I pretty sure it's the latter one Tim.
To maintain your grading certification, it cost a good chunk of money, you have to grade a lot of timber (there's a minimum), and you have to have regular inspections. It's quite a responsibility.
The Guild doesn't do any grading directly, just education on it. There is a TF company in Tennessee that has their own graders, but I don't know whether they would want to grade other people's wood. There's these guys for pine:
http://www.spib.org/lumberservices.shtmland you could always contact these guys for hardwood:
http://www.slma.org/Also, I think that the grade stamps for timbers are different than for boards--unfortunately most mills have stamps for board grading.
