Wood is a large component of Canadian homes. The frame of your house is most certainly wood, and wood is used in many finishes as well. Wood can be found in flooring, baseboards, crown moulding, doorways, trim, cabinets, and even the furniture of a home. As a homeowner many of the activities you will perform in repairing or improving your home will involve wood. With wood you can realize many of the most beautiful aspects of your home, but it can also turn against you. One day you may discover that one of your creations has begun to warp or wear unexpectedly, it could even develop an ugly crack. Hopefully, with these helpful tips, your relationship with wood will be more positive.
When I was a kid, I remember learning the star constellations and thinking how much smarter it made me feel knowing those invented names to star patterns in the sky. I think it’s more the feeling of having a connection with the ancient world that was really the cause of feeling so much smarter; after all it wasn’t too hard to learn. I got the same feeling when I started to learn about woodworking. It’s really a beautiful trade. I really like the smell of the wood when you cut it, and the texture and the feel of the wood in your hands, and the amazing realization that you have moulded a block of wood into something with form and a purpose.
The most important characteristic of wood is its grain. A piece of cut lumber gets its stability from how the tree rings are angled in relation to the face of the board. Look at the end of the piece of wood you are examining.
· If the rings of the original tree run anywhere from being parallel to the face to at about a 30° angle this is called flatsawn lumber stock. It’s the most common cut, but you have to be careful with this, as changes in humidity will cause the wood to curve along that very same tree ring arc.
· Riftsawn lumber has rings that travel between 30° and 60°.
· Quartersawn lumber has rings between 60° and 90° and these are the most stable pieces of lumber you can find.
Remember: When you are cutting wood, you must always cut it with the grain. If you are staining wood, the inner rings will soak up more stain than outer rings, and look darker.
A 2 x 4 will be a solid piece of wood, but you can buy wood in many other types of formats. There are pieces of lumber that are manufactured. Particleboard is made from wood chips, dust and shavings pressed together with glue. It is the cheapest to produce. Often particleboard will have a wood veneer applied to the surface to make it look more like the wood that we are used to seeing. A drawback is that if particleboard gets wet, it will balloon outward
Plywood is made from thin sheets of veneer pressed together the grains of the different sheets are placed so they run in separate directions to increase the strength. Plywood is resistant to shrinking, cracking and warping and is more flexible than solid wood. There are several variations for plywood that are used for different applications.
Pressure treated wood can be used outdoors and most people use it to build their decks and privacy fences as it resist rotting as well as attacks from animals insects and fungi. You have to be careful when working with these type of treated wood, that splinters do not get in your skin as the process of treating the wood is quite harsh and can cause irritation and serious harm.
There are engineered plastics that take the form of wood so you can use it to build your deck, it looks and feels like wood, and yet it is totally plastic and obviously has the resilience and strength you would expect of plastic. It comes in a variety of styles to suit your taste. The closer the plastic resembles real wood, the more expensive it becomes.
This is the briefest of introductions to woodworking, I hope it is enough to pique your curiosity so you investigate on the ways it can help with your projects.
