# Tamarack Uses



## sprucegum (Dec 12, 2013)

I am cutting some tamarack (eastern larch) I have cut a good bit of it in the past and sometimes have been able to sell some logs but it mostly goes for pulpwood. A few years ago before I had a mill I paid a guy to mill some into 5/4 x 6 to use as decking. It is fairly popular around here for decking as it is somewhat rot resistant, people that feel that pressure treated is unsafe like it. I am going to mill the logs this time around I know from experience I can sell 5/4 , just wondering if anyone has other uses for the stuff.


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## WoodLove (Dec 12, 2013)

The main use for some of your tamarack would be to fill a box and send it to me...... 

I don't even know what tamarack looks like...


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## Mike1950 (Dec 12, 2013)

Dave our western larch/tamarack Has needles and loses them in the fall. Lumber looks and is a little heavier then Douglas fir. In fact most gets tyrned into framing lumber and is marked Fir and Larch. what does eastern look like.


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## sprucegum (Dec 12, 2013)

It is a deciduous tree that has needles like a conifer except that they all fall off in the fall. Grows fast it loves to warp while drying, kinda pretty wild grain, looks a little like southern yellow pine when finished. Tamarack is a Abenaki word that means wood for snow shoes.


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## sprucegum (Dec 12, 2013)

Mike1950 said:


> Dave our western larch/tamarack Has needles and loses them in the fall. Lumber looks and is a little heavier then Douglas fir. In fact most gets tyrned into framing lumber and is marked Fir and Larch. what does eastern look like.


Hey how about that I was working on a reply for woodlove and answered most of your questions before you asked them. I have used it for framing but I don't like it for that as it is just a little hard and twisty to suit me.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mike1950 (Dec 12, 2013)

sprucegum said:


> Hey how about that I was working on a reply for woodlove and answered most of your questions before you asked them. I have used it for framing but I don't like it for that as it is just a little hard and twisty to suit me.




Funny, sounds like kinda the same tree. But ours grow straight and tall. Straight grained. Thanks for the info, m


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## sprucegum (Dec 12, 2013)

It grows tall here especially if crowded but the upper part of the trunk tends to get pretty crooked, not many of them will have more than a couple of good logs. They also tend to have a lot of taper, a tree that is 2 feet on the stump may not be over 16" at the top end of a 16' butt log. I love the smell of the sawdust and pitch it almost has a fruit like smell.


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## Mike1950 (Dec 12, 2013)

Here a 2" at the stump might be 16" at the end of the first 32' log cut. They grow straight -especially in a valley crowded with trees. More of a doug fir pitch smell. Prized here for firewood. A fire killed dead one will stand for decades up to 75-80 yrs. no rot. I was cutting some in the 70's- they had been dead for 70 years. The ones on the ground(probably 10yrs on ground) or the ones in the air had no rot. up to 40" D- once you split the round- one pop with the ax and it split-straight grained and great firewood. One tree filled many 68 3/4 chev 4x4's


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## sprucegum (Dec 12, 2013)

I have a neighbor who lived in Colorado for a while, he goes crazy for tamarack firewood. I have burned a little, it burns hot but does not last like some good old rock maple. The eastern variety does not split all that good either. We burn some for boiling maple sap, it works good for that, hot and fast is what makes the old evaporator roar. Definitely two different species, the biggest one I have ever seen was one I helped my dad cut years ago it was around 48" on the stump. Our east coast saws with 18" bars were not up to the task we finished it with a hand powered cross cut saw. Most of them are under 24".


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## Treecycle Hardwoods (Dec 12, 2013)

In my neck o da woods it was used almost exclusively for barn rood rafters. Not sure if we have eastern or western here in wi. Maybe we have both I am not sure?? The standing trees around here are small and often difficult to get because they are so small. From what I understand it has a good weight to strength ratio. I have never milled any so I don't know how it dries.


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## sprucegum (Dec 12, 2013)

It actually dries pretty fast but keeping it strait can be a problem, I would guess about 10% of what I have dried comes out bad. I don't see that it mills much different from spruce and fir. They usually grow rapidly here up to about 24" on the stump then they tend start deteriorating. They love the swamps most of mine are growing in wet places. Winter is definitely the best time to cut them,


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## Mike1950 (Dec 12, 2013)

Here they grow on hillsides , mts. and valleys. Drys straight. Grows straight as an arrow with almost no taper.
As far as firewood goes I am sure rock maple is better but we have no rock maple in or forests- Larch, white-red-alpine fir, spruce, western cedar, Ponderosa-lodgepole-western white pine Hemlock- birch and small wild maple- a big one is 8" We have no hardwood in our forests.


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## sprucegum (Dec 12, 2013)

I googled both eastern & western larch. They are similar but are two distinctly different species.

Reactions: Like 1


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