Rough Sawn: Wednesday's Word(s) of the Week

In the Word of the Week entry on Surfacing, I mentioned that the standard finish for glulam members is a smooth planed or sanded finish. There are other options, collectively known as "rough sawn" which leave the glulam members with a textured finish.

Rough sawn finishes give glulam members a more rustic look. The general idea is to have them look like solid timbers, fresh out of a saw mill and never planed. The rough surface really can obscure glue lines and leave members appearing solid rather than laminated, particularly if stained. But, you still have the flexibility of glulam to create curved shapes and much larger, more stable members than can be directly harvested from trees.


Rough sawing processes vary. Typically the glulam members are first finished smooth for layout and fabrication (cutting to shape, fabricating for connections.) Then the surface is roughened by coarse sanding across grain or running saws across the surface, for example. Much of the roughening is done by hand, so it may add significantly to the time and cost of projects.

*Wednesday's Word Of The Week is a feature on Unalam's Wood Times Blog. Each Wednesday our structural engineer, Rik Vandermeulen, will discuss a new term associated with glulam manufacturing. He will do this until we run out of words. If there is a timber or glulam term that you have heard of and want to know more about, let us know in the comments.