Nature's engineering of wood through genetics, wind, and weather creates a wide variability in wood as a material. Consequently, manufacture and users of wood products are frequently frustrated in dealing with the forest resource. Manufacturers sometimes argue that wood is difficult to consistently process into quality products because of the wide range of properties that exist in this raw material. Users of wood products can be equally frustrated with the performance variability found in finished products. Nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technologies have contributed significantly toward eliminating the cause of these frustrations. NDE technologies have been developed and are currently used in lumber and veneer grading programs that result in engineered materials that have consistent well-defined performance characteristics. This brief volume explores some of the processes that are used to manufacture wood, including green wood technology and provides a bit of history to wood production and its uses too. Other products that may interest you from the US Forest Service can be found at this link: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/agency/819

With relative humidity and temperature data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average equilibrium moisture content for each month of the year was calculated for 262 locations in the United States and 122 locations outside the United States. As an aid for storage of kiln-dried lumber, a graph is presented for determining the reduction in equilibrium moisture content that results from heating air in an enclosed storage space above the temperature of the outside air.