a lot of you been asking for this so today is part one of covering the absolute basics in both woodworking and carpentry terminology not only will today's video cover the terms but i'll also intertwine some tools as well because it plays such a huge part in understanding the terminology now if i zoom out a bit on the video and hover over the timeline below you can see that it's actually broken up into four major sections lumber plywood measuring and marking which is a combined section and hand tools now i've laid this video out in this way to make it easier for you to navigate around especially in the future when you need a quick refresher one of the most important groups of terms to learn right out of the gate is to learn about the material in which you'll be using to build all your stuff so for the purpose of this video both lumber or wood will refer to construction material material that's used to build houses and material that's used to build furniture so with that let's dive into learning about some of the basic terms used for lumber or wood in its raw's form wood can be broken up into two categories hardwoods and soft woods hardwoods come from deciduous trees that is trees that drop their leaves like oak cherry or maple so the poplar i have here is considered a hardwood but by no means is this actually hard like maple so why is it a hardwood simply because it came from a tree that drops its leaves another important thing to know about hardwoods is that they grow slower and the wood fibers are more dense making the wood much stronger soft softwoods on the other hand come from conifer trees trees like pine fur cedar and of course they have needles and not leaves softwood trees grow faster and produce wood that is less dense and in general weaker than hardwood rough cut lumber rgh is lumber that is well rough and in most cases you can still see the saw marks from the mill rough lumber is sold by the quarter inch in its thickness and its width can vary just depending on what's available in your area for example a four quarter board measures around one inch thick a six quarter inch and a half an eight quarter two inches and twelve quarter three inches lumber like this can be used for rustic projects or it could be sized down by using a jointer and a planer for furniture moving on the term face is used to describe the large flat part of the board while the edge is used to describe the smaller edge of the board end grain refers to the end of the board where the end of the grain is most visible grain or grain pattern is a visual look that the grain makes as it runs through the board it's what makes wood so beautiful once the lumber does get sized down it's called dressed lumber that is lumber that has been sized and shaped and smoothed to a nice flat surface for example s4s which stands for surfaced on four sides is lumber that is found at most big box stores it's dimensioned and finished on four sides ready to use there's also s2s lumber which is surfaced on two sides both faces are planed but as you can see the edges are still raw and rough dimensional lumber is lumber that is sized to a standard final dimension like framing lumber like a two by four two by six or two by eight and it also refers to a one by four or one by six and so on but don't be tricked with these numbers because dimensional lumber is sold using its rough size not its actual size so for example when you buy a two by four at the store it doesn't measure two inches by four inches but measures an inch and a half by three and a half inches and a one by four doesn't measure one inch by four inch but measures three quarters of an inch by three and a half inches most often the lumber that we've been discussing has been kiln dried meaning that it's been put inside of a kiln a kiln is basically a big oven to reduce the moisture content of the lumber wood that is wet will eventually dry out and shrink on its own but by using a kiln that does it in a more controlled environment that's slower producing a much better product at the end however in the carpentry world there is a product called pt lumber or pressure treated lumber which is really wet this lumber is treated with chemicals that resist rot and insects which makes it a great choice for outdoor projects no matter what wood you buy there are six common defects to look out for number one is a cup a cup is when the board or the lumber is curved up in this direction on the face of the wood number two is a twist a twist is when the board twists this way and one end in the opposite direction in the other number three is a crook a crook is when the board or lumber bends to the right or to the left in the direction of the edge of the material number four is a bow a bow is similar to a crook but this time the board bends in the direction of the face five is a check a check is when the board or lumber has a crack but the crack doesn't go all the way through the thickness of the material and number six similar to a check the split is when the crack goes all the way through the material plywood is a man-made wood product that is made from multiple layers or plies of thin wood veneer these veneers are then glued together at 90 degree angles to each other to produce a flat large stable sheet of material plywood is often graded by its surface and how many plies it has so for example the fewer the plies the weaker the plywood or the less stable it is the more plies it has the more stable it is the stronger it is for example this half inch construction grade plywood has four plies sold in four by eight sheets and has a pretty rough surface even after it's been sanded the next type to look at is finished plywood finished plywood has one or two outside thin veneers oftentimes hardwood that produces a really good smooth surface for example this sheet of finished plywood came from home depot and it has two thin outer veneers of birch and five interior plies for a total of seven plies the last type of plywood to look at is baltic birch and here in the u.s baltic birch might be the highest level or quality of plywood that you can buy for example this piece of 13 millimeter or three quarter inch here in the united states has two thin outside veneers and 11 interior plies for a total of 13 plies making this a very strong and very stable material all plywood no matter what it is comes in multiple thicknesses so just know that the examples that i just showed you is just the tip of the iceberg of what's out there the first term to explore here is the term square in carpentry and woodworking it refers to checking the squareness of the faces edges or the ends of boards it also refers to checking if something you're building has equal diagonal measurements which verifies that it is indeed square the term square is also used to label a group of tools that are specifically designed to mark and check for squareness let's look at four of them the first is a precision square these square
