pieces with greater defect to be used for partitions and flooring. Thus, Paul became the first and last lumber grader of the world before the time of the flood!
Why Lumber Grading Is Important
This story undoubtedly takes considerable liberties with the tale of Noah and the building of the ark; however, it does illustrate some of the problems which culminated in the necessity for writing grade rules for lumber. If all trees were cylindrical and straight, were free of knots and other defects, showed the same width of ring, and contained little or no sapwood, there would be no occasion for classifying the lumber product into grades. Unfortunately, every tree grows in a different way with characteristics that add to or detract from its usefulness for certain purposes. From the earliest times, the conversion of round trees into desired shapes and sizes for commercial purposes has included the separation of the product into different classes based upon the number, character, and location of distinctive features such as knots, cross grain, stain, decay, pitch streaks and pockets, checks, and wane. Therefore, the direction and width of growth rings and the size, number and location of knots are important considerations with any grade rule.
How Lumber Grading Started in the US (Hint: It Was British)
Let us now look at some real history of lumber grading from its true beginnings in the U.S. Hints of various tree and lumber grades were noted in spatterings of writings from the early 1600s as sawing the vast New England forest began to unfold. The most famous tree grading was performed by the British king’s appointed surveyors, who “graded” trees to receive the Broad Arrow mark signifying it as the crown’s property. While most of the lumber was primitively sawn and shaped in the 1600s for home and farming needs, the business of using lumber and squared timbers as a trading material was taking root with the colonists. Cities such as Boston, Portland, Portsmouth, Providence and New Amsterdam continued to grow and expand. Numerous other coastal towns were springing up, all requiring wood material. Separating their sawn products was simplistic at that point, using terms like “marketable” and “worthless.”
Lumber Grading Takes Off
As the buying and selling became more sophisticated in the 1700s, the number of grades expanded and were given a variety of names from highest quality to lowest, such as clear, merchantable, refuse and scoots. The area of the country now known as Maine (part of Massachusetts until 1820) was the first large source of commercial lumber, so it was natural that the initial systematic lumber grading classification in the U.S. would be established here. These early rules for lumber grading and their measurement were eventually bound in Massachusetts Law in 1783 that required a “surveyor” (lumber grader) in each town to grade and measure all boards for sale as a requirement. No pine boards less than 10 feet could be shipped, and the law included a hefty fine for material arriving in a port for sale without a survey. This law became known as the “Boston Survey” since Boston was the major port of the region and a destination for most all ships carrying lumber for sale, the primary method of getting lumber to market. The law became so unpopular due to the surveyors questionable grading with tendencies to “downgrade” material to keep prices low that sawmills renamed it the “Boston Cheat!”
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LUMBER GRADING in the 1950s was apparently a group activity.
Lumber Grading Expands Across the US
As the country grew westward and the sawmill industry with it, other major hubs for handling lumber were established. Burlington, Vt., became the focus of local and Canadian sawn lumber, and Tonawanda, N.Y., for lumber coming from the Great Lake states to be put on barges for trans-shipment on the Erie Canal. Each port devised its own set of grade levels, with the Tonawanda rule made up of more than 20 grades and sub-categories. By the late 1800s it became apparent that region-wide common grades, at a minimum, would be needed to uncomplicate the confusion in the process of selling lumber. Regional lumber grading associations were established as a first effort to consolidate the grading systems, based primarily on the area’s wood species. The first efforts to standardize lumber began in 1922 and resulted in the American Lumber Standard, first published in 1924.
Lumber Grading Today
Over the next 50 years, further standardization took place on official lumber sizes in addition to the establishment of a National Grading Rule for lumber to be used in construction applications. The standard, now called the American Softwood Lumber Standard, has evolved over the years to keep current with ever-changing needs of consumers, regulators and manufacturers. Separate 1” board rules still exist for species used in non-construction, appearance applications, such as Eastern White Pine, maintained and administered by the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association (NELMA). Like most industries, lumber manufacturing and grading have come a long way over the last 400 years. Technology permits faster, more efficient lumber production and advanced optics allow for machine grading in many mills. Those early colonists were blessed to have arrived in areas of vast forests that supplied them with all their habitat needs. The subsequent years of further development and growth of this country can be directly attributed to the continued supply of grade-stamped lumber manufactured from the only renewable and sustainable building material! Important Note: This article was made possible through research conducted by Richard A. Hale, a Professor of Forestry at the University of Maine. During his career, Mr. Hale was one of the most respected and revered forestry scholars of his time, who spent his last years making sure his extensive research was housed properly. NELMA was the recipient of a portion of his publication collection in addition to his extensive notes on lumber grading. Building-Products.com
