Why might students need to know about various wood terms?

When students are researching (especially on the Internet/World Wide Web) they will miss finding lots of information and resources if they are not aware of commonly used international terms. Only about three percent of the WWW is Australian content, so students must be aware of terms used elsewhere. This applies to good reference texts, also.

When researching, students should also be aware of the various ways of spelling commonly used words in the English language outside of the UK and Australia. (eg. UK: colour/US: color).

What is the difference between timber, wood and lumber?

In Australia, in the forestry industry, wood is the usual term for the product created once a tree is milled (cut up). Prior to a tree being harvested (logged), timber is the term most often used. Other industries generally refer to timber as the product ready for making something. For example, wood that is suitable for carpentry and building houses is called timber. However, both terms are used interchangeably in Australia. The term lumber is not used.

Dictionary meanings: (Reference: Dictionary.com)

Timber has three meanings in this context: (i) trees or wooded land considered as a source of wood; (ii) wood used as a building material; (iii) a dressed piece of wood, especially a beam in a structure.

Wood (i) a large and thick collection of trees; (ii) trees cut or sawed for the fire or other uses; (iii) the hard fibrous substance which composes the body of a tree and its branches.

In Canada, the two terms used are "dimension lumber" for smaller sized wood pieces, and "timber" for the larger sizes [1].

In the US, timber is used prior to the tree being harvested, and then is usually referred to as lumber when cut into usable sizes. "Wood products" is the term used for the rest of the harvested timber - for products such as woodpulp, woodchip, panel boards, etc [2].

Lumber [3] The product of the saw and planing mill for which manufacturing is limited to sawing, resawing, passing length-wise through a standard planing machine, crosscutting to length, and matching. Lumber may be made from either softwood or hardwood.

Timbers [3] Lumber that is standard 114 mm (nominal 5 in.) or more in least dimension. Timbers may be used as beams, stringers, posts, caps, sills, girders, or purlins.

Next>> Online task - "Australian Pine"

Citations

[1] Canadian Wood Council (2000). Lumber Product Info [WWW Document] URL www.cwc.ca/english/wood_design/wood_products/catalogue/lumber.html

[2] Forest Products Laboratory (1999). Wood handbook: Wood as an engineering material. Gen. Tech. Rep. FPL-GTR-113. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. 463 p. [WWW Document] [Printed copies of this publication are no longer available from FPL, but can be downloaded at URL http://pc9.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/FPLGTR/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm]

[3] Forest Products Laboratory (1999). Wood handbook: Wood as an engineering material. ["Glossary"] [Adobe Portable Document Format] URL http://pc9.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/FPLGTR/fplgtr113/fplgtr113.htm]

Copyright D. L. Christiansen [Last updated February 2001] Images: respective copyright owners noted/cited.

Return to Materials Technology - WOOD