Truly amazing Grand Fir.

[gf beranek]

This photo is too small to really appreciate the full scope of this tree. A grand fir. In these parts known mostly as a White Fir. Timber fallers call them piss fir for their wind checks and the stinky water they hold and drench you in midway into cutting their trunks.

These trees don't taper much. I fell one in the Sierra that yielded 4 thirty-two foot logs. Each log but the last measured 32 inches at the buck.

On bad ground these trees break clean and you can still buck good merchantable logs out of the chunks left. On the same ground with a redwood you would lose it all.

Anyway this image of a white fir just impressed me. that's all

 

[SkwerI]

Cool. Who's the climber and about when was this taken?

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's a fat one!

 

[cory]

Cool, Jerr. Interesting about the differences between the two species breaking characteristics.

 

[gf beranek]

I'm not sure where the tree is, the photo showed up in a search without any other details. All aside, if you know white fir that one is a dandy.

 

[Al Smith]

That thing has a smooth bark like a beech .

 

[cory]

Does it have little sap-filled pustules in the bark, like firs from the Northeast?

 

[Burnham]

Yep.

 

[gf beranek]

The biggest of them all, Cory. Blisters in the bark arising side by side that can each hold a tablespoon of pure livid ickyness. Each capable of freezing a friction hitch like crazy glue. Unruly.

The pitch blisters arise in patches between the branch whorles. If you pay attention you can avoid the worst of it. But whoa for the beginner.

 

[Burnham]

Indeed.

 

[cory]

Wow.

 

[HolmenTree]

Awesome photo Gerry. That fir looks alot like our balsam fir we have here on the plains, your's is alot bigger though, ha ha.

I hate cutting these miserable for an excuse of a tree, they only make economy grade lumber. When I logged them, by the end of the day my pants could stand up on their own after being coated with sap. Sap on everything, saw, gloves, hardhat.

Climbing and doing arb work in them messes up alot more equipment again.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Kinda like a sappy pine... yuck!

 

[Bodean]

That's the biggest one I've seen.

Project work on the Plumas was Timber Stand Improvement or KILL ALL White Pine.
Mainly we saw 24" and smaller, nothing huge. Dump, Buck, and Stack for burning.

I mean Fir...

 

[Burnham]

You mean white fir, no?

 

[stig]

That is truly a fine specimen, Jerry.
Abies Grandis has been planted here and quite like out climate.
In fact, some of the biggest conifers here are of that species.
Nothing even remotely like that one, of course.

You are right about their way of breaking, they break easier than any other tree, I've worked with.
And one sure smells strongly after a day of felling and bucking them

 

[woodworkingboy]

The limited taper is really cool, looks kind of prehistoric.

 

[Bodean]

You right, Burn.

I'm an idiot, white fir it is...

 

[wiley_p]

Grand Fir and White Fir are two different trees, though both qulaify as Piss firs. Grand is Abies grandis and White is Abies concolor.

 

[ClimbingFool]

They Make beautiful Christmas tree because of their uniformity. I've removed my fair share of them, and the most arduous part is cutting off the fifteen bazillion limbs.Just make sure you have a gallon o GoJo to grease up you body at the end of the day....

 

[ClimbingFool]

I was referring to White Fir... I dont believe I have climbed a Grand Fir. Does Grand have the same characteristics as White ?

 

[Jed]

Boss and I were just out on Whidbey Island pruning up a ton of Firpigs for a rich lady. Couple pissers in there interspersed amongst the Dougpigs.

I love those things too. Can't explain it, but I don't complain about the pitch. Smells like heaven itself.

ClimbingFool: More or less, yeah. Grand looks a bit more like Doug than Whitepig does. New guys'll say it's a Doug. The needles on Whitefir will be a little bit longer and a hair bit lighter green than a piss pig.

Now here indeed is THE question for all you boys. Do they BOTH really qualify as Piss Fir?

 

[Burnham]

Not in my book, grand fir isn't quite pissy enough to match a white .

 

[wiley_p]

Not in my book, grand fir isn't quite pissy enough to match a white .

I agree. That stench of that water WILL not wash out of clothing.