Wood: an important material in manufacturing technology

The basic properties of wood tissue are briefly presented to enable a better understanding of wood as a material. The machining of wood by cutting is a demanding technological process because of wood’s specific structure, anisotropy, and non-homogeneity. Next, some specifics in the straight cutting in three typical directions of wood tissue are presented. In addition, the paper aims to correlate the structural and mechanical properties of wood with the outcome of the cutting process, especially in the production of thin boards intended for the resonant parts of some musical instruments. The comparison of two recent experiments showed that the machining process measurably influences the acoustic properties of a wooden board; however, this influence depends on the board shape.