One of the most comprehensive and useful investigations into the properties of wood.

On accident, I stumbled upon 'Report Upon The Forestry Investigations of The United States Department of Agriculture 1877-1898' written by BE Fernow, Formerly Chief of the Division of Forestry US Department of Agriculture. Here is the start of Section 10 'Timber Physics'. Wood is just about the most useful material in existence, yet there is very little data on its properties. The Division of Forestry measured the compression strength, bending strength, elastic limit, rupture limit, when used with same species uniformly, and many other tests. Its got some really fascinating results. For example if wood is dried to various levels of moisture the overall strength of some species like cypress and lolibolly increase by 150%, 2.5 times stronger simply by drying it, while other species decrease in strength with drying. Its been long suspected that the heavier the timber of the same species and dimensions the more structural strength. This report proves it for about 30-40 species of wood. Its got many nuggets of truth about wood. I found it pretty fascinating.

That does sound fascinating!  Great find.  And while I'm here, welcome to Permies.  Happy to have you!

Anne Pratt wrote:That does sound fascinating!  Great find.  And while I'm here, welcome to Permies.  Happy to have you!

I am really digging this sites methods for signing in, no password is genius and most of the time sites have zero reason for requiring a password. Using real names is a great idea too, it prevents people from trying to steal accounts of people that don't use a password. This sites method for elevating posts by paying for your own advertising is brilliant (idk how well it actually works but I like the idea). Rating the topic not the post is genius, and naturally elevates what the community thinks is most interesting. Its much better than rating posts and letting the devs/admin/mods select the topics because usually no one agrees with them haha. Gettin alot of good ideas here. Great to be here! Very happy I found this place from this vid

Its not even that the video is that great, it got my attention because of the way Paul was dealing with the trolls in the comments. I was like 'this guy knows whats up' and ended up checkin out permies as a result haha.

welcome welcome :) thanks for the wood article. i will check it out.

Things I found very useful in that report that modern science doesn't normally point out.
-Whether or not a tree is 'bled' has zero effect on a trees structural properties, yet many lumber companies at that time period(wouldn't surprise me if it was still the same today) refused 'unbled' trees.
-As a rule of thumb, structural strength goes by weight, then whether from base or from top, and then whether from heartwood or from sapwood/bark. This applies to all species of trees.
-Most species experience drastically increased structural strength when dried evenly to moisture levels at 12-15% moisture. Pine trees increase in structural strength anywhere from 40% to 100%, oak trees increase 90% to 190%, hickory 100% to 190%, elm 40% to 80%, ash 50% to 70%.
-Locality of the tree has ZERO effect on the structural strength of the wood despite popular belief at that time period(wouldn't surprise me if that belief was still the same today).
-Structural strength of species generally go from pine to oak to hickory. Pine being the lightest, then oak, then hickory(the heaviest).

Ill add the rest of the nuggets of truth tomorrow, I gotta get to bed!