how is timber grown?

Question

also if you can how is it havested and milled? and how it is cured, seasoned, graded and sized. this is for a project if you have any in fo it would be appreciated thnx

Answer 1

Well timber is just trees. Trees start out as a seed and then grow into a tree. After about 20-30 years the tree is mature enough to harvest as timber. Then a timber co. comes to the forest and they can either "select cut" or "clear cut". If they select cut, they pick out the best trees and keep them in the forest for future regeneration. They space these trees out far enough so the forest floor gets enough sunlight to grow the seeds of the good trees that are remaining. The select cut is ideal for keeping a forest intact for wildlife, ridding the forest from "weed species" trees and making some money.
Clear cutting just takes down all trees in the forest. In both cases, a timber co. will bring in large machines...ie skidders,chippers, saws and front end loaders and cut the trees down with on machine. Then drag it out with the skidder and cut the tree into sizes small enough to load onto the trucks. The trucks can either take the trees to the sawmill for pulping (used for paper etc) or for lumber.

Answer 2

When a tree has been selected for use as lumber it will be felled, either with chainsaws or with big machinery. Once on the ground the limbs are removed and either allowed to decay back into the soil or used as firewood or pulp for paper. The trunk is the only viable part of a tree for straight lumber. The next step is to cut it into boards. A sawyer uses a mill to cut the log into pieces, the number and size depends on the size of the trunk and the quality of the lumber desired. There are six major ways a trunk can be converted into lumber and each grants a different quantity and quality of lumber from the same sized trunk. The typical Mill uses a band for the blade. Once the trunk has been converted to lumber it is stacked with little pieces of wood, called stickers, seperating each board. The stack is either left out in the open air with just a tarp over it, or it is moved into a kiln, a large climate controlled room. Over the course of the next 2-12 months the wood will lose a significant amount of moisture, once it has achieved the desired moisture content (8-20% depending on the species and final use) it will be sold. Hardwoods are graded based on length, width and quantity of defects. Soft woods are either graded by their intended use or the same way as hardwoods. The size of woods intended for furniture and trim is expressed in 1/4" increments, so a board that was cut to 1'' at the mill will be sold as 4/4, 2'' = 8/4, Even if the board was planed so that a 4/4 board is actually 13/16 thick you still pay for the full 4/4. Wood that has been planed on all four sides is sold at a specific length and width so an 8' 1x12 will be 3/4" thick, 11 1/2" wide and 8" long.

Answer 3

When I was a teenager I planted hundreds if not thousands of teeny tiny jackpine seedlings for a timber company. These are used for timber. We had a spade and stuck it in the ground ...reefed it back and forth and dropped a seedling in...stepped it into the ground and moved on to the next spot. This process took just seconds to complete. These were all planted in really long rows and all of the rows together(just like a field) were (and still are) called plantations. Now days they have a machine that does the same thing but much more efficient. The trees do not get watered with irrigation systems or anything but good old rain. I used to hold the measuring stick (101 inches long if I remember correctly) for my dad and then my husband who cut logs or (pulp as it was also called) for timber companies. I also piled the logs. They would get paid for each stick of pulp (or log) they cut, back in the later 70's I think they got a quarter for each stick cut. A most hated thing was to go into a plantation that a storm had blown trees down....it was a tangled, dangerous mess and anybody hated to go in and cut in blowdown....it was a slow going process and you couldn't make much money. During the hot summer months if there wasn't much rain the cutters couldn't stay in the woods after noon because of the fire danger of a chainsaw spark starting a forrest fire. Everybody then used chain saws. Now they use machines to do that too. This machine not only cuts the tree down but it also takes off all of the branches. Extremely expensive equipment to own but also extremely efficient ... one of these machines can do the work of who knows how many men. Things are not at all like they used to be in the pulp woods!

Answer 4

Some timber is harvest from public property via contract. Other timber comes from tree farms. Usually seedling trees are planted out specifically for harvesting and at specified spacing. Some trees need to be planted closely together for instance, so they will stretch upwards for the light and grow straight with fewer limbs, as opposed to spreading.

Something becoming more common outside of asia, are varieties of timber bamboo. It is extremely fast growing, very durable, and easily renewable. Larger varieties such as dendrocalamus, can put up growths 60 ft tall in a single season. I've had one of my bamboos grow 18 inches in a single day, though others have been recorded up to 36 inches in a day.

And I'm starting to ramble, aren't I? I love plants.:-)

Hope that's a little bit of help.:-)

Answer 5

I'm no lumber milling expert so I'll stick to the part I know about. Today's lumber is less dense than the lumber of 50 years ago. Why? Because, as the trees were cut down, they were replaced with other trees that were more suitable to the climate and soil make up.

The lumber companies did this because they wanted to stay in business. If there are no new trees, there is no new lumber.

Where you once had a good mix of trees, you would now have primarily one type. Because of the better growing conditions for that type of tree, they grow faster. This means less "rings" per inch of lumber, thus less dense. It also means more lumber to harvest.

If you were to pull old lumber out of an old house you would see that there were more rings at the cross-section of the 2X4 than a current 2X4 down at Home Depot.

Finally, the myth is dispelled! Old wood is harder!

Answer 6

Ok, timber is basically a tree yeah! So when they are tall enough they are cut down and transported(one popular way, or at least was popular at one point, is to use a river to move the logs), then they should arrive at a factory be i am unsure how they cure and season the timber but i though the river thing is neat

Answer 7

Timber is grown from seedlings.The rest of your question depends on the type of tree

Answer 8

Timber is harvested by logging companies . It can either be cut by chainsaw or snipped off with a snipper/buncher; loaded on logging trucks and taken to the mill. At the mill the lumber goes to the sorting yard where it is sorted as to size , type and quality. It is then bucked into lengths for the mill. If the mill has too much lumber on hand the logs can be kept in "booms" in nearby lakes or rivers and are encircled by logs chained together to keep them together.The logs are sent to the mill where they are scanned by computer to get the best use of the log. It is sent through the gang saw which cuts the boards. The boards then go to the Planer which sands them to dimension then the gradermen, who checks for flaws in the boards and sort them according to standards set out by the Lumber Grading Association. The boards are marked with a coloured pencil as to grade, pulled off the greenchain and stacked according to grade. the "lift" of lumber in 8' stud length, 10' and 12 ' is sent to the kiln to be dried for several weeks,so it it no longer "green", and the drying helps prevent warping. It is then wrapped and shipped to lumber yards or shipped out of the country. Most smaller pieces of wood are either chipped, or "finger-jointed' to make longer pieces that are primarily used for baseboards, coving, and door trim. If you look at trim wood in a lumber yard or in a lumber store you should be able to see the joint which is actually stronger than the wood itself. Fingerjoint lumber is considered a "value added" commodity making use of byproducts. Hope this helps.

Answer 9

TIMBER IS NOT "GROWN"--TIMBER COMES FROM TREES AND THE TREES ARE GROWN--THEN WHEN THE TREES ARE BIG ENUF, THEY ARE LOGGED, NOT HARVESTED...LOL-THEY ARE CUT DOWN AND SHIPPED TO A MILL WHERE THEY ARE STRIPPED OF THEIR BARK AND CUT (MILLED) INTO THE SIZES NEEDED. AS FOR CURED, SEASONED AND GRADED IT DEPENDS ON WHAT THE PIECES ARE GOING TO BE USED FOR. SOME PIECES ARE GOING TO BE "TREATED" FOR OUTDOOR USE AND SOME WILL NOT.

Answer 10

Plants are planted most around 12 inches high, After approx 20 years they are harvested and send to either mill or pulpwood
plant.