Oops! I didn't reply to your last question re the availability of the
Wood Handbook. It was written largely for use by wood technologists and
engineers. Real title is "Wood Handbook--Wood as an Engineering
Material", and is Agricultural Handbook #72 of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Forest Service. As a result it has extensive discussion of
wood types, behavior, drying,fastening, cutting qualities, physical
properties of all kinds, and problems in use and their resolution. I
still believe it is available from the Superintendent of Documents in
Washington, D.C. for a nominal fee. I'll have to get the address for
you. It is available both Hard and Soft bound. Is 466 pages! I was in on
several revisions of it over some 30 years. 
--ErvSaws 
On Wed, 6 Aug 1997 18:24:02 -0700 elschaffer@j... writes:
>The "specific gravity" of materials is their weight divided by the 
>weight of 1 cubic foot of water (which weighs 62.4 lbs/cubic foot). 
>Voila (that's "wallah")!, so 0.63 X 62.4 = 39.3.
>--ErvSaws
>On Wed, 06 Aug 1997 17:38:39 -0700 David Hunkins drhunk@c... 
>writes:
>>At 05:06 PM 8/6/97 -0700, you wrote:
>>>The "Wood Handbook" of U.S. Forest Products Lab lists an average dry 
>
>>.63
>>>specific gravity for the heaviest Maple (Sugar Maple). That equates 
>
>>to
>>>39.3 pounds per cubic foot!.--ErvSaws
>>
>>Hi Erv,
>>
>>If you have the patience, could you explain how one uses the specific
>>gravity number to arrive at the weight? There must be a formula, but 
>I
>>wouldn't know where to look to find it. Thanks, David
>>
>>And BTW, is this "Wood Handbook" reference a hard to find item?
>>