Gone are the days when if someone needed to build a house or barn, they’d have to first fell a tree (or several) on their yard. Fortunately, it’s a lot more simple for people to go buy wood in the right shape and strength nowadays. But have you ever wondered how the lumber we can now easily buy got our lumber yard? Or how all of our wood is in neat, tidy boards when trees come in all sorts of shapes and sizes? Well we’re here to explain the basic process.
Step One. After the trees are felled and they are brought to the area where they will be processed, the logs are left to soak for about 20 minutes. Sometime the trees are moved by river and won’t have to be pre-soaked. Either way, soaking removes mud and makes the bark softer and easier to remove. When they’re finished soaking, the trees go through a “debarker.” Debarkers come in many different varieties from hydraulic to specialized saws. These machines chew off the bark of a tree exceptionally quick, and often need less than 10 seconds to shave the logs bare. After they’ve been shaved, the logs move on to the next step.
Step Two: Once the trees have had the vast majority of their bark removed, they are sorted into large and small logs. The saws and exact method will differ depending on the size of the trees, but the end result is similar. Each tree is sliced into 7 or 8 long pieces of wood. Larger pieces will often go through a resaw where they are halved to make narrower lengths. At this point these lengths of wood will then be cut further to make the assortment of standard lengths and widths you can buy here at TimberTown.
Step three: After being cut down to size, the edges of each plank are smoothed and the defects are trimmed away. The boards are then sorted by size and stacked. At this point the wood is what is referred to as rough sawn lumber. For some of the wood, the time at the sawmill is finished, it will be graded and then transferred to a lumberyard as is. However, if this wood is to be further processed into finished lumber, it will now go into a kiln to be dried. After drying, it too will be graded and transported to the many lumber yards all over Canada.
At this point some of the wood will find its way to TimberTown and then to your home. Looking to buy some lumber? Come into TimberTown today!
