I am thinking about about starting my granddaughters hobby horse. I have looked the wood over at our local big box and have narrowed the wood type down to a couple of kinds. Natural Cedar and Douglas Fir.  There is a lot of it available here and most of it looks very good. I am thinking that the best color may be the Cedar, but have not decided. I have worked with aromatic Cedar and it looks the same to me. I know that both are durable woods and easy to work with.

 Any thoughts ( pros and cons) from anyone who has user knowlege these woods?

my preference would be the fir. it's a harder wood and will withstand the abuse it will get.

I agree with John, cedar is pretty soft. D fir is strong, and reasonably light for the strength it gives. Now I have to ask, do you mean a rocking horse? A hobby horse is different that rocking horse. A hobby horse is a horses head with stick attached and the rider straddles the stick and runs around.

I think I would agree with the fir also. Since I am working on a cedar chest now, it is soft and can chip or break off pretty easily.

Although they don't mean to be, kids are pretty rough on rocking horses or at least mine were.

I guess it is a rocking horse, I didn't know there was a difference. I built the one pictured out of pine 5 years ago and it is still looking great with all that two kids and their friends can give it.

Richard McComas said:

I agree with John, cedar is pretty soft. D fir is strong, and reasonably light for the strength it gives. Now I have to ask, do you mean a rocking horse? A hobby horse is different that rocking horse. A hobby horse is a horses head with stick attached and the rider straddles the stick and runs around.

I was just reading about Douglas fir. Douglas fir is used for everything framing lumber to furniture and comes in a lot of different grades. Make sure the fir your buying is not the construction grade because the moisture content may be to high for furniture. If you have a moisture meter take to the store with you and check the moister content of the lumber you are buying.

I also did some research on both and have decided that neither would make a good rocking horse. I am going to look at some recycled oak today

I wonder...

would a hard rubber T moulding on the bottom of the rockers reduce scratching and marrng of the floor?

when I built the "Clyde" rocking horse, I did think about that, because we had hardwood floors. I decided to try heavy duty felt with its own glue backing. It worked well for quite while, but did wear down. Then my daughter moved and her new home was all carpeted............problem gone. If I was going to use some sort of rubber, I would first ask for advise from the woodworkers on this site and possibly on the wood site. Next I would test it for my own satisfaction, for floor marks and durability. A messed up floor can bring about a lot of scorn from a lady.

John Hechel said:

I wonder...
would a hard rubber T moulding on the bottom of the rockers reduce scratching and marrng of the floor?