Timber Frame Tools

• Abnormal. Differing from the usual structure.
• Acuminate. Tapering at the end.
• Adhesion. The union of members of different floral whorls.
• Air-seasoning. The drying of wood in the open air.
• Albumen. A name applied to the food store laid up outside the embryo in many seeds; also nitrogenous organic matter found in plants.
• Alburnam. Sapwood.
• Angiosperms. Those plants which bear their seeds within a pericarp.
• Annual rings. The layers of wood which are added annually to the tree.
• Apartment kiln. A drying arrangement of one or more rooms with openings at each end.
• Arborescent. A tree in size and habit of growth.
• Baffle plate. An obstruction to deflect air or other currents.
• Bastard cut. Tangential cut. Wood of inferior cut.
• Berry. A fruit whose entire pericarp is succulent.
• Blower kiln. A drying arrangement in which the air is blown through heating coils into the drying room.
• Box kiln. A small square heating room with openings in one end only.
• Brittleness. Aptness to break; not tough; fragility.
• Burrow. A shelter; insect’s hole in the wood.
• Calorie. Unit of heat; amount of heat which raises the temperature.
• Calyx. The outer whorl of floral envelopes.
• Capillary. A tube or vessel extremely fine or minute.
• Case-harden. A condition in which the pores of the wood are closed and the outer surface dry, while the inner portion is still wet or unseasoned.
• Cavity. A hollow place; a hollow.
• Cell. One of the minute, elementary structures comprising the greater part of plant tissue.
• Cellulose. A primary cell-wall substance.
• Checks. The small chinks or cracks caused by the rupture of the wood fibres.
• Cleft. Opening made by splitting; divided.
• Coarse-grained. Wood is coarse-grained when the annual rings are wide or far apart.
• Cohesion. The union of members of the same floral whorl.
• Contorted. Twisted together.
• Corolla. The inner whorl of floral envelopes.
• Cotyledon. One of the parts of the embryo performing in part the function of a leaf, but usually serving as a storehouse of food for the developing plant.
• Crossers. Narrow wooden strips used to separate the material on kiln cars.
• Cross-grained. Wood is cross-grained when its fibres are spiral or twisted.
• Dapple. An exaggerated form of mottle.
• Deciduous. Not persistent; applied to leaves that fall in autumn and to calyx and corolla when they fall off before the fruit develops.
• Definite. Limited or defined.
• Dew-point. The point at which water is deposited from moisture-laden air.
• Dicotyledon. A plant whose embryo has two opposite cotyledons.
• Diffuse. Widely spreading.
• Disk. A circular, flat, thin piece or section of the tree.
• Duramen. Heartwood.
• Embryo. Applied in botany to the tiny plant within the seed.
• Enchinate. Beset with prickles.
• Expansion. An enlargement across the grain or lengthwise of the wood.
• Fibres. The thread-like portion of the tissue of wood.
• Fibre-saturation point. The amount of moisture wood will imbibe, usually 25 to 30 per cent of its dry-wood weight.
• Figure. The broad and deep medullary rays as in oak showing when the timber is cut into boards.
• Filament. The stalk which supports the anther.
• Fine-grained. Wood is fine-grained when the annual rings are close together or narrow.
• Germination. The sprouting of a seed.
• Girdling. To make a groove around and through the bark of a tree, thus killing it.
• Glands. A secreting surface or structure; a protuberance having the appearance of such an organ.
• Glaucous. Covered or whitened with a bloom.
• Grain. Direction or arrangement of the fibres in wood.
• Grubs. The larvae of wood-destroying insects.
• Gymnosperms. Plants bearing naked seeds; without an ovary.
• Habitat. The geographical range of a plant.
• Heartwood. The central portion of tree.
• Hollow-horning. Internal checking.
• Honeycombing. Internal checking.
• Hot-blast kiln. A drying arrangement in which the air is blown through heating coils into the drying room.
• Humidity. Damp, moist.
• Hygroscopicity. The property of readily imbibing moisture from the atmosphere.
• Indefinite. Applied to petals or other organs when too numerous to be conveniently counted.
• Indigenous. Native to the country.
• Involute. A form of vernation in which the leaf is rolled inward from its edges.
• Kiln-drying. Drying or seasoning of wood by artificial heat in an inclosed room.
• Leaflet. A single division of a compound leaf.
• Limb. The spreading portion of the tree.
• Lumen. Internal space in the spring- and summer-wood fibres.
• Median. Situated in the middle.
• Medulla. The pith.
• Medullary rays. Rays of fundamental tissue which connect the pith with the bark.
• Membranous. Thin and rather soft, more or less translucent.
• Midrib. The central or main rib of a leaf.
• Moist-air kiln. A drying arrangement in which the heat is taken from radiating coils located inside the drying room.
• Mottle. Figure transverse of the fibres, probably caused by the action of wind upon the tree.
• Non-porous. Without pores.
• Oblong. Considerably longer than broad, with flowing outline.
• Obtuse. Blunt, rounded.
• Oval. Broadly elliptical.
• Ovary. The part of the pistil that contains the ovules.
• Parted. Cleft nearly, but not quite to the base or midrib.
• Parenchyma. Short cells constituting the pith and pulp of the tree.
• Pericarp. The walls of the ripened ovary, the part of the fruit that encloses the seeds.
• Permeable. Capable of being penetrated.
• Petal. One of the leaves of the corolla.
• Pinholes. Small holes in the wood caused by worms or insects.
• Pistil. The modified leaf or leaves which bear the ovules; usually consisting of ovary, style and stigma.
• Plastic. Elastic, easily bent.
• Pocket kilns. Small drying rooms with openings on one end only and in which the material to be dried is piled directly on the floor.
• Pollen. The fertilizing powder produced by the anther.
• Pores. Minute orifices in wood.
• Porous. Containing pores.
• Preliminary steaming. Subjecting wood to a steaming process before drying or seasoning.
• Progressive kiln. A drying arrangement with openings at both ends, and in which the material enters at one end and is discharged at the other.
• Rick. A pile or stack of lumber.
• Rift. To split; cleft.
• Ring shake. A large check or crack in the wood following an annual ring.
• Roe. A peculiar figure caused by the contortion of the woody fibres, and takes a wavy line parallel to them.
• Sapwood. The outer portions of the tree next to the bark; alburnam.
• Saturate. To cause to become completely penetrated or soaked.
• Season checks. Small openings in the ends of the wood caused by the process of drying.
• Seasoning. The process by which wood is dried or seasoned.
• Seedholes. Minute holes in wood caused by wood-destroying worms or insects.
• Shake. A large check or crack in wood caused by the action of the wind on the tree.
• Shrinkage. A lessening or contraction of the wood substance.
• Skidways. Material set on an incline for transporting lumber or logs.
• Species. In science, a group of existing things, associated according to properties.
• Spermatophyta. Seed-bearing plants.
• Spring-wood. Wood that is formed in the spring of the year.
• Stamen. The pollen-bearing organ of the flower, usually consisting of filament and anther.
• Stigma. That part of the pistil which receives the pollen.
• Style. That part of the pistil which connects the ovary with the stigma.
• Taproot. The main root or downward continuation of the plant axis.
• Temporary checks. Checks or cracks that subsequently close.
• Tissue. One of the elementary fibres composing wood.
• Thunder shake. A rupture of the fibres of the tree across the grain, which in some woods does not always break them.
• Tornado shake. (See Thunder shake.)
• Tracheids. The tissues of the tree which consist of vertical cells or vessels closed at one end.
• Warping. Turning or twisting out of shape.
• Wind shake. (See Thunder shake.)
• Working. The shrinking and swelling occasioned in wood.
• Wormholes. Small holes in wood caused by wood-destroying worms.
• Vernation. The arrangement of the leaves in the bud.
• Whorl. An arrangement of organs in a circle about a central axis.

INDEX: Seasoning of Wood