Dale Kessler 
This table lines up the published specs of 45 portable band sawmills and 15 chainsaw mills from 14 brands, so you can compare them in one place instead of opening a dozen tabs. Pick a brand, type in the biggest log you need to cut, or tap any column to sort by it. Every number ... Read more
A drawknife is one of the oldest tools in a sawyer's kit, and still one of the most useful before the first cut. It is a long blade with a handle at each end. You pull it toward you along a log, and it lifts the bark off in long strips. For anyone running a ... Read more
A log arch lifts the front of a sawlog so it rolls instead of plows. Hand vs ATV arches, how to size one, 4 picks, and the chain gear to run it safely.
How to season, measure, price, and sell firewood made from sawmill slabs and scraps, plus the equipment that makes it easier and where to find buyers.
If you just milled a slab with a chainsaw mill or a portable sawmill, it is not flat, no matter how careful the cut was. Chain deflection, bar flex, and the wood's own internal stress all pull a freshly cut slab slightly out of true, and drying pulls it further out of true after that. ... Read more
Spalted wood is lumber a fungus got into before you did, and that's exactly why it sells for two to five dollars a board foot (a lumber volume unit: 12 by 12 by 1 inch) instead of the price of firewood. The dark zone lines and pale blotches are a fungal signature, not a flaw, ... Read more
Quarter sawn vs plain sawn vs rift sawn from the sawyer side: USDA movement numbers, where quarter sawn grain hides in every log, and three ways to saw it.
Doyle log scale calculator and chart from 8 to 40 inches, with Doyle vs Scribner vs International compared, how to scale a log, and what overrun to expect on a band mill.
Cut a log and the clock starts. End grain loses moisture many times faster than the rest of the log, and within hours that uneven drying begins pulling the wood apart from the outside in. An end grain sealer for logs slows that moisture loss at the cut ends so the whole log dries at ... Read more
Powder post beetles in lumber usually show up the same way: you walk out to a stack of oak you sawed last spring and find little piles of flour-fine dust on the boards below. Each pile sits under a hole about the size of a pencil lead. The larvae have been eating the sapwood from ... Read more