10. Describe and demonstrate the four grades of lumber as they are commonly graded.
11. What will be the nature of the sound if a dry, perfect piece of timber is struck with the knuckles? A wet or decaying piece? What does it usually signify if there is a great variety of color in a board? How may decayed lumber be detected by its odor? How may incipient decay be stopped? How may decay be prevented or cured?
12. How is lumber less than 1” in thickness surveyed? Lumber over 1” in thickness? How are joists and scantlings measured? To what lengths are logs sawed in the forest? In surveying, where should a common board be measured? A quarter-sawed board? Demonstrate the use of the lumber scale.
13. What should be the qualities of a good framing timber? Of timber for outside finish? To be buried? For floors? For inside finish? For shingles? For siding? How long should lumber be dried before using? How should lumber for inside finish be cared for while waiting for use? Describe the qualities and the uses of the following kinds of lumber: ash, apple, basswood, beech, birch, butternut, cedar, cherry, chestnut, cypress, elm, hemlock, hickory, locust, maple, mahogany, oak, pine, poplar, spruce, sycamore, walnut.
CHAPTER III
Care of Lumber
14. The piling of lumber.—(A.) To the uninitiated it may seem that the piling of lumber is work upon which it is not necessary to expend much skill, but there are few operations in which carelessness or ignorance will cause more loss to a wood-worker.
(B.) The front end of a lumber pile should be higher than the back, therefore it is a good plan to locate it upon ground which falls away to the rear, or to build the ways which support the pile so that the water which drives into the pile will run out at the back end, and not stand upon the boards, as this will cause discolorations.
15. Permanent lumber ways.—These should be built by some method similar to that shown in Fig. 22. It is not a good plan to lay timbers upon the ground, as they will decay rapidly, and there will not be sufficient room for air to circulate under the pile to allow the boards of the lower courses to dry out properly. The pile is also apt to settle when the frost comes out of the ground in the spring. Lumber should not be stacked above wet or marshy ground; if necessary to stack it where the weeds are of rank growth, the latter should be kept down.
The ways should be built with a solid foundation, well below the frost line, though this is rarely done except for permanent lumber storage. This is shown at a, Fig. 22, in which it will be seen that the ways are built to stand a heavy load; the space between the centers of the ways should be about five feet, as multiples of this distance will accommodate any length of boards.