two-by-six

Updated: May 26, 2025

Uncle Miles did the most spectacular, unexpected things: ran up the ladder; stood on the ridge-pole, waving a hammer and singing something about "To arms, my citizens"; nailed shingles faster than Aunt Bessie could iron handkerchiefs; and lifted a two-by-six with Hugh riding on one end and Olaf on the other.

Sinclair Lewis - Main Street

First, with their double-bitted axes, each drove a deep notch into the sapwood just wide enough to take the end of a two-by-six plank four or five feet long with a single grab-nail in the end, the springboard of the Pacific coast logger, whose daily business lies among the biggest timber on God's footstool.

Bertrand W. Sinclair - Big Timber: A Story of the Northwest