Seasoning of Wood

by J. B. Wagner

There are few more extensive and wide-reaching subjects on which to treat than timber, which in this book refers to dead timber—the timber of commerce—as distinct from the living tree. Such a great number of different kinds of wood are now being brought from various parts of the world, so many new kinds are continually being added, and the subject is more difficult to explain because timber of practically the same character which comes from different localities goes under different names, that if one were always to adhere to the botanical name there would be less confusion, although even botanists differ in some cases as to names. Except in the cases of the older and better known timbers, one rarely takes up two books dealing with timber and finds the botanical names the same; moreover, trees of the same species may produce a much poorer quality of timber when obtained from different localities in the same country, so that botanical knowledge will not always allow us to dispense with other tests.

The structure of wood affords the only reliable means of distinguishing the different kinds. Color, weight, smell, and other appearances, which are often direct or indirect results of structure, may be helpful in this distinction, but cannot be relied upon entirely. Furthermore, structure underlies nearly all the technical properties of this important product, and furnishes an explanation why one piece differs in these properties from another. Structure explains why oak is heavier, stronger, and tougher than pine; why it is harder to saw and plane, and why it is so much more difficult to season without injury. From its less porous structure alone it is evident that a piece of young and thrifty oak is stronger than the porous wood of an old or stunted tree, or that a Georgia or long-leaf pine excels white pine in weight and strength.

Keeping especially in mind the arrangement and direction of the fibres of wood, it is clear at once why knots and "cross-grain" interfere with the strength of timber. It is due to the structural peculiarities that "honeycombing" occurs in rapid seasoning, that checks or cracks extend radially and follow pith rays, that tangent or "bastard" cut stock shrinks and warps more than that which is quarter-sawn. These same peculiarities enable oak to take a better finish than basswood or coarse-grained pine.

Structure of Wood

The softwoods are made up chiefly of tracheids, or vertical cells closed at the ends, and of the relatively short parenchyma cells of the medullary rays which extend radially from the heart of the tree. The course of the tracheids and the rays are at right angles to each other. Although the tracheids have their permeable portions or pits in their walls, liquids cannot pass through them with the greatest ease. The softwoods do not contain "pores" or vessels and are therefore called "non-porous" woods.

The hardwoods are not so simple in structure as softwoods. They contain not only rays, and in many cases tracheids, but also thick-walled cells called fibres and wood parenchyma for the storage of such foods as starches and sugars. The principal structural features of the hardwoods are the pores or vessels. These are long tubes, the segments of which are made up of cells which have lost their end walls and joined end to end, forming continuous "pipe lines" from the roots to the leaves in the tree. Since they possess pores or vessels, the hardwoods are called "porous" woods.

Red oak is an excellent example of a porous wood. In white oak the vessels of the heartwood especially are closed, very generally by ingrowths called tyloses. This probably explains why red oak dries more easily and rapidly than white oak.

The red and black gums are perhaps the simplest of the hardwoods in structure. They are termed "diffuse porous" woods because of the numerous scattered pores they contain. They have only vessels, wood fibres, and a few parenchyma cells. The medullary rays, although present, are scarcely visible in most instances. The vessels are in many cases open, and might be expected to offer relatively little resistance to drying.

Properties of Wood

Certain general properties of wood may be discussed briefly. We know that wood substance has the property of taking in moisture from the air until some balance is reached between the humidity of the air and the moisture in the wood. This moisture which goes into the cell walls hygroscopic moisture, and the property which the wood substance has of taking on hygroscopic moisture is termed hygroscopicity. Usually wood contains not only hygroscopic moisture but also more or less free water in the cell cavities. Especially is this true of sapwood. The free water usually dries out quite rapidly with little or no shrinkage or other physical change.