The_Woodworker_and_Woodturner_-_October_2019

TECHNICAL A-Z of timber terms & jargon

82 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking October 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.com

NEXT MONTH

In part 9 of this series, Peter will look at

more terms including clout nail, cock bead,

compass plane and conky

Cill
Depending on where you were born, who taught
you or how old you are, a ‘cill’ is a ‘sill’, cill of a
window or the bottom of an external door frame,
etc. You’ll notice I spell it with a ‘c’ in my writing
but, frankly, it doesn’t matter which you use.

Circular saw
A circular saw uses a round saw blade to cut
wood and other materials. Today they come in
a host of different sizes, from the tiny through
to the huge. Each circular saw will use a specific
size or range of blades. Each will have a central
spindle, with or without a key way, onto which
the blade is fitted. You MUST use the right blade
with its correct, central, bored hole to fit the
spindle. Failure to do this might result in the
blade moving during use, thus creating uneven
centrifugal forces, which could be catastrophic!

Clamping machine

Clamping, of course, is a way of squeezing

together one or more pieces of wood to make

something wider – a frame or fix veneers, etc.

Clamping machines are mainly used in commercial

environments to make this function easier and

quicker to achieve. Most will have adjustable

stops, dogs or edges, which enable the user to

clamp up different sizes and shapes. In general,

most will be pneumatically controlled, or driven by

compressed air. They may be horizontal or vertical,

be it simple or multi-layered. They’re great bits of

kit if you’ve got loads of repetitive work to carry

out, such as windows or doors, to make.

Clean stuff

This is a general phrase applied to some good

quality stuff without knots, splits or defects.

You might refer to a stack or a piece of wood

as ‘a nice bit of clean stuff’.

Clear lumber

Any timber that is free of defects. Most often

used when referring to top quality softwoods

such as Douglas fir from North America. In fact,

there is a specific grade, which is called ‘clears’.

Any use of these words should indicate knot-free,

quality timber.

Cleavability & cleft

Cleavability refers to woods that are easily split

along the grain, such as chestnut for fencing and

cedar for shingles. To cleft is the action and the

result of this splitting process. For example,

Clapboard house in the Quaker Hill Historic District, a shingle is cleft from the original block.

Connecticut

Closeboarded fence panel

Italpresse universal hydraulic frame clamp machine

Weathered western red cedar shingles

Axminster Trade Clamps sash clamp

Cleft chestnut fence stakes

Axcaliber

Contract

260mm TCT

saw blade

Makita DSS501Z 18V
LXT Li-ion circular saw

Bosch GKS190 190mm

circular saw

Clapboard

What we’d in the UK probably call weather

boarding, clapboarding is a phrase used to

describe a timber-faced, outer wall of a house

or building. Other names include sidings, shiplap

or feather-edged boards. All can be used to

create a weatherproof surface, which should

be constructed, building from the bottom up,

by fixing the overlapping boards horizontally.

Clasp nails

An alternative name for round, wire nails

and cut nails. They both have large heads

that help hold the wood they’re fixing in place.

Cleaning up

You don’t need a broom but abrasive will

help for this. This is the general term applied

to the finishing, cleaning up process of the show

wood faces. Getting rid of any old pencil marks

or blemishes with a plane, scraper or abrasives.

There’s nothing worse than checking a project

only to find a load of pencil marks all over it!

Clamps
We could have a bit of a debate here about
the word ‘clamp’ versus ‘cramp’, but I’ll just tell
you what I think! A clamp is used to describe
the longer clamping mechanisms, such as a
sash clamp, while a cramp is a smaller, say,
G cramp. We’ll cover cramps, (or clamps),
in more detail later on.

Closeboarded

Two references for this

phrase, one current

and one a little more

dated. The older one

refers to the practice of

laying closeboarding,

probably tongued &

grooved planks, onto

roof rafters before

putting the tiles or slates on. This practice

was mostly applied to better quality homes

and was used before felt and other waterproof

membranes became popular. We apply the term

closeboarding to boarded fences that have their

mainly vertical or horizontal boards fitted close

together or overlapping so there are no gaps.