Q: What is a board foot? Also, I saw something about Doyle board feet -- what are they?

Q: How can I separate white ash from black ash. I think our supplier is slipping some black ash into our white ash; at least the wood is much browner.

Q: I have a flooring project we have just completed for a local college. The floors which we glued down to the base have buckled and lifted several inches off the floor at the top of the buckles. The contractor was not controlling the humidity after installation. Readings indicate that the relative humidity was 85 percent with a temperature of 65 degrees. Recently, the moisture levels have since been controlled and are stabilized below 55 percent, but the buckles are not entirely gone. Am I correct that this a moisture problem due to the high RH?

Q: I need to know what the difference is between black gum compared to sweet gum, and how do I identify black gum. I think I am getting black gum in my sweet gum and our customers do not want it.

Q: We continue to have problems with cherry oxidation. We build doors that go into inventory in our door racks. Occasionally, some stacks may be there for long periods. The edges of the door and panel profile are sanded as the door is being built, but not the faces of the styles and rails. As we pull doors and send them through the final sanding lines, the stiles and rails and the center of the panel get sanded. This leaves a darker edge that was exposed to the air and light while in the door racks. This causes a quality problem for us, as most of our cherry goes out in a natural or light stain. We are proposing to put some type of curtain up around the cherry racks. Will this help? Do you have any suggestions?

Q: We have just encountered a few pieces of 4/4 red oak lumber, all from one supplier. After we plane the lumber and let it sit for a few days, we will have small (1/4 inch along the grain and 1/16 inch wide) black spots that look like there is tar inside the wood. The black tar seems to bleed out a little bit after a week or so. The lumber has been kiln dried at 160 F maximum. If we do not find these pieces, the black will bleed through in small streaks through the light colored finishes.

Q: When we finish wood, our first step is to apply a medium stain. Immediately, on some pieces of wood, we have some areas that seem to take more stain and will be darker than other areas. The wood appears blotchy. Can you help?

Q. We process wenge. When we re-saw it to make two thinner pieces, we see a distinct yellow hue in varying shade tones within the core of the lumber. We know that it does eventually turn dark. Is this normal?