Specific End-Use Determination System for Sawn Timber and Roundwood

Abstract

A study of the end-use determination of wood species was initiated with the object of finding substitutes for the currently marketable ones. An inventory was made of the physical, chemical, mechanical and aesthetical wood properties which determine the market value of a wood species. In the course of compiling this inventory, a number of aspects and problems came to light which resulted in a slight modification of the initial object of the study. The main reason for this modification was the problem encountered in defining ‘substitute wood species’. In fact, it had appeared that it was seldom or never possible to find a substitute wood species capable of acting, as to its wood properties, as a complete substitute for another wood species. The interpretation of certain wood properties in such a way, that the wood species could be designated as a substitute, was found to be a highly subjective and difficult approach. It had become clear that a wood species had to be considered from a different point of view, expressed in the question: ‘To what purpose is a given wood species suitable, i.e. for which end-uses can it best be used?’. This question, however, had to be reformulated, so as to allow for the following factors which had been clearly observed in the course of the inventorization.