Lumber Terminology

Can anyone suggest high quality sources for historic terminology of lumber? Most dictionaries give vague definitions for words board and plank. Rarely do I find deal, balk, cant and stave defined, and there are often inconsistant definitions between sources. Is there an Oxford Dictionary of the lumber world which is considered the standard? What other terms are there?

Speaking of technical definitions, isn't a post always in compression? If so,shouldn't it be called a king-piece truss or king-tie truss?

Thanks;
Jim

One problem with searching for a common definition of historic terms is that some of the words would have meant different things in different areas. This is still the case in Ontario with a good number of words. So I would offer that there is probably not an historic woodworking Oxford dictionary.

Here's the only thing I know of. I have taken this link from a post Jim Rogers made on the Forestryforum.
http://www.forestryforum.com/media/glossary.pdf

I recently read a feature called "word court" in Atlantic Monthly about the meaning of words and the usefulness of dictionaries. Turns out that the dictionary that is most useful is the "e-dictionary". You may want to google some words and see what pops up!

Brad, that glossary is this Guild's glossary which Jim Rogers has permission to post in that forum.

gregk, thanks, I like to type in various combinations of words into different search engines and see what comes up. Keep in mind that any one search engine only covers a fraction of the internet. I was hoping you guys would be better than that!

I posted this question in the forestry forum in the sawmilling section and have added a number of other terms there.

Thanks
Jim

Jim, I am still wondering if the King Post can be called a King Post. In Historic American Roof Trusses, Jan Lewandoski, part one Introduction, David C. Fishetti points out in the first page that a truss at rest is in equilibrium, with all forces and reactions in balance, a net zero of forces. So, is the King Post bouncing around under live loads, first I am a post than I am a Tie, here comes the wind again, now I am a Tie, and back to a post as the wind slackens. Can we get an engineer to confirm this. I am not an engeneer and don't play one of TV. I may be understanding this in the wrong way. Tim

Hi everyone

Historic terms HMMmmmm

I stumbled over many especially in the historic millwrighting field like "spiders" "gudgeons" "barrel wheel" "rose wheel"
"muley saw", and in the woolen mills the terminology is just staggering. The processes of operating and repairing the old equipment is unreal.


many of the terms to describe parts of machinery used then are not in any modern dictionaries, you have to be lucky enough to have descriptive plates in old texts to refer to that label the part with a descriptive name

NH

I guess I answered part of my own question...I was in a library which has all 20 volumes of the Oxford Dictionary and it is amazing. However, there still are words and contexts not recorded by the Oxford.

Here is an abreviated list of terms I found intersting from Modern Practical Joinery by George Ellis (1908). It is of Brittish origins.

Market Forms of Timber
A Log is a trunk felled
A Balk is the log squared by an axe or saw
A Plank in hardwood is any cut stuff upwards of 9" wide and 1.75" thick; in softwood upwards of 10" wide and 2" thick.
A Deal is over 2.25" thick and less than 10" wide.
A Batten 1.5" to 2" thick by 9" wide or less
A Board- less than 2" thick and 6" wide
Die-Square Stuff-between 5"x5" and 9"x9"
Whole Timber- uncut balks
A Flitch-half of A balk cut in two lengthways
Quartering- 3x3 to 4.5x4
Scantlings- Miscellaneous cut stuff
A square of flooring or match boarding is 100ft. superficial
A Hundred of Deals is 120
A Load of Timber- 50 cubic feet
A Float of Timber- 18 loads
Ends- cutoffs
Poles- Straight trunks, free from branches, greatest diameter not exceeding 8"
Masts- ditto exceeding 8"


Of course, there are more terms than these...and then there is timber framing!

Jim

Thanks for sharing Housewright.
Hey, it's your Maine friend here.

As an English Major in college, I have seen the many-volumed Oxford Dictionary, often called simply, the OED. It's a massive archive indeed.

There is a great book called "The Professor and the Madman" that was a bestseller and chronicles how the OED was actually compiled. It was unprecedented and took decades.

I would think there would be more in there actually on timber related terms...

you have a cool quest going on that shares much of what the OED once faced. I will try to help. I'm actually a collector of old dictionaries/glossaries. I'll look at what I have. By the way, you may want to try the word "glossary" in a search for books of timber-related terms.

Don

Hi Housewright,

I would hazard a guess that your terminology quoted from Ellis relates more to the historic English import of timber from the Baltic and more especially from the ports of Riga, Memel and Danzig.

In his Master's dissertation at The Weald and Downland [Bournemouth University] the late Tony Taylor made an excellent study of this trade and for example the word "deal" more rightly describes a Scots Pine (pinus sylvestris) tree that has been hewn square and then cut into 3 equal slabs. The timbers were derived from a hewn 9 x 9 baulk which was then cut into 3 slabs that are say just under 3 x 9. These timbers were imported into various ports on the east side of England, especially to Essex and Kent where one of those ports in Kent today is called Deal. The reason for the 9 - 10" limits is because that is about the physical limit capable of being produced from Baltic pine trees which are slow grown and will take about 200 years to reach this marketable size. Very good quality timbers

The words that you have quoted above from Ellis do not therefore readily translate into terms used to describe Oak timbers though some generic terms are common.

Regards

Ken Hume