The event was organised by The American Hardwood Export Council and led by NHLA inspector Bob Sabistina.
Mr Sabistina has worked in the US hardwood sector for more than 30 years and is an authority on NHLA grading.
The course at the college covered how timber meets the key NHLA grades; FAS, number one and number two common. It illustrated how dimension and various defects affect grading and explained how the system works with different species and in association with colour grading. A hands-on grading test followed.
Delegates were impressed with the four-hour programme. One commmented that it was useful to get the facts from “an independent horse’s mouth”. Another that it provided “a clear explanation of a “subject some can over-complicate”. “It’s left me better placed to explain the rules to our customers,” he said.
Programme director Europe Duncan King said AHEC was considering running similar courses elsewhere in the UK and that it also offered NHLA training for individual companies.
