Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions When is the best time to harvest timber?

Rudy

That last post makes me wonder if the archives of the British Admiralty might be a resource.
I would assume the information would be declassified.

If any of this leads to building a cannon carriage, I'm in

Uh-oh I bet Homeland Security just rolled out of the bat cave. LOL

Rudy,
I also had a chance to pick up a copy of Scribner's lumber and Log book . Mine was printed in 1872. It says word for word what you quoted, including referring to the "experiments".

I also found this book online A Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery

This version was printed 1867. It is the 3rd edition. It has a section on felling timber (page 264) that says nearly word for word what the Scribner book says -- Clearly someone was plaigerizing.

Anyway, it refers to the experiments as well, calling them "recent experiments".

I bet we can find more about these experiments.

Gabel

I have a 1923 edition of the Scribners Lumber and Log book, it has this to say. "The most suitable time for felling timber is that in which vegetation is at rest, which is the case in mid-winter and in mid-summer; recent opinions, derivrd from facts, incline to give prefference to the latter season, say the month of July: but the usual practice is to fell trees for timber between the first of December and middle of March. Some experiments are in progress with a view to determine the question with regard to oak timber for ordinary purposes." Same thing, no results from the experiments.

Tom

"ordnance", "ordinary"...Am I the only one to notice this? Gentlemen, are you both certain of the text you're reading? If they are both as quoted I would be inclined to think there might have been an editing error in the first edition which was corrected on subsequent editions (or vice-versa). Either way..a great topic on which I am surprised there is not more scientific evidence. Cheers.

Dan,

If you follow the link I posted you will see the text as it appears in the book titled "A Course of Instruction in Ordnance and Gunnery."

I also have a copy of the Scribner book from 1872. It contains the same text with regards to selecting and felling timber, with several references to "ordnance". Rudy is correct that this refers to the carriages that artillery was mounted to.

I find it curious that the same text occurs in both books without a reference to the other. My best guess is that the Scribner book plaigerized the "Ordnance" book-- that would explain the strange preoccupation of the Scribner book with timber for "ordnance" purposes.

The Scribner book is primarily a book of tables listing cubic volumes for different log diameters and lengths and board foot tables for different scantlings. It appears the entire 3 page section on selecting, felling, and seasoning timber has been lifted straight out of the ordnance book.

Here is another link to the ordnance book.

ordnance book

"ordinary" Yes I noticed, I even got out the magnifying glass to double check the small print before I posted.

I just checked, in 1923 they had changed the word "ordnance"to "ordinary" everywere it appeared in the text. Tom

So I wonder if this change in text, ordinary for ordinance, is an intentional correction, or possibly a "dumbing down" of the content or more likely a lack of knowledge on the 1923 eidtor's part since some sixty years had passed and the seperation from consumer, practitioner and editors with any knowledge of the old ways was widening in the breech of industrialization?

I'll bet we can get Mullen on board if we go for the cannon carriage. We could get the plans from the one they did at the Masters of the Buildings Arts Festival in Charleston when Gabel was working with me and a slew of friends building the bus stop shelter. Maybe we should do two or three with timber harvested at different times of the year and see what difference it makes when we light 'em up?

John,

Good idea. Got any inkling of how we would go about accessing that kind of information resource?

I also think Gabel's find is pretty enlighening and points up how small a world it was when these things were being published, at least from the perspective of published practical knowledge about harvesting and using timber.

Rudy