Guides / Grades and Specs
How to Read a Hardwood Lumber Stock List or Quote Line, Token by Token
February 22, 2027
A hardwood lumber stock list or quote line packs a whole specification into a few tokens: thickness in quarters, grade, drying, surfacing, species, footage and sorts. You read it by taking each token in turn, asking what it means under the rules and what it leaves out. This how-to gives the steps, a token table and the questions to send back. It is part of our hardwood lumber specifications guide, which covers each line in depth. Grade, thickness and moisture numbers are typical, and the NHLA rulebook governs; its text was not read for this post, and the grade figures come from the Wood Handbook and a Purdue summary of the 1998 rules.
Hardwood Vendor is a matching service, not a sawmill. We own no mills, kilns or stock, and the stock list I quote from below is a public document used only to show the format.
What you need before you start
You need the stock list or quote line, your own spec in the same order and about ten minutes per line. You do the reading, and the supplier answers the gaps in writing. Have a small glossary open, because stock lists use shorthand freely. Our hardwood lumber terms glossary defines every code used here.
Take one line as the working example:
4/4 FAS KD Red Oak RGH 1,000 bf 8-12 ft
The line, token by token
| Token | Usually means | What it leaves open |
|---|---|---|
| 4/4 | Rough thickness of 1 in, counted in quarters (AHEC) | Whether it is rough or surfaced, and the minimum thickness |
| FAS | The top NHLA grade: 6 in by 8 ft board, 83 1/3% clear cuttings | Which rule book, rough or surfaced grading, any sort |
| KD | Kiln dried | Target moisture, spread and how it is checked |
| Red Oak | Species or group | Steamed or not, sapwood, color, quartered or plain |
| RGH | Rough, as sawn | Edges, trim and who grades |
| 1,000 bf | Volume in board feet | Net or gross tally, tolerance |
| 8-12 ft | Length range | Share of long boards, average length |
Caption: token meanings from the Wood Handbook abbreviation list, the AHEC glossary and measurement pages and Purdue FNR-130; “what it leaves open” is the author’s checklist.
Steps to read a line
- Find the basis line first. Look at the top and bottom of the list for the tally basis, delivery point and date. A public sawmill stock list of April 2026 states in a footer that prices are quoted on a kiln dried net tally, FOB the mill. Failure point: comparing prices from two lists without checking that one is net and the other gross.
- Read the species and sort. Red oak and white oak are separate groups, and qualifiers in the line, such as a regional word beside the species, a color note in brackets or a short code, may be a sort. Failure point: assuming a code is a standard sort. Ask for it in words.
- Convert the quarters. 4/4 is 1 in rough, 5/4 is 1 1/4 in, 8/4 is 2 in. Under the Wood Handbook table, 4/4 surfaced on two sides is 13/16 in. Failure point: ordering 4/4 and receiving surfaced stock when your plant needed to plane to 3/4 in.
- Decode the grade and the mix. FAS/1F means FAS and FAS 1-Face together, and Purdue notes that many operations sell such mixes at one price. “1 COM” is No.1 Common and “2-3 COM” is No.2 and No.3 Common as one lot. Failure point: reading a mix as the top grade. A mix price cannot be compared with a pure FAS price.
- Check surfacing and drying. RGH is rough. S2S and S4S are surfaced codes, and the Wood Handbook says kiln dried means dried in a chamber to a predetermined moisture content. Failure point: treating KD as a moisture figure. It is only a state.
- Read the width and length sorts. The grade sets only minimums, with random widths and lengths otherwise (RWL). The April 2026 list shows sorts such as “7’ only” and “11 in and wider” next to a grade line. Failure point: assuming a length range means an average. Ask for a minimum average length.
- Read the quantity. Footage is a tally in board feet, and AHEC defines surface measure and board feet in a fixed way, with lengths rounded down to the whole foot. A line marked “Acc” with a month reads to me like stock still being accumulated, which suggests it is not in the yard yet. Failure point: treating an accumulating line as available stock. Ask for the date it will be ready.
Reading a real list
The April 2026 list I used mixes lines such as “Cherry 4/4 FAS” and “Soft Maple 4/4 1 COM … RW/L” with notes such as “Acc May”, “Uns” and “Heavy SAP” beside a yellow birch line. I read “Uns” as unselected for color, but I would not rely on that, and I found no public definition. That is the point of the exercise: some tokens are universal, such as quarters, grade names and KD, and some are the seller’s own. The universal ones you can decode from the rules. The seller’s own ones you ask about.
Grade mix and price tokens
Two groups of tokens carry most of the money: the grade mix and the delivery basis. The table gives the usual readings with the source for each.
| Token | Usual reading | Source and what to ask |
|---|---|---|
| FAS/1F | FAS and FAS 1-Face sold as one lot | Purdue notes one-price mixes; ask the share of true FAS |
| 1 COM | No.1 Common | Wood Handbook grade names; ask whether it includes Selects |
| 2-3 COM | No.2 and No.3 Common sold together | Purdue lists 2A, 2B, 3A and 3B; ask which are in the lot |
| FOB | Free on board at a named point | Wood Handbook abbreviation list; ask the point |
| CIF | Cost, insurance and freight to a named port | Wood Handbook list; ask the port and insurance terms |
| FAS (shipping) | Free alongside vessel, not the grade | Wood Handbook list; write which meaning you intend |
Caption: Wood Handbook chapter 5 abbreviation list and grade names, and Purdue FNR-130. Readings are typical; the seller’s own definition governs.
Compare two lines on one basis
A quote can look cheaper only because it is measured differently. Take a lot listed at 1,000 board feet on a green (gross) tally. AHEC says buyers can expect about 7% fewer board feet after kiln drying, so the same lot is about 930 board feet net. At the same price per board foot, the gross line charges for about 70 board feet that never arrive. One thousand board feet is about 2.36 cubic meters on the AHEC conversion, so a metric quote can be put on the same footing before you compare prices.
The tally rules matter at the board level as well. AHEC rounds widths to the nearest whole inch and lengths down to the whole foot, so a board 5 1/4 in wide and 8 1/2 ft long is counted as 5 in by 8 ft. Its surface measure is 5 times 8 divided by 12, about 3 after rounding, and at 4/4 it tallies as 3 board feet, not the 3.7 you would get from the raw sizes. Ask which rounding the mill uses, and whether the footage on the line was rounded board by board or pack by pack.
Check a pack against its line
On arrival you can test a pack in a few minutes. AHEC gives the method: take the average width, less the gaps, times the average length in feet, divided by 12, for the surface measure of one layer. Multiply by the thickness and then by the number of layers. AHEC works one example that comes to 667 board feet. If your estimate and the tally for the pack differ by more than the tolerance in the order, ask for the board-by-board list before you accept the lot.
What a good decoded line looks like
The same line, written out as you would put it in an RFQ:
“4/4 red oak, plain sawn, unsteamed, NHLA grade FAS (rules edition [year]) graded rough before drying, kiln dried to [range] percent moisture measured by [method], rough surface, random widths 6 in and wider, lengths 8 to 12 ft with a minimum average of [length] ft, 1,000 board feet net tally after drying, tolerance [percent], FOB [place].”
The brackets are for you to fill in. Each one is a question the original line did not answer.
Questions to send back
- What is the tally basis, net or gross, green or dry?
- Which rule book and edition grade this lot, and is it graded rough or surfaced?
- Is the grade mix shown as one lot, and what share is pure FAS or No.1 Common?
- What moisture range is guaranteed and how is it measured?
- What do the sort codes on this line mean, in words?
- Is the footage in the yard now or accumulating, and from what date?
- What is the delivery point and the price basis, FOB, CIF or another term?
- Can you send photos of a typical pack and the tally for this lot?
Next step
For net and gross figures in detail, read hardwood lumber tally: net vs gross and green vs dry. To put everything in one order, follow the hardwood lumber specifications stack and then send your lumber RFQ. We pass it to up to 3 mills or yards that say they carry it, and they quote you directly.
Sources
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook chapter 5, Commercial Lumber (FPL-GTR-113, 1999)
- Purdue Extension, FNR-130 Hardwood lumber grades (summary of the 1998 NHLA rules)
- American Hardwood Export Council, measurement: board feet, tally and kiln dried
- American Hardwood Export Council, glossary of terms
- American Hardwood Export Council, Technical Matters 3: kiln drying
- A sawmill’s public kiln dried stock list, April 2026 (format reference only, no prices used)
Frequently asked questions
What does FAS/1F mean on a hardwood stock list?
It lists FAS and FAS 1-Face together as one grade mix. FAS 1-Face has one face at FAS and the reverse at No.1 Common, and Purdue notes that many operations sell such grades at one price. Ask what share of the mix is true FAS before you compare it with a pure FAS quote.
Is the footage on a stock list net or gross?
The list has to say. A gross or green tally is measured before kiln drying and a net tally after, and AHEC says buyers can expect about 7% fewer board feet after drying. A public sawmill list in April 2026 states in a footer that prices are quoted on a kiln dried net tally.
What does KD tell me about moisture?
Only that the lumber was dried in a kiln. AHEC says American hardwoods are typically kiln dried to 7 to 9% moisture, given as 8% plus or minus 2. Ask for the target range and the check method in the quote, because KD alone is not a number.
What should I do when a stock list uses a code I do not know?
Ask the supplier to define it in the quote, in words. Codes such as SLR1E, Acc or Uns are used differently by different sellers. Do not guess, because a wrong guess becomes a wrong delivery.
Know what you need? Send the spec.
Tell us the species, grade, thickness and board feet. We pass it to up to 3 mills or yards that carry it and reply within 24 business hours.
Send my lumber RFQ