WOOD

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many plants. It has

been used for centuries for both fuel and as a construction
material for several types of living areas such as houses,
known as carpentry. It is an organic material, . In the strict
sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of
trees (and other woody plants). In a living tree it transfers
water and nutrients to the leaves and other growing tissues,
and has a support function, enabling woody plants to reach
large sizes or to stand up for themselves. People have used
wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or
as a construction material for making houses, tools, weapons,
furniture, packaging, artworks, and paper. The year-to-year
variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives
clues to the prevailing climate at that time
Structure of tree
• Pith: The innermost central portion or core of the tree is
called pith or medulla
• Heart wood: The inner annual rings surrounding the pith
is known as heart wood. It imparts rigidity to tree
• Sap wood: The cuter annual rings between heart wood
and cambium layer is known as sap wood
• Cambium layer: Thin layer of sap between sap wood and
inner bark is known as cambium layer
• Inner bark: The inner skin or layer covering the cambium
layer is known as inner bark
• Outer Bark: The outer skin or cover of the tree is known
as outer bark
• Medullary rays: The thin radial fibres extending from
pith to cambium layer are known as medullary rays
• What does the word timber Mean?
• Timber denotes wood, which is suitable for
building or carpentry or various other
engineering purposes like for construction of
doors, windows, roofs, partitions, beams,
posts, cupboards, shelves etc
 Classification of timber:

• Wood suitable for building or other engineering

works is called timber
• When it forms a part of a living tree, it is called
standing timber
• When the tree has been felled, it is called rough
timber
• When it has been sawn to various market forms
such as beams, battens, planks etc, it is called
converted timber
 Classification of Trees

• Trees can be divied into the following groups

• Endogenous
• Exogenous
• ENDOGENOUS:

• Trees which grows inward in a longitudinal

fibrous mass, such as canes, bamboo, palms
etc .Timber from these trees has very limited
engineering applications
• EXOGENOUS:

• Trees which grows outward from the centre in

approximate concentric rings across the longitudinal
section of the stem. Each ring representing a layer
deposited every year. Extensively used in engineering
works. Exogenous trees are further divided into
• B-1) Conifer:
• Evergreen tree yielding softwood
• Trees with pointed leaves
• Pine, Chirr
• B-2) Deciduous The trees having flat broad
leaves and leaves of those trees fall in autumn
and new ones appear in spring season. Timber
for egineering purpose ismostly derived from
deciduous trees. These trees yield hard wood.
Ex: ash, beach, oak, sal, teak, shishum and
wallnut.
What is the difference between a
hardwood and a softwood?
Comparison of softwood and hard wood
[Link]. Item Soft wood Hard wood

1 Annual rings Distinct Indistinct

2 Colour light Dark

3 Fire Resistance Poor More

4 modullary rays Indistinct Distinct

5 Structure Resinous and split easily Non-Resinous & close grained

6 weight light heavy

strong for direct pull & equally strong for resisting

7 strength
weak for resisting thrust tension,compression & shear
 Defects In Timber
• There are several defects in timber caused by the
nature of the soil upon which the tree was grown.
• Shakes: These are cracks which partly or
completely separate the fibres of wood as shown
in the figure
• Heartshakes are splits or clefts occurring in the
centre of the tree. They are common in nearly
every kind of timber. The splits are in some cases
hardly visible; in others they extend almost across
the tree, dividing it into segments
• When there is one cleft right across the tree it
does not occasion much waste, as it divides
the squared trunk into two substantial balks.
Two clefts crossing one another at right
angles, as in Fig., make it impossible to obtain
scantlings larger than one-fourth the area of
the tree
 Starshakes
• Starshakes are those in which several splits
radiate from the centre of the timber,
A starshake is much like a heartshake in its effect. The difference between
the two is that the starshake has no decay at the center. The cracks
extend over the cross section of the log, are wide in the center, and
narrow near the bark. The wood along these cracks is solid
 Cupshakes

• Cupshakes are curved splits

separating the whole or part of
one annual ring from another .
When they occupy only a small
portion of a ring they do no great
harm.
 Windshake.
• Windshake. Windshake is the separation of
the annual rings . This defect is most common
in pine timber. Windshakes sometimes extend
several feet up the trunk of a tree
 knots

• Knots. Bases of branches or limbs which are

broken or cut off from the tree as shown in
the figure
• Dead knots
The remains of damaged branches after drying
out they become loose and fall out.
• Live knots
They are sound and firm. If small, are not
great defect
 twist
• Twisted fibres: or Wandering hearts: caused
by twisting of young trees by fast blowing
wind as shown in the figure given below..
Twisting: the boards warp and twist
longitudinally (along the length of the board).
• Collapse: the cells of timber are flattened due
to excessive shrinkage
 Seasoning
• Seasoning is the controlled
process of reducing the
moisture content (MC) of the
timber so that it is suitable for
the environment and intended
use.
 Seasoning of timber
• Seasoning of timber
• Seasoning is the name given to the methods
of drying timber
• There are two methods by which timber can
be dried:
(i) natural drying or air drying, and
(ii) artificial drying
 Timber Seasoning
• Wood in its natural state has a very high
moisture content – the weight of water in a
living tree is often greater than the weight of
the wood itself. When a tree is felled it begins
to dry out without shrinkage. Eventually a
point is reached, called the fibre saturation
point, when all the water inside the cells in
the wood are empty and any further drying
results in losing water from the walls of the
cells, which causes shrinkage.
 Timber is seasoned for a number of
reasons
• 1. To prevent shrinkage when it is placed in a
dry environment, such as when it becomes
part of a building.
• 2. To prevent attack by fungi and wood-
destroying insects, as these are no longer
active below a moisture content of 20%.
• 3. To reduce weight for transportation from
the forest to the saw mill.
 Air Seasoning
• Timber is stacked in open-sided sheds in layers
separated by strips of wood which allow air to pass
around the cut lengths. The air dries out the timber
slowly over a number of weeks or months. In Ireland
air drying can reduce the moisture content of timber to
about 16%, however this is still not low enough for use
in the interior of buildings, for which it should be at
least 12%. The advantages of air drying are that it is
relatively cheap and does not cause as much seasoning
distortion as kiln drying. Its disadvantage is the length
of time it takes which means that large volumes of
timber are tied up and unavailable for months on end.
Air Seasoning
 Kiln Drying

• The timber is sealed within a closed chamber which is

then heated. In order to stop the outside of the timber
drying faster than the inside, which would cause it to
crack, the humidity of the air in the kiln is controlled by
a sprinkler system which keeps the outside of the
timber at the same moisture content as the inside
throughout the drying process. Kiln drying is very
expensive due to the fuel costs so timber is normally
air dried down to the fibre saturation point of about
30% moisture content and then brought down to 12%
in a kiln. Typical softwoods take a few days to dry in a
kiln, hardwoods may take from two to three weeks.
•
Kiln Drying
• Timber which has been dried and is then
stored in a damp environment will absorb
water and swell, resulting in distortion of
the timber. It is therefore very important
that seasoned timber is protected from
moisture when it is stored on site during
construction.
 Conversion of timber
• As soon as possible after felling the tree
should be converted into usable timber. There
are two main methods of converting timber:
• Through and through (or Plain or Crown sawn)
which produces tangential boards and
• Quarter Sawn which produces radial boards.
• The Quarter sawn is far more expensive
because of the need to double (or more)
handle the log. There is also more wastage. It
is however more decorative and less prone to
cup or distort. Note also there are two ways
of sawing the quarter.
 TIMBER TREES OF INDIA
• Deodar
• Yellowish brown in color. Found in Himalayas,
Punjab, Uttar Pradesh.
• Deodar is the most important timber tree
providing soft wood. It can be easily worked and
it is moderately strong. It possesses distinct
annual rings. It is used for making cheap
furniture, railway carriages, railway sleepers,
packing boxes,and structural work..
 Babul
• Whitish red in colour.
• Found in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bengal, Gujarat,
Uttar Pradesh.
• It is strong, hard and tough and it takes up a good
polish. It is used for such products as bodies and
wheels of bullock cart, agricultural instruments,
tool handles, and well curbs
 Teak
• Deep yellow to dark brown in colour.
• Central India and Southern India.
• Moderately hard, teak is durable and fire-resistant. It
can be easily seasoned and worked. It takes up a good
polish and is not attacked by white ants and dry rot. It
does not corrode iron fastenings and it shrinks little. It
is among the most valuable timber trees of the world
and its use is limited to superior work only.
 Mango
• Deep gray in colour.
• Grown Throughout India.
• The mango tree is well known for its fruits. It
is easy to work and it maintains its shape well.
It is moderately strong. It is most often used
for cheap furniture, toys, packing boxes,
cabinet work, panels for doors and for
windows.
 Mahogany
• Reddish brown in colour.
• It takes a good polish and is easily worked. It is
durable under water. It is most commonly
used for furniture, pattern making and cabinet
work.
 Mulberry
• Brown in colour.
• Found in Punjab
• It is strong, tough and elastic. It takes up a clean finish.
It can be well seasoned. It is turned and carved easily.
Mulberry is typically used for baskets and sports goods
like hockey sticks, tennis rackets and cricket bats..
 Sal
• Brown in colour.
Found in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya
Pradesh, Orissa
It is hard, fibrous and close-grained. It does
not take up a good polish. It requires slow and
careful seasoning. It is durable under groung
and water. It is used for railway sleepers,
shipbuilding, and bridges..
 Bamboo
• Grown Throughout India, especially Assam
and Bengal.
• Not actually a tree, but a woody grass, it is
flexible, very strong and durable. It is used for
scaffoldings , thatched roofs, rafters,
temporary bridges.
• Wood based products:
Timber which is prepared scientifically
in a factory is termed as industrial
timber and such timber possesses
desired shape, appearance strength
• Veneers: These are thin sheets or slices of 0.40 to
6mm wood of superior quality. Indian timbers,
which are suitable for veneers, are mahogany,
oak, rosewood, teak etc. The process of preparing
a sheet of veneers is known as veneering.
Veneers are used to produce plywood's batten
boards and lamin boards.