Correspondences between manually estimated compression wood in Norway spruce and the warp of the sawn timber

L.) and the warping of the sawn timber in terms of bow, spring and twist as well as further deformation after ripping of the dried products. The amount of compression wood was defined and measured on logs according to the methods of the Swedish Timber Measurement Council (Regulations for measuring of round wood) and on the sawn timber according to the Nordic Timber. The impact of two different drying schedules was also investigated. The study shows that visible compression wood in both the butt end of the log and within the sawn timber was a rather poor indicator of the warp of the dried sawn timber. In no comparison did the correlation coefficient, r, exceed 0.3. In contrast to this, the correlation between the amount of compression wood and the warp of secondary products was fair, r = 0.79. This means that it should be possible to identify sawn timber less suitable for secondary processing by the amount of compression wood. The corresponding correlation between compression wood in the butt end of the log and the warp of the secondary products was r = 0.46. No significant differences could be shown in the degree of warp, as related to compression wood, between sawn timber or secondary products, dried at a wet-bulb temperature of 55 °C/117 h, LT-schedule, and a dry-bulb temperature of 110 °C/24 h, HT-schedule, respectively.