Stuart wrote:
: In article ,
: Doug Miller wrote:
: I have here a planer/thicknesser. The top is an Aluminium bed with a
: slot running across it at right angles, through which blades protrude
: which rotate at high speed. I pass timber along the bed and the blades
: remove wood, flatening the timber - hopefully! That's a planer.

: In the USA, we call that a jointer.

: Reading this group for quite a while now, I had always assumed the term
: referred to some some sort of machine for cutting various joints in
: wood. That's what the name suggests.

: And the wood that we use for cabinetmaking, we call "lumber". "Timber",
: here, means standing trees which will eventually become lumber.
: "Timber" is also used, less frequently, to refer to very large wooden
: beams.

: Timber:
: "(n) wood suitable for building or carpentry whether growing or
: cut, a beam or large piece of wood in a framework, as of a house, ship &c"
:
: Lumber:
: "(n) Furniture stored away out of use: anything cumbersome or
: useless"

: Yes, I have become accustomed to the (mis-)use of these words round here.


If you had read the full page at the OED from which you got that definition,
you'd have seen the first specific North American definition, listed as

" 3. N. Amer. Timber sawn into rough planks or otherwise roughly prepared for the market."
(Oxford English Dictionary)"

Juat out of curiosity, is "lumber" still used in the sense that
you're using it (definition 1 of OED)? Or are you being contrary?


-- Andy BArss