On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 22:35:36 GMT, "CMF"
wrote:


Unrelated, but recently I went to home depot and asked for a true 2x6,
something that was actually 6 inches wide. I thought I had seen some 2x4's
once that were actually 2 inches by 4 inches,

What you saw were "rough" 2x4's that weren't planed or otherwise
smoothed. I've seen these from small, local mills.

A normal piece of lumber is cut to the stated dimensions, planed,
shaped, dried, etc... The extra wood is removed during the milling,
and additional size is lost due to drying.

Barry