Wood-working for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs. Charles G. Wheeler
this for nice work even if a slight charge should be made for the privilege. When you come to pick out boards you will see the application of what has been said about the ways of cutting the log, and you can tell by the annual rings at the ends of the boards, by the sapwood (when visible), the grain, etc., from what part of the log the pieces were sawed.
Use good, clear stock for everything but rough work. Of course in rough or temporary work you can save expense by using wood from packing-cases, boxes, old fence-rails, or anything that will serve the purpose, but as a rule avoid trying to make nice, new things of wood taken from old work or boxes. The quality of the wood used for boxes nowadays is apt to be poor and hard to work. The wood taken from old cabinet-work is, however, often better than you are likely to buy, but you need to be very cautious about working over old material, for the dirt which has been ground into it is apt to dull your tools, and, moreover, the presence of concealed nails, etc. (which it is sometimes almost impossible to detect), will often injure your tools so much as to more than offset what you save in expense.
Do not buy thick stock with the idea of sawing it into thinner pieces (unless necessary). Of course it can be sawed into thinner or smaller pieces, but you cannot always be sure that these will be as true as the original stock. Suddenly exposing the middle of a piece of wood to the air in this way sometimes plays queer pranks with the shape of the pieces (see Appendix). If you want to use boards for good work buy those which have seasoned as boards, instead of splitting up thicker lumber; and always try to treat both sides of a board alike so far as you can.
Bear this in mind: If you take an inch board to the mill to be planed down to three eighths of an inch, for instance, have it planed equally, as nearly as may be, from both sides. Ignorant hands often simply smooth off, or "surface," one side, and then plane the board down on the other side, when it will sometimes warp badly at once and be useless, perhaps, for the purpose intended.
If you carefully pile and "stick" the stock you have bought (Fig. 28), it will tend to keep the pieces straight and true. Never lay good boards down flat directly upon one another unless they are thoroughly seasoned. It is the best of all ways, however, to keep a pile of thoroughly seasoned stock, but not the way to season it. The top board will warp. Never lay a single board of nice stock flat on its side. Keep short pieces of nice stock standing on end where they will be equally exposed on both sides to heat and cold, moisture and dryness.
The best way to learn about any kind of wood is from the wood itself. It is a capital idea to make a collection of specimens of as many kinds as you can.[12] You will be surprised to see how varied, interesting, and handsome a collection you can make at little or no expense. (See Appendix.)
The kinds of wood which you are likely to use are commonly known as either hard or soft, the former class from trees with broad leaves, as the oak, the latter from the coniferous or needle-leaved trees, as the white pine. This distinction between hard and soft wood you may find somewhat puzzling at first, for the common whitewood of the hardwood class you will find softer and easier to work than hard pine of the softwood class, but the distinction is based on botanical reasons. The hard woods are usually more durable as well as stronger than the soft. For various woods see Appendix.
Timber.—The word timber is applied in a general way to the log and to the material itself, and to the standing trees. It is also applied more specifically to the larger squared pieces, or "dimension" stock, such as sills, beams, etc.
Lumber.—As the term is used in the United States, lumber consists, according to Webster, of "timber sawed or split for use, as beams, joists, boards, planks, staves, hoops, and the like."
Lumber may be either undressed or dressed, that is, rough (as it comes from the saw) or planed. It is usually sawed in regular thicknesses, and for stock which is in steady demand, such as joists, floor timbers, etc., in regular widths, as 2" x 4", 4" x 6", etc. It is commonly sold in lengths varying from 10 feet to 20 feet. Twelve feet is a common length for boards. Planing (by machine) rough or undressed boards on both sides will usually reduce the thickness of an inch board to about seven eighths of an inch. Other thicknesses will of course be reduced correspondingly. Bear this in mind. The terms 1" board, 2" plank, etc., apply, as a rule, to the stock in the rough state as it comes from the saw. When you buy planed or dressed lumber it will be thinner—that is, the "inch board" that you wish to get for a shelf will not be one inch thick (unless you get it unplaned), but seven eighths of an inch.
You must make allowance for this when you figure on dressed lumber. If for example the board must be one inch thick when planed, you will have to get a thin plank and have it planed down, or pull over the pile until you find a board which happens to be sawed as thick as one inch and one eighth. You can sometimes find boards planed one inch thick, but as a rule you will find the thickness seven eighths of an inch. A similar statement will apply to the various thicknesses of planks also. The sawing is often very irregular, however, and frequently some boards or planks will run thick enough in sawing to give the required thickness when planed, so it is well to look for such when you need pieces a little thicker than planed stock usually runs.
For such work as you are likely to do you will chiefly need boards, planks, and joists. Other forms will be referred to farther on.
Fig. 31.
Boards.—These are one inch thick or less.
Matched-boards, or "sheathing," have a groove on one edge and a corresponding tongue on the other (Fig. 31.) Any number of boards can thus be joined to make a wide surface. The edges of these boards were formerly tongued and grooved by hand with "matching-planes," but now this is done by machine, usually with some form of bead or moulding at one edge (and sometimes in the middle) to render the joint less noticeable.
Planks.—These are thick boards—more than one inch in thickness. Both planks and boards can be of any width or length, the distinction being merely in thickness.
Joists.—These are the same as narrow planks, but of some fixed width, as 2" by 3", which is the same as a 3" strip sawed from the edge of a 2" plank.
Fig. 32.
Fig. 33.
Fig. 34.
Most of the lumber you will require is sold by the square foot, at so much an M (1000 feet), or so much a foot. The square foot has an area of 144 square inches and is one inch thick, or contains 144 cubic inches, regardless of the shape or size of the piece. That is, Figs. 32, 33, and 34 each equal one square foot by board measure.
Thus a board 12' long, 12" wide, and 1" thick, contains 12 feet, board measure. A board 12' long, 6" wide, and 1" thick, contains 6 feet. A plank 12' long, 12" wide, and 2" thick, contains 24 feet. A plank 12' long, 6" wide, and 2" thick, contains 12 feet, or the same as the board first mentioned. You can bear in mind that in case of boards 12' long the contents in feet is indicated by the width in inches, as you will see from the examples just given. A board 12' long and 7" wide contains 7 square feet. So all you have to do to measure 12' stock is to find the width in inches. If the board tapers in width, measure at the middle. The same is true of planks, only the width in inches must be multiplied by the thickness of the plank. A plank 12' long, 7" wide, and 3" thick, contains 21 square feet. Of course this principle can be quickly applied to pieces whose length is any convenient multiple or fraction of twelve. Thus a board 18' long, 8" wide, and 1" thick, contains 1½ times as many square feet as one 12' long, or 12 feet. A plank 9' long, 6" wide, and 2" thick, contains ¾ as