24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



June 10. 1921 



Problems in Standardization of Dimension 

 Stock for the Wood Using Industries 



Third Paper 



By William A. Babbitt 



111 our Hccoiul Discussion of the Problems of the Standardization 

 Program, the writer pointed out at some length and detail the 

 necessity that lumbermen should understand and give due con- 

 sideration to the wooduser's point of view. There is plainly an 

 equal necessity that the wooduscr should understand and appreciate 

 the lumberman's point of view. 



It would seem fair to make a general statement that there is no 

 consideration which will warrant any lumberman in undertaking 

 to niaiiufacture Standardized Dimension Stock, or anything at all, 

 except a sound and reasonable probability that this line of produc- 

 tion will pay a fair profit. No matter how strongly the lumberman 

 ma.v be moved by a patriotic desire to co-operate in reducing and 

 finally eliminating the great wastes now obtaining neither patriot- 

 ism nor any other consideration of the kind should obscure the 

 basic fact that no unsound, uneconomic business can possibly be 

 patriotic — not even a government railroad administration. No 

 student of the present industrial situation would seriously question 

 the assertion that the demoralization of the lumber industry con- 

 stitutes the principal cause of the appalling demoralization in the 

 wood using industries. "Our foundation has been removed." 

 Must Change Ideas 

 Many of the wooduser's most difficult problems are of a psycho- 

 logical kind. It is the "squint" that we have acquired from a 

 long but not altogether venerable tradition. 



Recently a high executive in a big woodusing industry remarked 

 to the writer, "We have got a funny row on in our plant, between 

 the engineering and the purchase departments. The designer speci- 

 fies ash for a certain unit, for which laboratory tests show that other 

 hardwoods are equally serviceable. We have on hand sufficient 

 white oak dimension salvaged from other operations to fill this 

 requirement, but no ash. The purchase manager says he has got to 

 be shown that ash is indispensable; and the designer says he won't 

 have anything else. So there you are." 



Kvidently our first problem is to see that our specifications are 

 reasonable from the dimension manufacturer's point of view. We 

 must help our designers to get rid of the idea that they have a free 

 hand to design without reference to the economic restrictions of raw 

 materials. I speak as one who has bought costly experience. Such 

 an attitude will not only give to our suppl.v sources confidence to 

 produce, but it will greatly conserve and foster the processes of 

 economic production in our own plants. The designer who insists 

 on refusing to use a half million feet of white oak in stock, and on 

 enforcing the purchase of a half million feet of white ash, which 

 for the purpose intended had no advantage — that whole breed, 

 altogether too common among us, needs "the hook." 



The Standardization Committee is endeavoring to follow out this 

 suggestion in all its procedure. We do not publish any standardiza- 

 tion until the Rules Committees of the lumber associations interested 

 have ample opportunity to scrutinize and criticize the conclusions 

 of this committee. 



Our next problem is to erase completely from our business think- 

 ing the old and prejudicial tradition that dimension is made from 

 waste, which costs nothing; .and that consequently dimension ought 

 to be sold around that figure. It is proper for the lumberman to 

 repl.v that this idea is correct, providing you can find any waste 

 around your own shop which costs nothing. The main purpose of 

 this article is to set out plainly the real values which inhere in 

 standardized dimension as compared with the lumber necessary to 



• The chairman of the Committee ot Standardization, the Association of 

 Wood Using Industries'. 



])oduce our dinieu.sion in our own plants. We must be prepared to 

 l)ay for dimension a fair price. 



Closely related to the foregoing is the new problem of readjusting 

 our ideas to the new methods of handling, seasoning, and routing 

 our stocks of lumber, in the form of dimension. The technical prob- 

 lems are already the subject of intensive study, with the collabora- 

 tion of the Forest Products Laboratory. Yardage requirements will 

 lie greatly decreased, as will be requirements for kiln capacity. The 

 writer believes that it will soon be established that the kiln work 

 should be done by the Dimension Producer. At all events the kiln- 

 ing of dimension stock requires a procedure of its own. Possibly 

 this can be accomplished more economically in the plank at the saw 

 mill than by any other method. 



Standardization will also mean the eliminatiou of most of the 

 preparatory processes, taking the wood using industries as a whole. 

 The big "saw room" will fade to a mere shadow of its former 

 greatness and nuisance. The sawroom force will be busy assem- 

 bling wood products. Business in kindling will greatly dwindle. 

 Cost accounting will probably begin to take on a semblance of 

 veracity, Utopian and unbelievable as the statement may read. 

 However, the road to all these desirable results is a long one and 

 nut without very great difficulties. 



Theoretical Values of Hardwood Dimension in Terms of Standard 

 Hardwood Grades 



The expression "theoretical values" is used because so far it has 

 been possible only to cheek actual values in a limited way. These 

 theoretical values are actual values, as far as this work of checking 

 has been carried, but might show considerable variation when com- 

 pared with other lines of experience. For the same reason, it is 

 necessary to confine this discussion to hardwoods, although the 

 work of Standardization must eventually also cover all coniferous 

 woods. 



Mill Buu (No. 3 C&B) Basis of Study 



In the study that follows, we have considered all the lumber 

 portion of the products of the log which grade No. 3 C&B. Accord- 

 ing to the U. S. Forest Service 's Bureau of Industrial Investigations, 

 this is only 40.3 per cent of the content of the log. So it is evident 

 that when Standardization for hardwoods is complete only 40 percent 

 of the log will have been "conserved." Among the waste items 

 outside this study are the following percentages of waste in han- 

 dling the average hardwood log: Kerf, 13 per cent; slabs, 12 per 

 cent; edging and trimming wastes, 12 per cent; bark, 13 per cent, 

 and other about 10 per cent. 



Very complete and exhaustive studies have been made by the 

 National Association of Wood Turners as to the clear content of 

 mill run lumber for turning squares. Roughly speaking, northern 

 hardwoods run 50 per cent of clear stock; while some southern 

 hardwoods run as high as 60 per cent clear stock suitable for turning 

 squares. The following analysis of northern hardwoods (beeeh, 

 birch, and majde) has been checked with the recent cost studies 

 given out by the Michigan Hardwood association, and incorporates 

 their realization prices, as of May 1, 1921. Bear in mind that all 

 wood fabrication requiring clear hardwood stock can now draw 

 only 20 per cent of the content of the average hardwood log. Even 

 the selects fail to affect this slight margin to a practical extent. 

 For easy reference, we have set this up in the form of a chart. 



It is interesting to note that the footage value-at-mill of clear 

 cuttings for wood turning stock equalizes in all four grades, very 

 nearly. But as soon as freights and costs at the wooduser 's plant 

 are added, FAS is by long odds the cheapest lumber to buy, as it is 



