Species with potential – how to bring them to market
We need to plant more diverse forests that are resilient to the threats of climate change, pest and diseases and extreme weather events. There are […]
Thoughts
What’s known about non-mechanical properties?
Books on timber properties, like the BRE Handbook of hardwoods (Farmer, 1972), give vast amounts of information, but it is not often clear which data […]
H0 H0 H0 (Santa’s list again)
We all know that Santa is going to find out whether a child has been naughty or nice – but how does he do it? […]
Visual grading of Existing Structures
For a much more in-depth view on the topic: Mike Bather’s thesis on The assessment of the mechanical and physical properties of in situ timber. […]
Lavers’ labours last
The following text was published in the November/December 2023 issue of the TTJ (Timber Trades Journal) in the regular “talking timber” slot, which also gets […]
RSE report on public funding of forestry
A Royal Society of Edinburgh inquiry into the public funding of forestry has published its report – highlighting, in particular, one of its recommendations that […]
Comparing Lavers’ data for UK grown
There is a very large amount of data in Gwendoline M. Lavers, “The strength properties of timber” (Building Research Establishment, BR241, 3rd ed. / revised […]
Peculia odorata and dry rot
The Forest Products Research Laboratory was established in 1925, opening the Princes Risborough laboratory in 1927. One of the first members of staff was Bernard […]
The quickest of overviews of Engineered Wood Products
The text for this post is written by Wojciech Plowas (I only rearranged it). The beautiful overview image above was created by Ben Shirley from […]
Home-grown hardwoods – Where are we and how did we get here?
When you look at the current UK hardwood situation, you will often encounter some facts that show how little we are using this resource: These […]