After trees are selected for harvest, the next step in logging is felling the trees, and bucking them to length.
Branches are cut off the trunk. This is known as limbing.
Logs are taken by logging truck, rail or a log drive to the sawmill.
Logs are scaled either on the way to the mill or upon arrival at the mill.
Debarking removes bark from the logs.
Decking is the process for sorting the logs by species, size and end use (lumber, plywood, chips).
The head saw, head rig or primary saw, breaks the log into cants (unfinished logs to be further processed) and flitches (unfinished planks) with a smooth edge.
Depending upon the species and quality of the log, the cants will either be further broken down by a resaw or a gang edger into multiple flitches and/or boards
Edging will take the flitch and trim off all irregular edges leaving four-sided lumber.
Trimming squares the ends at typical lumber lengths.
Drying removes naturally occurring moisture from the lumber. This can be done with kilns or air-dried.
Planing smooths the surface of the lumber leaving a uniform width and thickness.
Shipping transports the finished lumber to market.[1] Label：Sawmill
