"turpentine cut" query

[Bruce Levak]

        I found this reference to turpentine cuts from the

        http://www11.myflorida.com/specificationsoffice/y2kBook/d953.pdf

        953-5 Permissible Knots and Other Defects.
        ...
        Turpentine cuts will be allowed on all timber piles provided
that no single cut shall exceed onehalf of the circumference of the
pile, and that the length of the cut shall not be more than 15% of the
length of the pile. Piles to be used as outside piles in timber bents
shall not have more than one turpentine cut.

        /Bruce Levak

        -----Original Message-----
    From: Mark A Mandel [mailto:mam at THEWORLD.COM]
    Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 10:04 PM
    Subject: Re: "turpentine cut" query

                [Gerald Cohen]
        #>    A colleague has asked me about "turpentine cut"--it's a
carpentry term
        #> meaning a sloppy joining of two boards.

                [Douglas G. Wilson]
        #I think a turpentine cut SHOULD be a cut made in a [pine, etc.]
tree for
        #collection of turpentine. I speculate that the above sense is
metaphoric,
        #referring to a ragged slot or so. I can't find an example of
this usage
        #immediately.

        I am no carpenter, even as an amateur, so the following may not
be
        reasonable. I thought on reading Gerald's question that perhaps
a sloppy
        joining would, under some circumstances, "bleed" resin from what
should
        be a tight junction.

        -- Mark A. Mandel
           Linguist at Large