What you need to know prior to assembly
Characteristics of wood.
Wood has a set of specific characteristics that are
natural and inherent to it. Those characteristics include colour, density and the extent
to which it is affected by humidity.
Longitudinal cut, in most cases, will reveal a nice, decorative and often ve
ry
appreciable look, which is called a texture.
It should be added that wood has a specific smell, given by attars, resins and
fermented substances, while freshly cut wood has a more pleasant scent. A ve
ry
important attribute of timber is the ease with which it absorbs humidity.
When timber dries, it shrinks. Similarly, when timber absorbs humidity, it
increases in volume.
Downsides.
One of the downsides of timber is that it chaps and warps. When
timber dries, the moisture firstly evaporates from the surface and outer layers and only
then from the inside layers. Thus, when the outer layers start shrinking, the inside
layers, due to stronger moisture, oppose to shrinking. Firstly the surface starts
chapping, then the inside layers. When timber dries it can get a longitudinal warp or a
cross warp. A longitudinal warp is when the d
ry
ing straight balk bends, a flat plank
twists and gets the form of the propeller. Wood has a set of specific technological
characteristics. It easily splits along the fibre nicely holding metal fastenings; it can
flex easily and is not very sensitive to depreciation. Screws hold timber extremely
well. Screws have a much better grip with timber than nails.
Taints:
branchy timber, cracks, abnormal structure, infractions made by fungus
or parasites. As timber is of biological origin, it is so varied that terms "normal
timber" and "abnormal timber" are not strictly defined. Within the variety of sawn
wood and sawn timber some taints due to fungus may occur: mould, brownness.
Mould funguses generally do not affect physical and mechanical characteristics of
timber.
When timber is affected by biological (fungus), physical ( environmental
temperature and humidity) and chemical factors, it decomposes.
ASPEN
1
2
ft x 10 ft, 1
3
/
8
"
