On Mon, 24 Feb 2014 09:31:16 -0500, BenignBodger
wrote:

On 2/24/2014 9:09 AM, Bill Gill wrote:
I have a little project in mind, but I need a bit of
1 X 4 to do it with. So yesterday I stopped by the nearest
home supply to get one. They had the rattiest selection of
1 X 4s I have ever seen. They were #3 S4S (square four sides),
but I don't think a one of them had all 4 corners the full length.
They did have some 1 X 8s that were fairly clean looking
so I got one of those. I suppose I could have gone on over
to Lowes, but I don't have much faith they would have had
anything any better. I'll have to rip the 1 X 8s down, but
I would have had to rip the 1 X 4s too, so that isn't a big
problem.

Of course the first problem will be to clean up the shop so
I can work out there. I have done a number of small projects
that didn't need much space, so I have just been shoving
things out of the way. To do a proper job I really need
to do a complete clean up.

Bill

I am always hearing from people that lumber was better in the 'old days'
where 'old days' is only vaguely defined. I just had the opportunity
(necessity) to become more familiar with the internal structure of my
smallest bathroom, stripping it back to studs and joists, including
removing the damned mud bed floor. I can say from that experience that 1964
was definitely not the 'old days' of superior lumber quality. There was
some real crap buried in that tiny 38 square foot space. At first I was
confused by the number of studs that had slices almost all the way through
them until I realized that they were somebodies idea to de-crown bent wood.
Other studs had knots taking up at least half the width of the stock and at
least one had a waney edge that took away a third of the stock. I took the
opportunity to glue and screw splints on the compromised studs but left the
waney one alone because I couldn't get to it well enough without causing
possible damage to the wall in an adjacent bath. The wood I'm putting in is
regular borg-grade stuff but at least I've been able to select the least
crappy stock off the shelf.
Just goes to show you that back in 1964 there were "bodgers" in the
trades, just like there is now. And guys who are too cheap or lazy to
make firewood out of inferior materials.

Since all the "old growth" wood is gone, and the price of wood has
gone up, the temptation to use inferior wood has gotten a lot stronger
- and while back then you COULD get good wood (usually) today it is
more difficult. The availability of "rough" wood has not changed
(much).