Close-Grained Wood: Wood with narrow, inconspicuous annual rings, with little difference in pore size between springwood (early wood) and summerwood (late wood). The term is sometimes used to designate wood having small and closely spaced pores, but in this sense the term "fine textured" is more often used. Birch and maple are typically close-grained.

Cross-Grained Wood: A pattern in wood in which the fibers deviate from a line parallel to the sides of the piece. and other longitudinal elements deviate from a line parallel to the sides of the piece as a result of sawing or as a result of inconsistent grain direction as a growth characteristic. Cross grain may be either diagonal or spiral grain, or a combination of the two.

Edge-Grained Lumber: Lumber that has been sawed so that the wide surfaces extend approximately at right singles to the annual growth rings. Lumber is considered edge grained when the rings form an angle of 45 degrees to 90 degrees with the wide surface of the piece.

Flat-Grained Lumber: Lumber that has been sawed so the wide surfaces extend approximately parallel to the annual growth rings. Lumber is considered flat grained when the annual growth rings make an angle of less than 45 degrees with the surface of the piece.

Grain: The direction, size, arrangement, appearance, or quality of the elements in wood or lumber.

Green (unseasoned): Freshly sawed lumber, or lumber that has received no intentional drying.

Growth rings: Usually represent the yearly or seasonal cycle of growth. Each ring is composed of two parts: the inner part, called earlywood, or springwood, is lighter and softer and is produced in the spring; the outer part, called latewood, or summerwood, is added later in the growing season.

Hardwoods: Generally, the botanical group of trees that have broad leaves, in contrast to the conifers or soft-woods. The term has no reference to the actual hardness of the wood.

Heartwood: The wood extending from the pith to the sapwood, the cells of which-no longer participate in the life processes of the tree. Heartwood may be infiltrated with gums, resins, and other materials that usually make it darker and more decay resistant than sapwood.

Open-Grained Wood: Wood Structure of some hardwoods such as oak, chestnut and ash in which there is a distinctive difference in the pore sizes between springwood (early wood) and summerwood (late wood). The term coarse is also sometimes used to describe open grain woods. Also known, as "coarse textured." Typical open-grained woods are oak, ash, chestnut, and walnut.

Pith: The central core of the tree.

Roundwood: Wood processed for poles or posts. Logs for roundwood are ready for use after simply being debarked and treated with preservatives.

Sapwood: The living wood of pale color near the outside of the log. Under most conditions the sapwood is more susceptible to decay than heartwood.

Sawnwood: Wood treated and cut at a sawmill and then transported to other manufacturing facilities to be fashioned into particular wood products.

Softwoods: Generally, the botanical group of trees that bear cones and in most cases have needlelike or scale-like leaves; also the wood produced by such trees. The term has no reference to the actual hardness of the wood.

Spiral-Grained Wood: An arrangement of the fibres in a piece of timber or veneer which results from their growth in a spiral direction around the trunk of the tree. Spiral grain is a form of cross grain.

Strength: The term in its broader sense includes all the properties of wood that enable it to resist different forces or loads. The strength of an individual piece will change according to the direction in which a load is applied--a board, for example, is strongest along the grain (axially) but when subjected to bending is strongest perpendicular to the grain (transversely).

Texture: A term often used interchangeably with grain. Sometimes used to combine the concepts of density and degree of contrast between springwood and summerwood.

Workability: The degree of ease and smoothness of cut obtainable with hand or machine tools.