fishordie79 Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 Hello TU Folks! I just picked up a couple of nice planks of Douglas fir after seeing someone on here talking about making jerk baits with it. I have never used Douglas fir to make a lure and was wondering if anyone on here has done so and has also carved details into it? Does it carve well? Thanks to all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LHL Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 Personally I have not carved details into douglas fir but the key is going to be SHARP tools. I've found carving hardwoods, although difficult, provides much cleaner details than carving something soft like douglas fir or cedar. Take your time with sharp tools and you shouldn't have any issues. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishordie79 Posted November 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 Hi @LHL and thanks for the response! I'll be sure that all tools are sharp before starting to carve. The plank I got is about 3/4 of an inch thick which is not thick enough to make the big jointed swim bait I have planned for it. My thought was to cut the plank into a couple of pieces that I would then glue together and then cut the blank out of that. The only thing I am not sure about is whether or not carving the mouth details, which will mean carving across the glue where the two pieces intersect in the middle, will cause an issue. What are your thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LHL Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 44 minutes ago, fishordie79 said: Hi @LHL and thanks for the response! I'll be sure that all tools are sharp before starting to carve. The plank I got is about 3/4 of an inch thick which is not thick enough to make the big jointed swim bait I have planned for it. My thought was to cut the plank into a couple of pieces that I would then glue together and then cut the blank out of that. The only thing I am not sure about is whether or not carving the mouth details, which will mean carving across the glue where the two pieces intersect in the middle, will cause an issue. What are your thoughts? The area where the glue is will be stronger than the surrounding wood. It will be tricky when you transition from soft wood to hard glue and back to the soft wood. You could test your skills by gluing up too small pieces and seeing exactly how it carves but I'm going to say that as long as your tools are sharp and you work slowly you shouldn't have a problem with it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Posted November 30, 2020 Report Share Posted November 30, 2020 Carve away, the glue won't make much difference. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishordie79 Posted December 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 Thanks @LHL and @Travis! Gonna start this project tonight:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travis Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 Typically you will have more issues with soft wood and glue lines when sanding but should not be an issue with douglas fir. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DGagner Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 Never tried it. Here in Maine Douglas fir and spruce are only sold and used as framing lumber. It's sort of like pine I guess which I do use so it should be okay. I've never considered it but if it was good it would be great because Home Depot is loaded with it and per board foot it's pretty cheap. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastman03 Posted December 1, 2020 Report Share Posted December 1, 2020 I think the main problem with carving details into wood like Douglas fir would be the difference of density in the growth rings compared to the wood between the darker rings. I may be wrong, as I haven't carved fir myself, but I think it is similar to cedar that way. I think it would work ok overall as a lure, as it has buoyancy properties similar to pine/cedar I believe. Carving small details into cedar is super annoying as the growth ring (darker parts) is super hard and you knife tends to jump between the rings. Sanding out the details also leaves the softer wood in between, kind of scalloped as the sandpaper takes out the soft wood first. I totally may depend on the exact piece of wood you got. I may be totally fine. Like LHL said, carving soft woods with fine detail can be very frustrating. Hardwoods can allow you to have greater detail. I don't think the glue joint will be a problem. It may be act kind of like a growth ring and just be a bit more difficult to carve. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishordie79 Posted December 2, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2020 @eastman03 Dude I'll tell you what you are spot on. Cut a piece last night and did some test carving on it and what you described is exactly what happened. The knife jumped between the dense and lese dense areas and resulted in flaking and just looked bad. So that Douglas fir I bought will be used for project on which I don't intend to do any detail carving. Thanks to everyone for the input! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastman03 Posted December 2, 2020 Report Share Posted December 2, 2020 @fishordie79 Shoot I was hoping I was wrong for your sake, but I feared that would happen. Oh well, still good wood that has many uses. I saw all these guys online carving scale detail and whatnot, and I couldn't carve a freaking gill plate lol. No one ever mentioned that wood like that is very difficult to carve because of the different densities. I tried a piece of maple, and it is harder wood, but leaves much much more clean details! If you want a soft buoyant wood that carves like a dream, try basswood. That is like a block of butter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted December 2, 2020 Report Share Posted December 2, 2020 Would adding some runny super glue to the areas to be carved beforehand help them to carve more evenly? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishordie79 Posted December 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2020 @eastman03 I've made lures and carved the details with basswood on the past and you are right it sure does carve well. I've got some projects I can do with my boys so that Douglas fir won't go to waste:) @mark poulson That sounds like it may work. I'll give that a try on one of the smaller pieces I cut and see how it works. Thanks for the suggestion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Epp Posted December 7, 2020 Report Share Posted December 7, 2020 I have used Doug Fir a bit, and would certainly echo what has already been said. The negative is the very different hardness between growth rings, one positive is a very appealing grain pattern if you wanted to do an unpainted bait. Doug Fir has some really nice, distinct grain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
