Posted by Lizzy Van Lysebeth on December 4th, 2009 in Recent posts, Tutorials

This movie (4 min) shows a wood mill in operation. The process that happens from when the tree trunk arrives until it is ready to go to the wholesaler.

In this movie we see the following:

Tree trunks arrive by lorry to the wood mill site.  The trees have been cut down preferable during a period when the sap content in the tree is low.  Winter time is a good time for this.  Sap content is low, fungus and insect attack is less probable, ambient humidity is low, ground is harder and easier for heavy vehicles to travel on and forest fire risk is low.  Sadly enough wood demand is so high that often trees are cut in less favourable periods which naturally effects wood quality.

The trunks are unloaded from the lorry and cut into manageable sizes before they are placed on a bed which will feed them through a band-saw.  Band-saw blades are sharpened on regular intervals.  Blunt blades may start pulling to one side making curved cuts or produce scorch marks.

The cut slabs are then stacked with spacers in between.  This allows the air to move freely between the wood slabs and is necessary for the drying process.

Freshly cut wood has a high moister content unsuitable for furniture making.  It is air-dried and often kiln dried to speed up the process.  Wood used in furniture making has usually a moister content between 8 and 12%.

To find out more about wood and its processes you can visit the woodweb
http://www.woodweb.com/SiteMap.html

Article written by Lizzy Van Lysebeth
Furniture and interior designer
© Copyrighted by Lizzy Design