Wood Paint - do colors mean anything?

[bruce Humphrey]

Looking at the different types of wood, the ends are painted with different colors. is there a standard use of colors for wood species? or is it random by vendor etc.

as always, thanks

[Yonak Hawkins]

Here's a response to a similar question : http://www.woodcentral.com/woodworking/forum/messages.pl/page/2/md/read/id/477946/sbj/clarification/

From that answer, I can gather that there is no standard, but sometimes the color does have a meaning for certain places or circumstances.

[Jim Finn]

I have asked this same question of a few wood suppliers and they all told me that the different colors mean nothing at the retail level. They are used by the mill to show different batches, not wood types.

[bruce Humphrey]

oh well. I guess I have to resort to the wood species guide. thanks for the answers everyone.

[johnny means]

My local lumber yard differentiates different species by color. Maple is all blue, red oak is red, pine is yellow,etc.

[Bradley Gray]

I worked at a lumber yard while I was in high school in the late 60's. We used color to designate length. I can still remember ; white=6', yellow=8', green=10', blue=12', black=16'