WHICH TIMBER IS THE MOST DURABLE?
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Woods that Will Long Outlast a Chassis. The Difficulty of Trying to Give Guarantees of Condition and Strength.
By a Timber Salesman.
TIMBER is, and,, no doubt, • always will be, an interesting study. Even those engaged in its trade are continually _discovering sontiething new about it. Wood being a product of nature, this is not surprising, as nature will often play.funny pranks and upset our most careful reasoning. . .
Many and varied are the questions put to those of IN who handle timber. Some are sensible questions; many .make us.. gasp with astonishment at the ignorance too often displayed by the 'questioner. Indeed, it is very surprising how grossly ignorant the general public are about one of the oldest commodities in the world—wocd. But the fact remains; and the tolerance of the timber salesman (not to mention his temper) is .often Orought to straining point by the'
impossible queries he is expected to answer. Most of the public (not' eicluding the majority of professional woodworkers in all trades) lose sight of the fact. that daffier grows. They seem to think the timber merchant himself produces it and, therefore, should know what the inside of every board and plank is like, as well as the outside. Hence we are asked :—
" When this plank is cut, will it be perfectly dry? ' No one can tell. So Mach depends on climatic conditions. Oak planks, for instance, which have been in stock for several years have been known to be quite wet in the centres when cut. Others which have been in stock for only a few months and which were expectell to be wet have opened perfectly dry.
"Can you guarantee these boards will not buckle." It is impossible to guarantee that. Boards will remain flat in a timber yard (usually cool and shady places) for an unlimited time, and then, when taken into the warmer atmosphere of the workshop will curl up almost at once.
" Are you sure this wood will polish up nicely?" is another tearer we have to answer. " That depends on the polisher," is the only obvious answer we can give.
"Will you give us a written guarantee that this Plank will carry such and such a Weight?" Many a timber merchant has let himself into serious trouble through complying with this request, and more than one lawsuit has been fought on the matter. Boards and planks which have been considered, to the hest of human judgment, strong enough to take the required weight have snapped when put to the test. No one can guarantee timber any more than a doctor can guarantee the number of years an individual will live,
I remember some years ago we bad in the yard what looked to be a perfect log of Black Sea walnut. When the centre plank was cut it was foundto contain a large nest of some species of ant, and they swarmed out of it. Not a trace of this was visible on the outside of the log.
. However, there is one .question which, no doubt, all timber salesmen throughout the ages have at some time or other been called upon to answer, and that is, "Which timber will last the longest?" What a wealth of knowledge we 'should acquire if it were pos
sible to know all the "answers given! But as that is impossible, perhaps a little information gleaned from various sources will be of interest, and show what a stupendous and controversial subject is broached when that seemingly simple question is casually put to the :timber salesman. .
It is a question which has caused endless scientific research in. alt countries, and even now it has not been definitely decided. The choice seems to lie between the two Western Australian hardwoodsjarrah and. karriand even the experts are divided as to which of the two is entitled to the distinction, Jarrah wood piles, 2 ft. 2 ins, square, driven 33 years previously at ,Largs Bay pier, -were . found, on examination, to be as sound as on the day they were put in.
Some specimens of karri wood, taken from a fence near Albany, were sent to London some years ago and, although the wood had been underground for 25 Years, it was perfectly sound. . A specimen of jarrah, wood under similar circumstances showed serious decay.
Timber of the tamarisk has been found perfectly sound in the ancient temples of Egypt in connection with the stonework, which is known to be at least 4,000 years old.
In some tests made with small squares of various woods buried one inch in the ground, the fallowing results were obtained Birch and aspen decayed in three years ; willow and horse-chestnut in four years; maple and red beech in five years; elm, ash, hornbeam, and Lombardy poplar in seven years; oak, Scotch fir and silver fir 'decayed to a depth of half an inch in seven years; larch, juniper, and arbor vitte were uninjured at the expiration of seven years. The redwood of California has the quality of being nearly fireproof. The root of the briar is the only wood which does not burn when exposed to fire. Cocus wood is the hardest known wood; oak is the strongest. The heaviest British wood is that of the box tree, which sinks in water. Hornbeam isthe strongest and toughest wood for mechanical use. The strongest American wood is the nutmeg hickory; the most elastic the Tamar oak; the heaviest, the blue-wood of Texas.
In situations so free from moisture that we may practically call them dry, the durability of timber is almost unlimited. The roof of Westminster Hall (said to be of Italian cypress) is more than 440 years old. In Stirling Castle are carvings in oak, well preserved, over 300 years of age. Scotch fir has been found in good condition after a known use of 300 years, and the trusses of the roof of the basilica Of St. Paul, Rome, were sound and good after 1,000 years of service_ Wood constantly wet in fresh water is quite as durable. Piles Were dug from the foundations of the old Savoy Palace in a perfectly sound state after having been down over 600 years. The piles of old London Bridge were Cound sound and perfect 804 years after they were driven.