I have Understanding wood, but what im looking for is a book or information on actually milling the trees into lumber. Something that talks about cutting and drying. Would like the info/book to dwell on species and types of milling to bring out the best qualtiy of the wood.
Any ideas or leads?
Replies
Bill,
Those who mill wood seem to come from basically two camps. Either the, 'get as many bd. ft. as you can" ' camp in which case you saw a few logs to get experiance or those who seek to maximise grade yeild out of a log. That requires reading bark, reading the shape of a log, reading the knots and bumps of a log. I know sawyers who saw between one and two million bd.ft. a year and have so for 15 years that don't get it right very often.
they usually don't really know what they're gonna get, untill they are into it.
What I would look for is a book on grading logs. learn the differance between veneer grade and saw logs. Learn the differant wood species and try to figure out what market prices are to figure out what market conditions are. (what the average lumberyard charges for wood has very little to do with the market prices).
No I can't recommend anything other then what Taunton press offers
It will require you to make some telephone calls or a visit to a government document repository library (usually a particular university library in your state) but the USDA Forest Service has over the years published a whole bunch of information about logs and log breakdown.
You first should develop some list of the species you wish to mill because there is some difference between hardwoods and softwoods. Most of the information I have in my files deals with the hardwoods. There are several good publications on hardwood log grades and the types of underlying defects as they appear on the surface. You can go to the governmental document repositiory library and find them with a catalog search, or call your local extension office to get in contact with a Forest Products Extension Specialist, or contact directly either the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (Madison WI) or the USDA Facility in Princeton WV.
There will also be pamphlet publications that deal with log breakdown that will discuss various sawing patterns (eg taper sawing, Best Opening Face [BOF], sawing through and through/live sawing, etc). A lot will depend on the size and grade of the logs you have available to you. For small diameter logs of the lower grades, live sawing will yield more or less the same quality of lumber as if you were to grade saw. There should also be pamphlets that discuss the various techniques for quarter sawing.
You can learn a whole lot from these publications. If you locate them, you can either copy them or order them through the Government Printing Office (GPO). In some cases, the FPL or the Princeton facility may provide them to you gratis.
While you are at it, I strongly recommend you obtain various USDA Forest Service Publications that deal with log and lumber storage, air drying and kiln drying. YOu can do a great job and the mill and then screw it all up with poor storage and drying procedures.
If the above mentioned processes are too inconvienent, I could provide you with a comprehensive bibliography but for which I would require some level of remuneration. If you want to discuss this, contact me through my e-mail address.
Thats for the leads. Ive been really curious to this subject so im trying to read as much as i can.
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