A Background on Hardwood

ay lack Millikan

HIS is the first in a series of articles in which we hope to pro- d] d Glonce mote greater understanding of hardwood lumber, its common species and uses as well as the differences between hardwood and softwood in methods of cutting, grading, selling and merchandising.

Hardwoods, the glamor woods of the lumber industry, are perhaps more misunderstood than understood by many lumberrnen who are very expe. rienced in t}e softwood field. Sellers of softwood ask valid but answerable questions such as, why can it not be sold in dimension sizes? W'hy can we not buy S4S clear? Why is the footage so hard to figure? Why do they grade it as they do ? These questions we will try to answer so that retailers and manufacturers reading our series may glean information relating to the buying and use of hardwoods.

Basic to many of these questions is the timber used to cut hardwood lumber. While log size and quality vary radically from specie to specie and area to area, generally the hardwood logs are smaller, more valuable and of generally lower interior quality than found in almost any softwood specie.

Since much of our hardwood is used in the production of furniture, and its uses are related to "shopping" out the clear cuts, the hardwood grading rules are designed for this purpose. The prices, as they relate to grades, relate to percentage of yield into "furniture cuttings."

With the relative high cost of the logs, their small size and the yield method of gradingl, logs are cut into random width lumber in order to get as much out of the log as possible. This lumber is then sorted for pulling the very low grade and is put on sticks for air drying in preparation for kiln drying.

In this first in a series of articles on hardwoods, titled "Background on Hardwood," Jack Millikan, current president of the Los Angeles Hardwood Lumbermen's gives a brief glimpse of what future articles, also written by industry experts, will cover.

Some of the species (oak for example), in thicker sizes such as 814, must be held in inventorv and air dried for six months or more before they can be put into the kiln.

Logically, then, it follows that selling the lumber in dimension sizes and in grades similar to softwood grades would make for even less supply and higher prices than we now have. The percentage oL clear yield even witll the best of production in most species is much less than softwood.

Worth mentioning also is that some imported hardwoods, such as Philippine mahogany and Australian spe. cies. are cut on dimension sizes-thus their availability as I x 6-8.10-12.

Domestic hardwood lumber is becoming harder and harder to obtain at the same time that vinyls, plastic moulded parts and printed wood grains on various substraits are being more commonly used in furniture. The important point here is that demand for hardwood or things that look like hardwood are increasing. Constant changes may occur in style, color, heavy design vs. "clean" simple design, but demand keeps increasing annually.

W'e will discuss, in depth, various species and their uses. The woods will be grouped into "hard hardwoods" such as maple, hickory, birch and beech; open grain hardwoods such as ash, oak, pecan; softer hardwoods such as poplar and magnolia and West coast hardwoods such as alder and Pacific Coast maple. We will have information on imported hardwoods and tieir growing impact on the hardwood market. Uses-usual, probable and improbable will add a bit of spice as the series goes along. We will have an explanation of grad- irg, tallying and the kiln drying shrinkage problem in hardwood lumber. Finishing and its challenges will make for interesting reading.

Hardwood is here to stay, and the understanding of its place in the market and how the retailer can profitably become a part of it is one of our aims.

Hardwood has seemed at times to be a mystery to the uninformed with its diverse species-each with its own problems. Our hope is that we may add information and expertise to the uninitiated so that when someone asks a question about hardwood you will be prepared to answer.