other vegetation. Only the top is green and the 2/3 low part looks like a ghost town with pointy ditched branches.


I think your Fir workbench looks pretty though, keeping the edges natural makes all the difference. It gets dented easily compared to hardwood of course but as a workbench that's how it should be.
The Pine table looks like luxury, nice work!

I got a small log sample from my neighbor that they dug up from a swamp pit on he's property, it was oak and the way it was cut in the end suggested it was cut down before they had metal tools.
He said 6000 years old but I take that with a grain of salt, it's very very old anyway - long before the vikings an all that.
It would be fun if I could make something out of it, a knife handle or something perhaps. I would probably need to fill it with clear epoxy or something I guess.