Lumber Yard Terminology Explained

If you've ever been to an actual lumber yard (not Home Depot or Lowe's), you may have experienced the discomfort at not knowing the jargon they use.

One of my favorite woodworkers, Marc Spagnuolo, aka The Wood Whisperer, has a great video on some of this jargon you might encounter at an actual lumber yard.

Quick summary from the video:

• Thickness designations - use "quarters" convention.  "Four quarters" or "4/4" is one inch.  Except, a lot of boards are pre-surfaced, so a 4/4 board may actually be closer to 3/4 inches.
• Board foot - unit of volume.  Makes sense since lumber yard boards come in many different widths, lengths, and thicknesses.  144 cubic inches is 1 board foot.  Example: a board that's 12"x12"x1" is 1 board foot.
• Types of cuts - flat sawn, quarter sawn, rift sawn