Wood Terms - A Lumber Glossary from A - Z

• Creamy-white to pale yellow
• Moderately fine and even texture
• Interlocked grain
• Low bending and crushing strengths
• Stiffness and resistance to shock loads are low
• Extensively used where durability and strength are unimportant

A truck designed to handle loads exceeding legal highway size and weight restrictions. These trucks are not driven on highways; they are used in logging operations conducted on other types of roads.

A decorative molding profile with an “S” shape.

Biologically a stand of timber that is near its climax; such trees may be 200 years or older. In timber management planning, old growth also refers to timber that is older then the rotation age planned for future forests; this definition may include trees that are 100 years or less.

A method of measuring distance between two structural members, such a joists, where you measure from the center of one member to the center of the other. It is usually abbreviated O.C.

Common classification of painters for woods with large pores, such as oak, ash, chestnut, and walnut. This is also known as ‘coarse texture’.

A van that can be loaded from above and is often covered by a tarp or mesh.

A scientific approach to decision making that involves the operations of organizational systems.

Estimated volume of timber on commercial forest land that could be cut annually for the next ten years while improving tree stocking and bringing about a more even distribution and age classes. Annual managed harvest is considered separate from harvest cuttings and thinnings and is determined by a computer using an area control system that specifies the number of acres to be cut annually.

The distance between parallel roads that gives the lowest combined cost of skidding and road construction costs per unit of log volume.

An electric sander that moves the abrasive in an elliptical pattern.

A structural panel made of narrow strands of fiber oriented lengthwise and crosswise in layers, with a resin binder. Depending on the resin used, OSB can be suitable for exterior or interior applications.

Refers to having unique and independent properties in three mutually orthogonal planes of symmetry; longitudinal, radial, and tangential.

The side of a power tool where the board exits.

Stabilizers that are generally found on Knuckleboom loaders or mobile chippers.

The weight of a piece of lumber that has been dried, under high temperatures, in an oven until it is devoid of all water. This is used to calculate the moisture content of wood.

Wood completely dried until it is without any moisture content.

Point at which timber has begun to lessen in commercial value because of size, age, decay or other factors. Many trees in a virgin or old growth stand are over-matured and are, in fact, dying of old age.

The difference between the log scale of a shipment of timber and the volume of the actual lumber obtained from it.

The measurements-of thickness, width, or length-of a piece of lumber which are used to compute the space occupied.

Layer of foliage in a forest canopy including the trees in a timber stand. Tall mature trees that rise above the shorter immature understory trees.

Any silvicultural treatment with the desired end result being the removal of the over-story component from the growing stock of a multistoried stand. Examples are outright harvest, girdling, and simply felling the over-story.

• County – Land owned/leased by counties for more then 50 years.
• Farmer Owned – Land owned by operators of farms. A farm must include ten or more acres from which the sale of agricultural products totals $50 or more annually, or, if less than ten acres, the yield must be at least $250 annually.
• Forest Industry – Land owned by companies or individual operating wood-using plants.
• Indian – Tribal land held by the Federal Government but administered for Indian tribal groups and Indian trust allotments.
• Miscellaneous Federal – Federal land other than National forest, Bureau of Land Management, and Indian land.
• Municipal – Land owned/leased by municipalities for more then 50 years.
• National Forest – Federal lands that have been designated by Executive Order or statue as National Forests, or purchased units and other land under the administration of the USDA Forest Service.
• Other Public – Public land other than National Forests.
• State – Land owned/leased by States or local public agencies for more than 50 years.

A few woods are cut into oysters, a cross-section of end grain either at right angles to the grain or at an oblique angle.