Whife Pocket - Dead or Alive?

by ROIF D. GtERU,tl West Coost lumbermen's Associqtion

URING the recent NRLDA Convention in San Francisco and

NAHB Exposition in Chicago, WCLA staff members noticed that additional information is desired by some retailers and builders regarding the properties of white pocket lumber. Known scientifically as Fomes pini, white pocket (or white speck) is a form of fungus found in living trees of the Douglas fir region. It occurs mostly in old-growth timber, usually entering the tree through an injury, such as the loss of a limb in a storm. The fungus can begin to grow only in living trees, and can continue to grow only so long as the tree is alive. White pocket has never been known to grow or spread in lumber.

The United States Forest Products Laboratory, in its Report No. 2017, 'Properties of White Pocket Douglas Fir Lumber," states : "Fomes pini causing white pocket does not continue to grow after the tree is cut and converted into lumber. No visual evidence of further growth of that fungus was noted in a pile of solidly stacked green white pocket lumber that had been covered with canvas for more than a year, although other funqi had infected the wood inf and caused some de, decay. Douglas fir lumber containing white pocket is not subject to further development of Fomes pini or other decay if it remains dry in use."

The tragic Tillamook fire of 1933 remalns a scar in the minds of all \Mestern lumbermen. Flowever, it also provides incontestible evidence regard- ing the properties of white pocket, for upon the death of these trees in 1933, or during one of the subsequent fires, the white pocket they contained ceased to develop.

White pocket has no more effect on the strength of the piece in which it is found than do other normal characteristics. In many cases a piece may be graded Standard or Utility primarily because of the white pocket it contains, and may otherwise be a clear-type piece. Pieces of this kind are a bonus for the buyer or builder.

White pocket occurs chiefly near the outside of the tree in the outer heartwood. This portion of the tree usually develops the highest qualities of lumber. Consequently, white pocket lumber presents a tight appearance and is often stronger than pieces with large knots which would be accepted without question.

Several West Coast mills are running their white pocket clears to paneling patterns. Some of the old-growth trees which have lived in just the right combination of climate, soil, moisture and other circumstances have a wonderfully uniform distribution of white pocket throughout the wood. In some cases it took a hundred years or more to achieve this condition, but the results are some of the most unusual and beautifully finished lumber and paneling available anywhere in the world, with a texture distinctivelv its own.

A MAN WITH A SENSE OF HUMOR (Our Thanks to BOB TUCKER for Permission to Reproduce this Card)

The lack of orders has made this economy size card necessary R. L. TUCKER P. O. Box 5l SPring 3-7100 Medford, Oregon