sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are converted into lumber. Modern mills typically handle log reception, debarking, bucking to length, sawing, and often drying, planing, and grading. The core equipment includes circular or bandsaw machines, log carriages or conveyors, edgers, trimmers, and a handling system designed to move timber through successive processing steps. Sawmills produce lumber in a range of thicknesses, widths, and grades for construction, manufacturing, and carpentry. By-products such as sawdust, chips, bark, and peelings are commonly recycled as fuel, raw material for particleboard, fiberboard, mulch, or horticultural products.

Historically, sawmilling began with hand tools and evolved through water-powered mills in the early industrial era. The introduction of steam power in the 19th century and electric motors in the 20th enabled continuous production and larger capacities. Today’s mills may be fully integrated with drying kilns, planers, and grade scanning systems, and some operate as portable or mobile units for on-site processing.

Operations typically progress from log intake and sorting to primary sawing, which may employ flat sawing, quarter sawing, or random-length patterns. Primary methods include frame saws, circular saws, and bandsaws, depending on the species, log size, and finished product. After sawing, lumber may be air-dried or kiln-dried to specified moisture content and then planed and graded for color, appearance, and structural properties.

Sawmills range from large industrial complexes to portable units used in remote or specialized settings. They play a key role in forest-product supply chains and depend on sustainable forestry practices to ensure long-term wood availability and environmental stewardship.