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Air-dried Lumber: Lumber that has reached its
equilibrium moisture content by being exposed to air.
Board Foot: A unit of lumber measure that is 1” thick by
12” wide by 12” long. A board 1” by 6” by
2’ equals 1 board foot. A board 2” by 12” by
12” equals 2 board feet.
Boule: A log live sawn and kept
together in the order of sawing.
Bow: A form of warp that
is an end-to-end curve along the length of the board.
Burl: a wartlike growth that forms on a tree and that, when sliced,
produces extremely disoriented grain patterns that
are quite
attractive.
Cant: A log that has been debarked and sawn
square.
Case-hardening: A drying defect where the surface
of wood dries faster than the wetter inner core; this
causes permanent
set
and stresses that release when the board is cut.
Common: (mixed 1 and 2 common) are boards that have too many defects
to be FAS or Select.
Conifer: A type of tree that’s characterized
by needle-like or scale-like foliage, usually evergreen.
Crotch: The highly figured wood that occurs where a limb joins a trunk;
the grain swirls dramatically
where
the
wood fibers
have crowded and twisted together.
Crook: A form
of warp that is an end-to-end curve along the edge of the board.
Cup: A form of warp that is an edge-to-edge curve across the face
of the board.
Deciduous: A type of tree where the leaves
fall off every autumn; typically a hardwood,
but not
always.
Some hardwoods
in tropical
regions keep their leaves all year long.
End
checks: A drying defect caused by the ends of the boards drying
faster than the
rest of
the wood;
can
usually be
prevented by sealing the end grain.
End-coating: The process of sealing the
ends of the boards to prevent checking
caused
by unrestrained evaporation of moisture.
FAS: First and Second. Mixed domestic hardwood lumber grade is the
highest grade of hardwood
lumber. In
most species
a board
must be 6” or wider, 8’ or
longer. Walnut and butternut are the
exceptions.
Fiddleback: A type of washboardlike
figure that occurs in some species of
wood with
wavy grain.
Figure: The pattern on a wood’s
surface, resulting from the combination
of its natural
features and the way the log was
cut.
Flitch matched or Book matched: Sequentially
sawn lumber from the same log.
4/4, 5/4,
6/4, etc: Is the thickness given in fractions. It implies that
the
lumber
is rough
sawn 1/16”+ over the stated fraction.
4/4
= 1-1/16” to 1-1/8” and
should finish to 13/16”
5/4 = 1-5/16” to 1-3/8” and
should finish to 1-1/16”
Grade: A designation of the quality of a log
or wood product such as lumber,
veneer, or
plywood.
Grain: The direction of wood
fibers in a tree or piece of wood with the respect
to
the axis
of the
trunk.
Hardwood: Wood cut
from the broad-leaved, mostly deciduous trees that belong
to the botanical
group Angiospermae.
Heartwood: Mature
wood that forms the spine of the tree.
Honeycomb: A drying defect
that occurs when the lumber undergoes severe
case-hardening in the
early stages
of drying; appears as deep, internal
checks.
Juvenile wood: The wood in every tree that
forms within its first 10 years or so; usually has undesirable
characteristics
such
as low strength
and
shrinkage along the grain.
Kiln: A heated chamber
of a building used to dry lumber; humidity and air circulation
are
constantly
monitored
and adjusted as
the wood dries.
Kiln-dried lumber: Lumber that
has dried in a kiln to a specific moisture content.
Knot: The
section of a branch or limb that has been overgrown by expanding
girth of
a tree;
may be loose
or tight.
Moisture Content: The amount of
water in a piece of wood expressed as a percentage
of
the green
weight minus the
dry weight times
100, divided
by the green
weight.
Nominal dimensions: Dimensions
based on rough-cut(unplanned) softwoods; a
2x4 is
nominally 2” x 4”—It’s
actually 1-1/2” x 3-1/2”.
Pith: The small, soft core occurring in the
center of the tree trunk
Plain Sawn: Lumber sawn parallel to the grain.
Quatersawn Lumber: Vertical
grained lumber.
Ray: a ribbon-shaped strand of wood
cells that extends from the inner
bark to the
pith perpendicular
to
the axis of a
tree trunk;
rays
appear as fleck
on quartersawn
surfaces of some species.
Rift Lumber: Diagonally grained lumber.
Sapwood: New wood surrounding the
denser heartwood.
Select: A clear
board that is too short or narrow to be FAS.
Shake: A lumber
defect that is a lengthwise separation of
wood, usually
along the
growth rings.
SLR1E: Straight
Line Rip One Edge
SLR2E: Straight Line Rip
Two Edge
Softwood: Wood
cut from coniferous trees belonging
to the botanical
group Gymnospermae.
Spalting: An attractive dark brown or black stain
in some
woods caused
by decay.
Speck: A defect
that’s caused by a fungus living
in a tree, which
appears as small white pits or spots.
Split: A separation
of wood fibers that
extends
completely
through
a piece of
lumber, usually
at the ends.
Sticker: A piece of wood, typically
_” square,
that’s
inserted at regular
intervals between
layers of green
wood to assist
the drying
process.
Sticker
Stain: Sometimes
called
shadow, it’s
a stain that forms
under the stickers
in a stack of drying
wood.
Stripe: A
stripe or ribbon
pattern
that
occurs when
woods with interlocked
grain
(which
slopes in alternate
directions)
are
quartersawn.
Surfaced
Checks: A drying defect
that occurs
when the surface
dries too quickly
in relation
to the
core.
S1S: Surfaced
One Face
S2S: Surfaced Two Faces
S3S: Surfaced
Two Faces
and Straight
Line
Ripped One
Edge
S4S: Surfaced
Two
Faces and Straight
Line
Ripped
Two
Edges
Texture: The
size
of
the
cells
in
wood,
described
as
ranging
from
coarse
to
fine;
often
confused
with
grain.
Twist: A form
of warp
where one
corner of
a board
is not
aligned with
the others.
Wane: The presence
of bark
or a
lack of
wood from
any cause
along the
edge or
corner of
a piece
of lumber.
Warp: Any deviation
of the
face or
edge of
a board
from flatness,
or any
edge that
is not
at right
angles to
the adjacent
face or
edge; the
most common
forms of
warp are
bow, cup,
twist, and
crook.
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