Wood Terms - A Lumber Glossary from A - Z

Hit or Miss

Hit and Miss

The use of a long blade mounted in a bow-shaped frame. Cutting takes place using a reciprocating, or back-and-forth, motion.

A dovetail joint where the cut does not go all the way through the board. The ends of a half-blind dovetail are concealed.

A joint in which two timbers are let into each other.

A hand tool with a heavy rigid head and a handle; used to deliver an impulsive force by striking.

A horizontal timber projecting from the top of the wall or rafter that supports a wood truss. The design creates a large roof span with relatively short timbers.

A rotary drill with a hammering action. The hammering action provides a short, rapid hammer thrust to pulverize relatively brittle material and provide quicker drilling with less effort.

A timber squared off and shaped by hand.

A tool to smooth and true wood surfaces, consisting of a blade fastened in frame at an angle with hand grips to slide it along the board. There are several different parts that make up a hand plane:

• The Knob – A handle on the front portion of the hand plane that gives you more control when pushing the hand plane through the wood. The knob can be in the shape of a handle, or it can be more of a knob shape.
• The Handle – The handle is the back grip of the hand place that is sued to push the plane across through the wood that you are hand planning. The handle is often curved and attached to the hand plane at a slight angle for a more comfortable grip.
• The Frog – The frog is a metal plate that sits at an angle in the middle of the hand plane, where there is a notch to allow the plane iron (part of the planer that cuts the wood) to protrude. This is attached with screws and has an adjustment lever at the top of the frog. The adjustment level moves a set screw that will dictate the depth of the plane iron once installed.
• Plane Iron – The plane iron is the cutting blade of the hand planer. This blade has a very sharp edge and protrudes from the middle of the bottom of the hand planer by a very small amount allowing for smoother planning. The plane iron is held in place on the frog, which allows for minor adjustments once the plane iron is mounted. The plane iron is then sandwiched between the plane iron cap and the lever cap to lock the plane iron in place and prevent the blade from shifting when the hand plane is in use.
• Plane Iron Cap – This goes directly over the plane iron to hold it into place and keep the blade form pushing up when cutting through wood. The plane cap is held in place by the lever cap.
• Lever Cap – A lever cap is the component that locks the plane iron, plane iron cap, and the frog together. The lever cap slips over the mounting screw, into which all of these pieces of the hand plane slide. The screw is then tightened with a screw driver to lock the plane iron in position.

Are the basic tools of woodworking and the processes of sawing, chiseling, and smoothing wood.

A vehicle moved by a pair of short, endless articulated belts, called tracks, driven by tractor tires. Steering is by a pair of ordinary wheels in front. The whole vehicle is termed a half-track.

A substance or mixture of substances that is part of an adhesive and is used to promote curing by taking part of the reaction.

The property of wood that is indicated by a resistance to cutting, scratching, denting, pressure or wear.

• Creamy white with a reddish tinge
• Usually straight grained
• Fine texture
• High bending and crushing strength
• Difficult to work with
• Used for furniture, joinery, heavy-duty flooring, piano actions, plywood, and paneling.

A type of manufactured board similar to particle board but with a much smoother surface. A common brand of hardboard is Masonite.

A general term referring to any variety of broad-leaved, deciduous trees, and the wood from those trees. The term has nothing to do with the actual hardness of the wood; some hardwoods are softer then certain softwood (evergreen) species.

• Bunching – Gathering and arranging trees or part of these in small piles.
• Chipping – Breaking or cutting trees into small pieces of controlled fiber length.
• Debarking – Removing the outer protective layer (bark) from trees or parts of trees.
• Delimbing – Removing branches from trees.
• Felling – Cutting or uprooting standing trees, causing them to fall as a result of the cutting or uprooting.
• Forwarding – Transporting trees or their parts by carrying them completely off the ground rather then pulling or dragging them along the ground. Also known as prehauling.
• Loading – Picking up trees or their parts of trees, from the ground or from a vehicle, transporting them, and then piling them into another vehicle.
• Piling – Picking up tree-length logs or bolts and depositing them in large piles so that the logs are horizontal and parallel to each other and the ends are approximately in the same vertical planes.
• Skidding – Transporting trees or parts of trees by dragging or trailing them.
• Slashing – Cutting felled and limbed tress into lengths. Also known as bucking.
• Topping – Cutting off the top of a tree at a predetermined, minimum diameter.
• Yarding – Initial hauling of a log from the stump to a collection point.

Removing merchantable trees.

The mobile machinery used in forestry, then is classified into major types by the specific functions or combination of functions preformed. Further classification may be required to differentiate between machines with basic conceptual differences that effect recognition of performance but perform the same functions. One or more of the following sub-classifications may be used when necessary. Multifunction machines are named by a composite of the functions, listed in the order the functions are preformed.

• Single Function Machines
  • Bucker - See Slasher
  • Chipper - Designed to chip whole trees or their parts
  • Debarker – Designed to remove the bark from trees.
  • Drum Debarker – Used to remove bark from pulpwood. Bolts tumble together forcibly and repeatedly in their passage through a large drum, rubbing off bark as they roll against each other and against the corrugated interior of the drum. The drum’s corrugated interior keeps the bolts tumbling as the drum rotates, while gravity and the force of additional incoming bolts force the wood through.
  • Ring Debarker – Used to remove bark from saw logs and veneer bolts. As the in-feed conveyor advances the log longitudinally into the feed rollers, it automatically centers the log in the rotating mechanical ring. The ring has five crescent-shaped fingers that open automatically as the feed rollers force the log against them and the log advances through the rotating mechanical ring.
  • Delimber – Self-propelled or mobile machine designed to remove all limbs from trees with flailing chains or knives.
  • Feller – Self-propelled machine designed to fell standing trees.
  • Forwarder – Self-propelled machine, usually self-loading, designed to transport trees or their parts by carrying them completely off the ground.
  • Loader – Self-propelled or mobile machine with grapple and supporting structure designed to pick up and discharge trees or their parts for the purpose of loading or piling. Operation may be swing-to-load, slide-to-load, or travel-to-load. Also known as hydraulic loader or knuckle-boom if it swings to load and has hydraulically activated boom members.
  • Mobile Yarder – Self-propelled or mobile machine designed to perform cable logging with the use of a tower that may be integral to the machine or a separate structure.
  • Skidder – Self-propelled machine designed to transport trees or pans of trees by dragging or trailing.
  • Cable Skidder – Uses a man winch cable and cable chokers to assemble or hold a load.
  • Clam-Bunk Skidder – Uses an integrally mounted loader to assemble the load and clam or top-opening jaws to hold it. A grapple skidder uses a grapple or bottom-opening jaws to assemble and hold a load.
  • Slasher – Mobile machine designed to cut felled trees to a predetermined length with a shear or saw. Also known as a bucker.
  • Swath Cutter – Self-propelled harvesting machine capable of continuous movement while simultaneously felling multiple stems across a 6 to 8 foot wide swath.
• Multi-Function Machines
  • Delimber Bucker – See Delimber Slasher
  • Delimber Buncher – Used to delimb trees and arrange logs in piles on the ground.
  • Delimber Slasher – Used to delimb and slash trees. Also known as a Delimber bucker.
  • Delimber Slasher Bucker – Used to delimb and slash trees and arrange logs in piles on the ground.
  • Feller Buncher – Self-propelled machine designed to fell standing trees and arrange them in bunches on the ground. May travel-to-bunch or swing-to-bunch.
  • Feller Chipper – Used to chip and fell whole trees.
  • Feller Delimber – Self-propelled machine designed to fell and delimb trees.
  • Feller Delimber Buncher – Self-propelled machine designed to fell, delimb, and arrange the trees in bunches. A feller Delimber Slasher buncher is a self-propelled machine designed to fell, delimb, and slash trees and arrange the tree parts in piles on the ground.
  • Fell Delimber Slasher Forwarder – Self-propelled machine designed to fell, delimb, and slash trees and carry tree parts to a landing.
  • Feller Forwarder – Self-propelled, self-loading machine designed to fell standing trees and transport the stems by carrying them completely off the ground.
  • Feller Skidder – Self-propelled, self-loading machine designed to fell standing trees and transport them by skidding.
  • Harvester – Self-propelled multifunction machine that may be capable of operating as a swath cutter but also performs chipping and/or forwarding functions in addition to felling.
  • Limited-Area Feller Buncher – Feller-buncher with a shear mounted on a knuckle-boom, allowing the machine to reach and fell several trees while remaining stationary.
  • Processor – Multifunction machine that does not fell trees but handles two or more subsequent functions.
  • Slasher Buncher – Used to cut logs to predetermined lengths and arrange them in piles on the ground.

A tool used to hold deck boards straight while fasteners are being installed. It locks into place and applies much more bending power then other methods of straightening deck boards.

Conveying wood from a loading point to an unloading point.

Block used to guide the haul-back line.

Rope used in cable logging to haul the main line and its fittings back to the point where the logs are to be attached.

The part of the whole timber beyond the shoulder which is let into another timber.

Contemptuous term for logging operation that has poor equipment.

Hollow Bark

Principal machine in a sawmill; used for initial breakdown of logs by sawing along the grain. Logs are first cut into cants on the head rig before being sent on to other saws for further processing. This is also known as head saw.

In a sawmill, the large band saw or circular saw used to size the log into lumber.

Spar tree at the landing of a skyline logging operation. This is also known as Head Spar.

A beam fitted between trimmers and across the ends of tailpieces in a building frame; a horizontal support at the top of an opening.

The soft, spongy heart of a tree, which may appear on the surface of sawn timber.

A split that starts at the heart of a log.

A discoloration of the heartwood.

The dead inner core of a tree. Usually must be harder and darker than the new wood.

Loading boom that uses tongs to heel or force one end of a log against the underside of the boom.

System of lines and blocks used to tighten the skyline.

Hemlock

Hemlock - True Firs

A cellulose-like material in wood that is easily decomposable as by dilute acid.

Chemical used to kill or retard the growth of plants; weed killer.

In veneering, a herringbone pattern that is formed when successive layers of veneers are glued up so they form a mirror image. Usually this pattern slants upwards and outwards, similar to a herringbone.

• Brown to reddish-brown color
• Typically straight grained
• Coarse texture
• Pre-boring for nailing is required
• Used for hammers, axes, gold clubs, lacrosse sticks, plywood and decorative veneers.

Prepared by boiling bones, hides, etc. in water, and obtaining a hard cake form which must be broken up in an old piece of sacking and soaked for 12 hours before heating.

Good quality timber.

Wire rope system that involves yarding in logs or trees by means of a rope passing through a block at the top of the head spar.

A particular grade of steel that offers improved hardness and wear resistance. High-speed steel is often used to make various cutting tools.

Logger who tops trees and rigs them with blocks, guys, and lines.

A stump that is higher then a specified standard.

A mechanical device that connects two solid objects, allowing rotation between them.

In surfaced lumber, hit and miss is a series of skips by planer knives with surfaced or entirely rough.

Pits or spots in wood caused by fungi. It develops in the living tree and does not develop further in wood in service.

A panel construction with faces of plywood, hardboard, or similar material bonded to a framed-core assembly of wood lattice, paperboard rings, which support the facing at spaced intervals.

A drying defect that occurs when the lumber undergoes severe case hardening in the early stages of drying; appears as deep, internal checks.

Machines used to grind wood into chips for use as fuel or for other purposes. The wood used for this is usually wasted wood unfit for lumber or other uses.

Fuel made by grinding wasted wood in a hog; a mix of wood residues such as sawdust, planer shavings, and sometimes coarsely broken-down bark and solid wood chunks produced in the manufacturing of wood products and normally used as fuel.

A type of iron clamp, fitting into a hole in a bench; tightened or loosened by hammer taps.

When felling timber, this is the part of a tree left uncut until the end in order to hold the fall of the tree in the desired direction.

A concave bevel on a chisel, gouge, or knife.

• Cream-white heartwood
• Irregular grain but fine texture
• Difficult to saw because of the irregular grain
• Nails, screws, and glues satisfactorily
• Used as a substitute for boxwood and dyed as a substitute for ebony; small musical instruments, keys for pianos and organs, and marquetry.

• Heartwood varies from pinkish to purple-brown with black markings
• Straight to slightly wavy grain
• Medium to fine texture
• Rather difficult to work with
• Used for finger boards for banjos, guitars, and mandolins; piano legs, picture frames, furniture, and billiard tables

A tooth form that has evenly spaced teeth, wide gullets, and a positive rake angle.

Logging system operation in which the logs are not stored or decked, but loaded onto a truck as soon as they are skidded to a landing.

An alternative to mortise and tenon joint; has two drilling heads, side by side and usually an adjustable table for height.

This is caused by the outside blades of a stacked dado head cutting deeper than the chipper blades.

The shallow mortise or cavity for receiving the major part of a time end, generally copied with a smaller deep mortise to receive a tenon tying the joint together.

A term used to indicate unit of measurement.

A unit of weight, used by carriers as a basis to measure freight rates on lumber shipments.

Removal of bark from round timber, such as bolts, logs, or billets, by high-pressure jets of water as the pieces are mechanically rotated in a closed chamber.

An intermolecular attraction force that results when the hydrogen of one molecule and a pair of unshared electrons on an electronegative atom of another molecule are attracted to one another.

Having a strong tendency to bind or absorb water.

Having a strong tendency to repel water.

The tendency of wood to absorb and expel moisture as humidity levels change.