Ron May wrote that
>wood is cut differently today than a century ago.

So true.  Just take a look at one of the old lumber trade books showing how
to get the most from a log.  Now, mind you, the wood was a lot better
quality, but each log was cut in a dozen different fashions to get the most
of the log, not the most out of the log.  I was at a mechanized saw mill
last year that took a glorious huge pine log almost three feet at the butt
and they ripped it down to 9 inch chunks which were then ripped into 1inch
planks.  Even when I was in forestry classes in school they taught us how
the old timers did it, but then they told us that no one does it anymore
unless the whole logs are shipped to Japan.  The other day I saw a "how do
they do that" on one of those home-improvement shows and they went to a saw
mill that made it sound as if making a 2x4 or chipboard was a complex
art.  Oh, yeah, try taking that same log and making quarter sawn out of
best part, clapboards, heart and rift scantling out of the rest.  Flat sawn
lumber is all we have nowadays and it SUCKS.

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/class/anth605/saw.jpg

http://royalcraftsman.com/quartered-rift.htm

         Dan W.