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Shear strength mainly affects the compressive strength of wood and the performance of the wood joint connections. Most studies of failure modes of wood have only focused on bending and tensile properties. Hence, this study focuses on assessing the shear failure modes in pine (Pinus caribaea) softwood and teak (Tectona grandis) hardwood timber species with two joint types: butt and tongue and groove. Most specimens had fractures with fiber failures and wood grain failures on shear test. According to the shear strength values, butt joints are suitable for softwood and tongue-and-groove joints are more suitable for hardwood. Glue line failures only occur in hardwood species. With regard to butt joint, hardwood timber is difficult to bond than softwood timber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shorter sections of sawn timber material resulted from timber industry are considered to be wastes; thus regularly dumped by sawmills. Finger-joint, a method which connects two small pieces of timber together is recognized as a sound technique to minimize the wastage. In this process, sections of different timber species are bonded together for making finger-joint boards. In this connection, selection of the best possible combination of timber species is vital as the success largely depends on the mechanical properties of the pieces. In this study, commonly used 32 timber species were employed to develop a timber classification system based on strength properties of timber species. Cluster analysis was used in grouping the species with similar strength properties. Accordingly, timber species were grouped into five strength classes as very low, low, medium, high and very high. A significant correlation (P = 0.000) between the strength index and timber density was also observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]