I hope it’s not against the rules here, just saw this woodworking related xkcd that I enjoyed and thought it might be appreciated here:)
this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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They were 2x4 before drying the wood (that’s what I heard)
Not only drying, but sanding and straightening.
But in reality anymore they aren't even cut to 2x4 initially.
The hardware stores seem to pre-twist the lumber for you.
Nah, it’s just they buy wet wood and it twists as it dries. Also, places like Lowe’s likes to stack a lot of wood vertically, so they get that nice bow in them for all those rocking chairs people want to build.
Lot's of rocking chair supplies in Europe too :/
It doesn't shrink by a half inch in each direction.
The board is rough sawn to 2x4, kiln dried, and then milled. That milling takes it down to 1.5x3.5 inches. Used to be, the carpenter bought rough boards and milled them himself, now they do it for you to save the weight when shipping.
Oh, also: 1 1/2 inches is 1/8th of a foot. 3/4" is 1/16th of a foot.
There have been a few sizing changes, old framing is 2x4, there was a phase when they were milled to 1 3/4 x 3 3/4 now down to 1 1/2 x 3 1/2...probably to get more boards from same tree.
I had an image showing these various eras somewhere...
The thing that gets me is you'll buy a 2x4 and it'll have pith and bark in the same gorram board!
Lol
Old framing was not 2x4. Some of it was, but everyone has their own size they sold as 2x4. You couldn't mix and match.
I used to do home renos. Pre sixties era homes in southern Ontario had actual 2x4s. They were all same dimensions, and using modern stuff meant making up this difference with plywood rips.
I've seen houses like that too. I saw other houses not far away (build in 1885) where the 2x4's matched modern dimensions. Still other houses I've seen the dimensions where something else. Anything since the standard the sizes are all the same.
This is about whatever was available where you happen to live at the time they built.
Most we demo'd and reno'd where sized equally and so drywall could go flush back over top, and pulling out a stud from a doorway you could reuse elsewhere to match.
There was only a few where it looked liked somebody had assembled their house from random scraps. Instead of full studs sometimes they were 3 vertical pieces nailed against 2 or 3 other pieces to make a Stud, and the dimensions were all over the map
It's not often that I'm surprised by some of the divisors that appear in US Customary or Imperial units, but I'm now shuddering to imagine what sort of horrific system of unit names have been built atop this fact of twos-powers fractions of a foot.
Knowing the English, they'll likely have invented a name during the medieval time for 1/8th of a foot (1.5 inches), like dozebarleycorn, since a barleycorn is already 1/3 of an inch. And then 3/4" might be a demidoze, or some such insanity. The horror, the horror.
Or they'd pull a Worcestershire and pronounce "Inch and a half" as a "chunnauff." Gotta get that unnecessary U in there somewheure.
2 weeks is a fortnight, so is 2 feet a fortinch?
I'm informed the British do read the time 6:30 as "half six", a shortened form of "half past six". So "inch an a half" might become "incuax", pronounced as "in-cha" and containing the unnecessary U, and an X for that Norman/French faux lineage.
Naturally, Americans would instead pronounce it as "in-coh", which would destroy any understanding when also speaking about Incoterms.
In Kentucky it's a "tuba-fur"
In the Carolinas it's a tew-bah-fower. It's made of yella pahn, bout ate feet lawng, they got a whole mess of em down at the Lowe's, most of em are sigogglin these days.
I'd say 14 inches is a fortinch duh
You heard wrong. They use excuses like that, but truth is they can make the final size anything they want, for many years every different sawmill decided their own final size. You start by cutting wet wood to a size, you might or might not dry it, then you plane it down to an exact size. Some sawmills started by cutting to 2x4 and then planning different amounts off. Others cut bigger so when they planed it down they finished with 2x4. Everyone did something different and so if you bought a 2x4 you better pray that sawmill remains open for when you want to remodel and need more. Eventually enough people got sick of this and decided to make a standard, the current measurements are what was decided, it was arbitrary, but at least everyone follows the same standard so you can buy from different sawmills. Exactly 2x4 is also arbitrary.
Or they could have just decided that "arbitrary" factor to be 1.
But oh well
I wish they had, but at least there is a standard, which is far more important.
They shrink?
And expand 😘
Only when exposed to moisture.