One of the most fascinating experiences I have had in my career has been the ability to tour lumber sawmills. I have been through multiple production operations in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. I have also toured southern pine sawmills in the southeast and witnessed the conversion logs to lumber.
The process (and they are all unique) is captivating and powerful. You cannot walk away from the encounter without having immense appreciation and respect with all the complexities. It feels really nice witnessing the breaking down of the resource and all the sophistication in the process to utilize and maximize a log. It is truly impressive.
So what I have done is locate some of the best video footage of the sawmilling process that I could find and share the links below. It is all YouTube footage and most are void of narration. Still, I think you will come to appreciate the amount of work and financial investment that goes into making finished lumber goods so we can all do our jobs.
The main objective of converting the logs to lumber is always to acquire usable planks, scantlings, and boards. The lumber yield in softwood mills is always about 80% while that of hardwood mill is always less than 50%. This is probably due to the high temperatures in the hardwood mills compared to that in softwood mills.
There are five different video links of various running times talking about the conversion logs to lumber. You can pick and choose at your leisure. You can always return to our website under the blog tab to revisit them as needed.
