Thread: Wood, Timber or Lumber?

I can feel some editing coming on:

regards
Nick
veni, vidi, tornavi
Without wood it's just ...

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Why - did it have vicious thorns?

Long spiky leaf things (gardening never really interested me). Also known as snake plant. Sansevieria trifasciata according to wiki.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

And yet in Winmalee (lower Blue Mountains, NSW) there is a street called Tall Timbers Rd - obviously referring to the local flora. So by the preceding definitions it isn't actually timber yet - still wood (if it's in the ground and still kicking).

Ah yes but these look to the future and forsee a time when these tall trees wil indeed be timber

All in all I think the first couple of replies have it

lumber - yankee

timber - for building

wood - for burning

Dare I continue reading beyond my above quote


Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

Originally Posted by A Duke

What about "TIMBER!!" as a warning to run your a### off as it comes crashing down.

yay, worked out multi quote on tapatalk

I go with previous reply ... timber as it is being cut down because usually it is being cut down as timber

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Hmmm, so why isn't it Tasmanian Blacktimber?

Him: "What did you make it from?"

Me: "Tassie Blackwood"

Him: "You can't have - that's either still a tree or it's firewood"
Me:

Blackwood as a type not as in case of timber or wood. As an apprentice they say, get me some timber for .....
I say what sort and the answer might be Aussie oak, Tassi blackwood, pine etc

So long as you dont use 'lumber' in Australia I think you're doing fine lol


Dave the turning cowboy

turning wood into art

Originally Posted by A Duke

What about "TIMBER!!" as a warning to run your a### off as it comes crashing down.

in australia in the old days that was "UNDER BELOW!" ... until the advent of american tv shows i had never heard the term "TIMBER" used that way ... of course others may have


regards david

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Why - did it have vicious thorns?

No they have long leaves with sharp tips ie long and sharp.

Try this then
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/lumber

I wouldn't want to be lumbered with the term lumber for wood and shiver-me-timbers, going by the timbre in his voice as he yelled "timberrrrrrrrr" as the tree hit the ground when he was a logger posted in the bush cutting sleepers, he would rather be lumbered with wood for the BBQ to celebrate getting all the timber for his weatherboard house which was made from framing timber.....are stuff it, I'm calling it stumps for now before someone makes me walk the plank, so I'll be skirting round this topic before I get posted to One Tree Plains.

Originally Posted by IanW

So I hope you'll take it in that spirit when I drop a botanical name or two & not think I'm being an arrogant pratt....

Cheers,

no haven't really considered that. you seem like a nice guy.

Just trying to make the point of something I find to be so so so absurd. That the lack of apparent 'correct' jargon collates to a lack of skill or intelligence.

People are so keen to win over one another that this impetuous leap is so automatic. I prefer to be the fool than engage in it. Partly why I don't want to know the trivia.

Thats a strong pattern I've noticed ………the more one yearn's for correctness in jargon etc => the more (ironically) impetuously stupid they are in judgment.

but not you…. (or you)… (or that meddling er down the street who so needs to me they can read)

Sorry for sounding arrogant. But arrogance is just something a group of people don't want to hear. And what provoked the arrogance is probably just as bad.

not that I know what I'm talking about. My repressed aspergers/passive/aggressive/inferioritycomplex/nosepicking/titperving/? tendencies ensures I don't.

I hope you have a good week Ian.

That the lack of apparent 'correct' jargon collates to a lack of skill or intelligence.

Jargon is one of those things that 'elite' groups use to exclude people who haven't been indoctrinated. A bit like the masonic handshake. If you don't know the lingo then you haven't been initiated into the group and so you are an outsider.

But like Groucho Marx said, you probably wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would accept you OK, he meant it the other way around to what I'm talking about, but if you have to become like that to be in the club, then you probably don't want to be in the club.

Most industries are like that. I work in the IT business and the jargon would make your head spin. If you don't know the latest lingo, some people will look down their noses at you. It doesn't mean you don't know your job, it just means you don't have hours to sit around reading industry journals. But you still have to make yourself understood in that group if you work with other people. If you work alone you can call things whatever you want.

So yes some people probably do look at it as a lack of skill or expertise if you don't know the jargon. But like my other favourite pastime cycling, if you turn up at the track with a 20 year old bike and hairy legs and then kick everyone's backside, it doesn't matter. Results matter.

Originally Posted by apricotripper

........ My repressed aspergers/passive/aggressive/inferioritycomplex/nosepicking/titperving/? tendencies ensures I don't...

Hmmm sounds like you're a pretty normal sort of bloke - a few days in the shed on my own & I show all those symptoms, plus a few more...

I think I get your drift, Jake, but I wouldn't get too hung up on the name-dropping, I-know-everything types. The smartest, most knowledgeable woodworker (or any kind of worker) in the world will still have big gaps in his/her knowledge, but if they're really smart, they know they can still learn a lot, & often enough, from the most unlikely people. It doesn't hurt to keep your BS detector switched on at all times, though.....

Avagooday,

"Wood is what it is and timber is what it can become." Thats what we were taught as kids.
Lumber is how apprentices get about.

Originally Posted by silentC

Jargon is one of those things that 'elite' groups use to exclude people who haven't been indoctrinated. A bit like the masonic handshake. If you don't know the lingo then you haven't been initiated into the group and so you are an outsider.

That's one way it can be used, Silent, but technical jargon does have legitimate value when used as it should be used. Binomial terms for bacteria, plants, animals, anatomical terms, disease names, etc., are the very basis of communication between people in different places who speak different languages for daily communication, but wish to talk about the same subjects. Technical jargon is simply a shorthand which allows some precision, in most fields, even woodworking. Our problem is that we seem to agree only within small groups on what we call the various bits of trees we use. However, judging by some of the responses here, you'd have a pretty tough time trying to get a nation-wide, let alone world-wide agreement on a universal dictionary of wood terms!

Cheers,

technical jargon does have legitimate value

Absolutely, I didn't mean to suggest otherwise. I was just responding to Jake's observations about the exclusive nature of it in some circles.

Most people use jargon because they have been instructed in the subject and you learn the jargon as you learn the subject. For example I actually know what Boyce Codd normal form means! Not that I use it in every day conversation. I probably could explain it to a novice, but it's much easier to have a term for it that is understood.

It's only when someone who has not studied relational database design is confronted by the term and is made to feel stupid that it becomes an issue.

It can become a form of elitism, but I guess my real message was that at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you don't know all the jargon, if you can make something that is functional and aesthetic then that's all that matters.