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Product Information - Softwood Lumber
Softwood Lumber would include pine, fir, spruce, and other trees
that have needles and don't lose their leaves in the fall. It does
not necessarily refer to the hardness of the wood as the name
implies.
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Drying: Most pine and spruce are
either air dried or kiln dried to a moisture level much higher
than that of hardwood lumber. Most of our Ponderosa Pine, Spruce,
and Fir is at the 14-18% range. However, most of our Eastern White
Pine (including Furniture and Clear Grade Pine) is kiln dried down
to the same 6-8% range that our hardwood lumber is dried at.
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Grades: There is a whole different set of grading rules
with softwood lumber as opposed to the hardwood lumber rules. The
grades of softwood lumber we stock are: Clear, D-select, moulding
grade, #1, #2, and furniture grade pine. Clear Pine is similar to
a select grade in hardwood lumber rules. D-Select and moulding
grades are our clear grades of ponderosa pine and #2 is our knotty
grade of ponderosa pine. The #2 pine and spruce allows sound,
tight knots. Furniture pine is an Eastern White pine that has
sound, tight knots and is a #2 grade pine.
- Nominal vs actual tallies: Dimensional lumber (softwood that is brought in
surfaced 4 sides) is tallied upon a nominal tally rather than an
actual tally as hardwood lumber is. A nominal tally is a tally
that was made before the wood was milled. When a piece of pine is
surfaced on the face and bottom and is straight lined on both
sides, or surfaced 4 sides (S4S), there is a loss of wood due to
the milling of the wood and it is customary to tally it at the
pre-milled tally. A 1 x 10 piece of pine has an actual width of 9
1/4" and is 3/4" thick instead of 1" thick. This board would be
tallied as if it were 1" thick and 10" wide. The formula is the
same as if it were hardwood lumber, only the nominal width and
thicknesses are used. The width (in inches) is multiplied by the
length (in feet), then divided by 12. If the board were 16' long
it would be tallied at 13 board feet.
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