Timber grading

[Giff]

Can anyone tell me what 5th's and 6th's mean when describing unsorted redwood. Thanks Geoff

 

[Argus]

.


There was a previous post on the subject last year:

timber-grades-t47521.html


Basically, 6ths in softwood is glorified firewood, while 5ths are not much better.

Hope it helps.


.

 

[Giff]

Very helpful thanks Argus..surprisingly the timber merchant I was looking at seemed to be announcing 5th's with a bit of a fan fare....like 5 stars !
Thanks for the tip. Geoff

 

[vally bar]

5th reds is good quality softwood and probably the most commonly used in generally domestic joinery, skirts, arks casings etc, US is the next level up generally with fewer knots,

 

[Steve Maskery]

It's weird isn't it?
Fifths, or more commonly V's, is perfectly decent stuff for many applications. It's not, or at least shouldn't be, rubbish.
U/S or Unsorted is a mixture of 1,2, 3 & 4th grades and is generally better.
BQ is Building quality and of no interest to us woodworkers.

Boards are graded according to a number factors, including colour, but from our point of view, it's the number of knots, and their size, which concerns us most.

So any particular grade will be a max of x knots per y square metre, no bigger than n mm diameter. Eg 10 knots per square metre no bigger than 10mm. Don't quote me on the actual numbers, I've made them up, but that is the principle.


S

 

[9fingers]

I struggle to find any logic with this system and hence find it difficult to understand.

To me something that is unsorted will have a wide range of stuff in it but once sorted by some criteria should be better defined.

Why something unsorted is better than sorted beats me #-o

Bob

 

[Steve Maskery]

LOL. Me too, Bob, me too.

 

[vally bar]

I have just started to post a reply to try and explain but when I read it back it sounded rediculouse.
As it went something like Unsorted is actually sorted 1st 2nd and 3rd put aside and then classed as Unsorted then, then I gave up.

 

[StevieB]

Think of it as sorting out the rubbish and putting it in a pile called V's. The good stuff is what's left but not sorted beyond taking out the dross - hence unsorted.

Steve

 

[9fingers]

Think of it as sorting out the rubbish and putting it in a pile called V's. The good stuff is what's left but not sorted beyond taking out the dross - hence unsorted.

Steve

Ok, then you go through the rubbish making two piles one for B&Q and put the rest into builders merchants for general use?

Bob

 

[Tony Spear]

I'm not having a good day today!

Like an *****, I posted a reply, but I did it on the post that was linked previously!

Anyway, here it is:

Softwood is graded 1 to V1, effectively for appearance (nothing to do with structural strength).

Grade 1V is ok in larger sections, where a few minor defects can be tolerated e.g. doors etc.

V and V1 are as pointed out above, pretty much firewood, but are ok for shelves in the shed, hen houses, bird boxes etc.

These 3 are effectively "sorted" as they are pulled out of the timber stack when it is delivered to the yard or when softwood is being sorted for delivery to the customer.

Grades 1, 11 and 111 are all lumped altogether as "unsorted", as they are what is left once the inferior grades have been "sorted" out. If you want the very best from amongst these you probably need to ask if you can select it for yourself and of course, pay a lot more!

CLS is "Canadian Lumber Stock" which is from quick grown pine and is suitable for carcassing etc. From my experience it seems to be relatively knot free, but still isn't very good looking and for or some reason which beats me, it generally seems to come with the corners rounded off!

For constructional work, softwood is "stress graded" to various British Standards and that is what things like "G2" and "C16" are all about.