FW: "turpentine cut" query

[Frank Abate]

RE the following original query by G Cohen and D Wilson's reply that follows
it, see below:


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

D Wilson replied:
>>
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.
<<



See this URL (in PDF format), which describes "turpentine cuts" in cut
lumber as a potential defect:

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

Other checking of hits from google searches I did indicated that the
notching of live pine trees to collect sap to be distilled into turpentine
was a major industry through much of the 1800s, esp. in the Carolinas and
other southern states, supplying the naval stores industry and others (e.g.,
paint and medicine).  The notches made in the trees were somewhat roughly
made, with axes, and spoiled the outer parts of the trees for use as lumber.
If harvested this way for their sap for too long, the trees died.

Conjecture: a "turpentine cut" is a somewhat straight cut, but one that is
crude, not carefully made.

Frank Abate