Lumber

lumber

It's a non-countable.

It's a pile of lumber.

I'm not sure, but I think those are 2x4s (said "two-by-fours"). (2x4 is countable.)

If so, you can say: That's a pile of 2x4s.

CJ

Two-by-fours

Thank you.

Then, you would usually say, "let's saw this 2x2" only, and not even the word "stick"? What if you don't know the size? You would just round or assume the size?

onizoyou would usually say, "let's saw this 2x2" only, and not even the word "stick"?

Correct. Usually, it's

Let's saw this [2x4 / 2x6 / 2x8] (board).

If you add a word, you can add "board", but don't add "stick".
Carpenters rarely add "board".

(By the way, the numbers refer to inches, so the symbol for inc

Thank you, CJ.

if you are working with it, you would probably use 2x2. However, if you see a picture of a pig sawing a stick of lumber, what would you try to say, "a pig is sawing 2x2 / a piece of lumber / a log(which is entirly different one) / or something else?

onizosawing a stick of lumber

What did I just tell you about using "stick"?

Please

What's wrong with "stick"? A stick of timber is an unmilled portion of a tree that will be worked into lengths of lumber, each piece of which is called a stick of lumber.

deadrata stick of lumber

OK. If you say so. I've never heard it.

fraze.it, which regularly returns thousands of hits, has only one sentence with 'stick of lumber', and even there it seems more like a quantifier like 'bit'.

There's not even a stick of lumber there anymore.

CJ

CalifJim I've never heard it.

I had never heard it, but when I Googled it, I found that it is very common in the lumber/timber trade.

I remember being surprised several years, when I taught in a tobacco company, that 'stick' was the standard term in the trade for 'cigarette' as a unit of sales and production..

I got zero hits for 'stick of lumber' in COCA, but I admit I'm all thumbs trying to use that system.

CJ

I wonder whether this usage gave rise to the term "cancer stick" or whether it was the other way around.