hm - June11 - cover.indd - National Hardwood Lumber Association

RULES
CORNER
WALNUT STEAMING
By Dana Spessert, NHLA Chief Inspector
One of the most interesting things I have noticed since becoming
Chief Inspector, is at times there seems to be some areas of the rules
that are not covered extensively enough in the NHLA Rules Book.
One such area is the walnut grades, specifically in regards to the
steaming process. The reason that I bring this up is because I recently
received questions about the quality of the steaming process of some
walnut shipments. I would like to make it clear that NHLA does not
have any official rule regarding the quality of the steaming process.
The quality of the steaming process has always been monitored by the
industry and varies from facility to facility.
In the following words I would like to clarify the walnut rules as it
pertains to the sapwood limitations in the various grades. The first
sentence under the “Walnut and Butternut” section of the 2011
Rules Book states:
“When Walnut has been steamed and is sold and specified as
‘Steamed Walnut’, sapwood shall not be considered.”
That statement pertains to the sapwood limitations of the area of
the faces for which they are allowed when the walnut has not been
specified as ‘Steamed Walnut’. Defects that show up in the area of the
sapwood or heartwood should always be considered when grading
walnut regardless of whether it is steamed or not.
CUP ALLOWANCE
Another question I recently received was in regard to the amount of cup that is
allowed in a board. The answer is very simple, although the way to measure for it
may not be. The amount of cup is defined in paragraph 29 “Cutting” which states:
“A portion of a board or plank obtained by crosscutting or ripping, or by both. In
the Common grades, a cutting shall be flat enough to surface two sides to standard
surfaced thickness after it has been removed from the board. In the grades of Selects
and Better the entire board must be flat enough to surface two sides to standard
surfaced thickness (for skip limitations, see page 50 under the rule “Clear-Face”
Cutting Grade). Diagonal cuttings are not permitted.”
In order to determine the amount of cup that would be allowed can be very difficult
to measure in the common grades as the Cuttings themselves only need to be flat
enough to S2S to standard surfaced thickness. In my experience, most facilities
surface their lumber prior to the ripping or crosscutting in order to make the in-feed
process more efficient. The problem with this setup is that it takes too much material
away on the edges of one side of the piece and too much from the middle of the
other side resulting in thick and thin staves after the ripping and crosscutting process.
My only advice in handling such a situation is to separate the pieces that will not
surface properly and rip those first to negate the effects of the planer and to help in
the recovery of the material.
As always, I welcome your inquiries and hope my explanations help to clarify
these questions.
NHLA Chief Inspector, Dana Spessert can be reach by phone at 901-399-7551
or by email at d.spessert@nhla.com.
14 JUNE 2011 HARDWOOD MATTERS WWW.NHLA.COM