Sawmills
Sawmills are the primary processor of the raw wood, logs. A sawmill will take the log and turn it into a product that is desired by the secondary industry. This product is usually a board, but it could be chips, sawdust, excelsior, or even firewood. Sawmills may hire timber buyers and loggers full time or on a contract basis. This is the place your timber buyer sells their logs.
Each sawmill has their own customers. These customers are the secondary industries, they all produce different products that the consumer purchases. Some want White Oak, others might want Cottonwood. The better the sawmills market their product the more they can pay for logs.
Sawmills like any industry can be very efficient or they can be poorly organized. They may have profitable markets or they may have flat markets. Some will produce dried boards others only produce "green", not dried lumber. All of this can influence the price the sawmill pays for logs.
Sawmills also have slow times of the year. Usually the summer months are slow for the purchasing of logs and selling of lumber. If the weather is dry the log yards of a sawmill soon fill to capacity and they stop buying logs. That's why there is usually a slow down in the summer.
Logs brought into the sawmill pass through a process to produce the finished product. First the logs are debarked. Removing the bark removes the dirt and debris in the bark. This material will dull the saw blade quickly if left on the log. Next the log is cut into boards. This is done with a large circular saw or a band saw. most of the more modern sawmills are moving to the thin kerf bandsaws to minimize waste.The slabs or waste is collected and sold as firewood or chips or burned on site to produce electricity in the mill. The boards may pass through several saws, edging and cutting to length to produce the finished product. Some mills will stack the lumber and dry it in large kilns. These kilns drive the moisture out of the logs. Boards are graded and sorted to be bundled and sold to the best markets.
Next the boards move to the secondary mill.