: it home and was setting up my table saw to cut strips and noticed that

: Sounds to me like someone had a 2x6 and resawed it into 2 (much more
: profitable) 1x6s. Last year, I went looking for some 1x4s (plain old white
: wood stuff) and was surprised to find them selling in the $3 range while
: 2x4s were selling for closer to $2. I was sorely tempted to buy the bigger
: boards and cut them down to size.

: I would have cut my boards to bit over .75 inches and then planed them down
: to that. The remainder of the 2x4 would be thinner than I wanted, and
: relegated to scrap, orplaned down to .50 and saved for some other project.
: At the time I didn't have the time to do this, so I bit the bullet and
: bought the more expensive 1x4s. However, when I needed some 5/4, and 6/4
: lumber for repairing door frames and windows, I didn't look twice at the
: exhorbitant prices of dressed lumber in those sizes. I just bought 2x4s
: and ran them through the planer. Made a lot of shavings, but saved a lot
: of cash.

: FAScinating, (capitalization and pun intended) but long, paper published by
: USDA in 1964 about the history of board sizing. The report is 43 years
: old, and it doesn't have the current size standards, but it confirms some
: of the problems I've found when working with repairs to old houses.

: http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/misc/miscpub_6409.pdf

: The battles between regional mills and long distance customers continue to
: make lumber size standards a matter of contention.

: PGJ

Btw, just had a thought that I should have posted earlier, you tend to find wood priced properly in yards that specialize in hardwoods, which are also getting harder to find. Hardwood though has traditionally been rough cut so was always priced per board foot, since the sizes varied considerably from piece to piece.

Bill H.