I was at Lowes looking for cedar (particular Lowes I was at had little to nothing in the 2x cedar selection).
But anyway, I see this stack of 2×4’s up at eye level that I thought was cedar, but the tag on the end said “whitewood stud”. Company name was Idaho Forest Group, it was stamped/burned into the ends and the ends were SEALED.
Got me curious. The stack was medium colored and splotchy like cedar. I’m familiar with SYP and Douglas, but whitewood is new to me.
jt8
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Edited 9/18/2009 2:32 am by JohnT8
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John,
Out west, whitewood is mixed species, sometimes called SPF, meaning "spruce, pine, fir." The wood tends to be white (!) and the strength/density are low compared to DF or SYP. It has no rot resistance, and some of it is wonderfully straight, others not. Very easy to nail due to the low density.
We've got that here as well. I think it's SPF with some more species thrown in.
copper p0rn
So doesn't sound like it's anything special. The stamped & sealed ends got me all excited. I was getting ready to stock up ;)
Year or so back they got in some Austrian 2x4's. Suckers were kinda pinkish looking but where darn straight and just had little pinsized knotholes. Wished I'd bought all they had.
jt8
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -- Carl Sandburg
Edited 9/18/2009 6:46 am by JohnT8
I could be wrong, but I seem to recall it is a pine, and of the Radiata variety or similar.
Back about 25 yrs ago one yard sent us a load of 12' 2x 10 Spruce joists that were completely free of knots or any defects. I had to use em on the job, but after work, went and bought all I could afford. Made some damm nice table tops of the farm table type from that.
When ever I'm sorting out a pile , if I hit a vein of sweet stuff, I snag it up if I have the cash. The legs of my currrant work bench are that pine, lammed together to make 3x4"s.
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""I could be wrong, but I seem to recall it is a pine, and of the Radiata variety or similar."" Can't speak for anywhere else but if I call my local yards and order "whitewood" I will get a treated ,mill primed board cut from Radiata pine". Just a local term for the stuff because of the white priming . Commonly used here for exterior trim wood.
They can't get your Goat if you don't tell them where it is hidden.
Generic term used by the box stores meaning coniferous building lumber. Pine, fir, spruce etc. Back before I got what the box stores were about, I would ask for specific types of wood and would get a blank stare in response.
For about 15 seconds, I thought I was going to get the deal of the day. My first thought was, "someone mislabeled some cedar!" I liked the idea of $1.88 for a cedar 2x4.
LOL, cashier asked me why I was scratching the stuff with my key. Don't smell like cedar to me.jt8
Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -- Carl Sandburg
Did you look on the face of the boards, not the ends, for a grade stamp. That should give you an indication of the species or grouping..
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Home Depot is now charging for blank stares ;o)
"Home Depot is now charging for blank stares ;o)"Then most of the employees must pay to work there..
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You got it, but not just box stores. It is an industry wide generic term for white softwoods
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I don't know how long the term been around. I only first noticed it a few years ago at HD.
Piffen was saying that whitewood was a generic term for softwoods, but I'm more familiar with the cabinet/furniture business where it has long been used as a term to describe generic hardwoods of the white variety, specifically birch, maple, etc, where the furniture could be built of any mixture of woods and the shading laquer provided the colour.
I got no idea how it's been transmogrified to the softwood industry. My best guess is some ignorant accountant and some greedy product manager cooked it up with a neophyte buyer.
Next thing ya know, it'll be whitewood plywood...used to encompass starter board, OSB, GIS, etc.
Didn't the british go this way years ago with a designation of "plain".
And I ain't read the grading rules for years, but I don't recall any softwood category of "whitewood", which begs the question of DOES IT HAVE A GRADING STAMP on it????
Maybe it's a question of how to market cheap sh*t for less. Are you sure it ain't from overseas? And bug-free?
This notice is 10 years old....
......USDA & WOOD PACKAGING12/98The USDA requirements for the fumigation of all wood packaging out of China took effect on December 17th (the trigger is the date of export). In the last minute a few changes were made to those rules by USDA in partial response to industry comments. There is a statement signed by the exporter which is now required and must be accompanied by a fumigation certificate if wood packaging is present. The fumigation certification must be issued by a government authority in China or Hong Kong, depending on origin. The importer then issues his own statement attesting to having the fumigation certificate in his files. If wood packaging is not included with the shipment, a statement to that effect by the exporter is required. In either case, Customs has created a special ABI indicator to flag these transactions. However, if the entry is not filed electronically, the fumigation certification must accompany the entry. Either way, the exporter?s statement must also accompany the entry.This change in rules now makes clear the regime applies to goods which originate in either China or Hong Kong or are entered into either country for further processing or packaging. If, however, goods are simply transhipped through China or Hong Kong without adding either merchandise or wood packaging, they are excluded from these requirements.The beetle was discovered in about 30 warehouses in the U.S. as well. It was also discovered chewing holes in trees in New York (Brooklyn) and Chicago. As a result, the Department of Agriculture has set up a quarantine zone around Chicago to stop the infestation discovered there. Local shippers are being required to allow packing crates to simply pile up until federal investigators can incinerate them. Officials are concerned the beetle problem will spread if any wood (e.g. stumps, branches and roots from infested trees or the pallets themselves, along with many other types and forms of wood) is moved. The quarantine covers Ravenswood, Summit and Addison. The list of affected wood is lengthy.To further deal with the problem, USDA has posted a plant-quarantine specialist in China to provide answers to shippers about U.S. regulations for a period of about four (4) months. In response, Chinese officials now agree that wooden packaging material used for export to the U.S. will be fumigated. Untreated packing material will not pass Chinese export inspections after December 17th. Despite its cooperation, Chinese officials continue to claim China is being singled out as the beetle genus is also native to Korea and Japan. U.S. officials respond saying those countries do not generally use wood packaging.
.....end quote.
Have fun in the big world...
Eric
in Calgary
>>....the tag on the end said "whitewood stud".....<<
No inked grade / species stamp on the flats? Just an end tag?
No SPF #2, HEM FIR #1, SYP #2, etc. ??
T'wood raise the BI's eyebrow in any load bearing application here.
Have seen wood sold under the "whitewood" label here, but always as 1x stock....HD I think..... relatively soft, virtually no knots, very nice for some interior trim applications.
Jim
My sense is that 'whitewood' is used mostly for spruce and domestic/imported pine and also to avoid calling some of the species by their actual names, like 'Russian Pine' which *might* not appeal to certain buyers.
You may be right.
The absence of a species / grade stamp would limit use though......
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Typically it means spf, (spruce-pine-fir), the fir being a true fir like balsam fir or subalpine fir. Of course, us carpenters aren't near smart enough to use such fancy lingo, so we just say "white wood".
So when you are ordering lumber from a yard, what you mean when you say white wood is that you don't want doug fir, SYP, hem-fir, cedar, or treated.
Very common terminology around here.
why would you be at lowes or HD looking for 2x cedar in the first place?
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I thought the same thing.
But the Lowes here are selling copper gutter. Special order, but they've got a big poster by the aluminum gutter. If the door's ajar, they'll try to stick their foot in it.
I've got a Lowe's commercial account and they've been calling me weekly to ask "if there's anything they can do for me". A couple of weeks ago I told them they could take down their copper gutter posters. They haven't called since. copper p0rn