Tree work words: firewood, milling and forestry

Words for wood change meaning with the job. A cord is a measure of fuel wood, a board foot is a measure of sawn wood, and green is a word about moisture. This page lists what each named source says a word means, so a term on a delivery ticket, a stumpage report or a milling quote can be matched to a written definition.

Every meaning is in our own words from the page named in its row. A word that none of those pages defines is not listed: the Wood Handbook has no entry for slab, for example, and none of the sources read here defines the word standard on its own. The wider A to Z list is the tree work glossary.

Measures and sales

Term	Meaning	Source
Cord	NIST's model sales regulation defines it as the wood held in 128 cubic feet when the pieces are ranked and well stowed: in a row, touching, parallel and stacked compactly. The New York State DEC describes the same measure as a stack 4 by 4 by 8 feet.	NIST model regulation, Handbook 130, section IV-B; New York DEC DEC stumpage page glossary
Face cord, rack, pile, truckload	Terms the NIST model regulation says must not be used when advertising, offering or selling wood for use as fuel. The regulation gives no definition of any of them. It is a model text that states adopt for themselves.	NIST model regulation, Handbook 130, section IV-B
Fireplace and stove wood	The NIST model regulation's name for wood of any kind sold as fuel, from kindling to logs, boards and timbers, natural or processed, split or whole. It says this wood is sold by the cord or fractions of a cord, or by the cubic metre.	NIST model regulation, Handbook 130, section IV-B
Cordwood	Small diameter or low quality wood suited to firewood, pulp or chips, in the DEC's glossary.	New York DEC report, DEC stumpage page glossary
Board foot	The volume of a board 12 inches long, 12 inches wide and 1 inch thick, which is 144 cubic inches. NIST calls it the US unit for hardwood lumber. The Wood Handbook adds that for lumber 1 inch or thicker the count uses nominal thickness and width with the real length. The DEC says any shape holding 144 cubic inches of wood counts as one.	NIST model regulation, Handbook 130, section IV-B; Wood Handbook Wood Handbook glossary; New York DEC DEC stumpage page glossary
MBF, MBM	The Wood Handbook's table of abbreviations reads both as thousand feet board measure.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook abbreviations
Log rule	A method for working out the wood volume of a tree or log from its diameter and length, in the DEC's glossary. The DEC names three: Doyle, which it says under-counts board feet in small logs and over-counts in large ones; Scribner, one of the oldest, which assumes 1-inch boards and a quarter-inch saw kerf; and the International quarter-inch scale, which allows for taper.	New York DEC report, DEC stumpage page glossary
Stumpage	The value of standing trees in a forest.	New York DEC report, DEC stumpage page glossary
Stumpage price	The price paid for standing forest trees. The DEC says its report is published twice a year from prices that buyers and sellers volunteer, and that it is a rough guide only.	New York DEC report, DEC stumpage price reports
Diameter at breast height (dbh)	Tree diameter measured 4.5 feet above ground level.	New York DEC report, DEC stumpage page glossary
Pole timber, sawlog tree, sawtimber	The DEC calls trees 4 to 10 inches dbh pole timber. A sawlog tree is at least 11 inches dbh and fit to make lumber, and sawtimber is trees from which sawlogs can be cut.	New York DEC report, DEC stumpage page glossary
Sawlog, veneer log	A sawlog is a log big enough to saw economically, usually 8 inches or more at the small end. A veneer log is a high-quality log of a desirable species that is large, straight, with minimum taper and free from defects.	New York DEC report, DEC stumpage page glossary

Moisture

Term	Meaning	Source
Green	Freshly sawed or undried wood. The Wood Handbook adds that wood soaked through by immersion is not green but may be said to be in the green condition.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Seasoning, air dried, kiln dried	Seasoning is removing moisture from green wood to improve its serviceability. Air dried means dried in a yard or shed without artificial heat, and kiln dried means dried in a kiln with artificial heat.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Kiln	A chamber with controlled air flow, temperature and humidity for drying lumber, where the temperature rises and the humidity falls as drying goes on. NIST's hardwood lumber rules describe kiln drying as a process to minimise dimensional change in service.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary; NIST model regulation, Handbook 130, section IV-B
Moisture content	The Wood Handbook gives it as the water in wood as a percentage of the weight of the oven-dry wood. Forest Research gives two bases for biomass: water as a percentage of the total wet weight, or of the oven-dry weight. It says the wet basis is usually used for fuel.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary; Forest Research biomass glossary
Ovendry wood	Wood dried in a ventilated oven until its weight is nearly constant, at 102 to 105 degrees Celsius (215 to 220 degrees Fahrenheit).	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Equilibrium moisture content	The moisture level at which wood neither gains nor loses water in air of a given humidity and temperature.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Fiber saturation point	The stage in drying or wetting when the cell walls are full and the cell cavities hold no free water. It applies to a cell or group of cells, not a whole board. The Wood Handbook says it is usually taken as approximately 30 percent moisture content on an oven-dry basis.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary

Sawn wood

Term	Meaning	Source
Lumber	The product of the saw and planing mill, limited to sawing, resawing, planing lengthwise, cutting to length and matching. It can be softwood or hardwood.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Plainsawn (flat grained)	Lumber cut parallel to the pith and roughly tangent to the growth rings, so the rings meet the face at less than 45 degrees.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Quartersawn (edge grained)	Lumber cut so the wide faces run roughly at right angles to the growth rings, which meet the face at 45 to 90 degrees.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Cant	A log that has been slabbed on one or more sides, usually meant for resawing at right angles to its widest sawn face. The handbook says the term is loosely used.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Flitch	A part of a log sawn on two or more faces, often on opposite faces, leaving two waney edges. When meant for resawing into lumber it is resawn parallel to its wide faces. Veneer sheets laid together in cutting order are also called a flitch. The handbook says the term is loosely used.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary
Bole, bolt	A bole is the main stem of a tree of substantial diameter, one that could yield sawtimber, veneer logs or large poles. A bolt is a short section of trunk, or in veneer making a short log fit to peel on a lathe.	US Forest Service Wood Handbook, Wood Handbook glossary

Forestry material and woodland

Term	Meaning	Source
Brash	Low density forestry material made up of tree tops and small branches, also called lop and top.	Forest Research biomass glossary
Small round wood (SRW)	Small trunk or branch wood 7 to 14 cm across.	Forest Research biomass glossary
Coppice, coppicing	The EuroCoppice glossary defines a coppice forest as one regrown from cut stumps or root suckers, or both, usually on a short rotation for small poles. Coppicing is producing new stems from the stump or roots, or cutting the main stem of a broadleaved tree at the base to bring new shoots.	EuroCoppice glossary of coppice terms
Coppice with standards	A coppice system that keeps chosen stems as standards at each felling, forming an uneven-aged overstorey that is cut selectively on a rotation that is a multiple of the coppice rotation.	EuroCoppice glossary of coppice terms
Coppice or underwood, for a felling licence	England's felling licence guidance sets a 15 cm over-bark diameter at 1.3 metres for coppice or underwood, against 8 cm for other growing trees.	GOV.UK when a felling licence is needed
Ancient woodland	Any area wooded continuously since at least 1600 AD, in the Natural England and Forestry Commission advice. It adds that wooded continuously does not mean tree cover across the whole site, and that not every tree has to be old.	GOV.UK ancient woodland advice

Reading these sources

The Wood Handbook is a US Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory report, FPL-GTR-282, from March 2021. Its abstract says it covers wood properties of particular concern to the architect and engineer. The DEC glossary belongs to a New York report on standing timber prices and its Doyle entry says that rule is used in the Eastern and Southern United States. The NIST text is a model that states may adopt, and a state's own sales rule decides what a seller must do there. The wider moisture picture is on the wood moisture and drying page, and the ancient woodland rules are on the ancient woodland and coppice page.

Contains public sector information published by Forest Research, the Forestry Commission and Natural England and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.