30 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



from fourteen to fifteen pounds, depending upon the kind of wood 

 or woods used in the manufacture, and the crate may be made of 

 chestnut, oak, poplar. North Carolina pine, cypress, or any kind of 

 wood whatever, either mixed in the crate or mixed in the ear. 



The heads may be made of one piece or of two or three pieces, 

 battened together and fastened with a corrugated cleat, thus 

 enabling the utilization of small trimming. The clubs are made 

 ordinarily from small edging strips. 



Six thousand full crates may be shipped in a carload, twelve 

 thousand five hundred sets of heads, when heads only are shipped, 

 and 8,000 sets slats and clubs, when slats and clubs alone are 

 shipped. 



An 8 per cent waste in edgings and trimming, as set forth by the 

 Forest Service experiments in the Adirondacks, means to the oper- 

 ator who pays $.5 per thousand for his stumpage, on an estimate, a 

 waste of 40 cents per thousand log measure. A waste of 8 per cent 



to the millman cutting 40, 0^0 feet per day would mean a waste of 

 3,200 feet board measure, or $16 per day. 



Is there any operator who would not like to save 40 cents per 

 thousand on his stumpage, or $16 per day on the run of his mill? 



No special machinery is necessary for the manufacture of the 

 crates mentioned. A rip-saw and guide, found at any mill, does 

 the work, boys oftentimes operating the saw. 



The price paid for these crates has been found such as will yield 

 a fair margin of profit to the manufacturer (the work being done 

 on an efficient basis), and upou comparison of the cost item and the 

 value of the product, by those operators who have tried out a 

 sample carload to convince themselves, it has been found conclu- 

 sive that the manufacture of this product from edgings and trim- 

 mings and other waste material will turn a waste product into a 

 profit, with no mention of that 8 per cent item in the cost of 

 stumpage, or that 3,200 feet per day item in the run of the mill. 



O. C. C. 



• >i ;;roit;*t;aaiiaiMWBffiaaK^^ .iii-su^irasy 



Sawing the SwelUButted Log 



An interesting debate was recently staged between two prac- 

 tical sawmill men regarding the advantages and disadvantages 

 of various methods of sawing certain kinds of logs, particularly 

 those larger at one end than the other, or what is usually known 

 as the swell-butted variety. The debate was the more interest- 

 ing because it illustrated again the fact that in spite of a great 

 deal of experience with logs of this character, there is still some 

 difference of opinion as to the best way of handling them. 



The plan which seems to be generally used consists of straight- 

 ening up the log by sawing off short boards along the outside, so 

 as to enable the remainder of the log to be cut into boards run- 

 ning the entire length of the log. This is the obvious way, and 

 also the easiest, because of the fact that no time is lost in block- 

 ing, as the back of the log rests against the carriage all along 

 the line. 



The objection to the plan, which was put forward by one of 

 the millmen referred to, is that cull lumber is made out of the 

 timber on the outside of the log, which is usually the best, 

 while all of the heartwood, which is likely to contain defects 

 anyway, goes into the full length boards. In this way, it is 

 argued, the sawmill operator gets just about the same number 

 of feet out of his log, but gets poorer lumber. 



The plan which is suggested in place of this is to saw the 

 log parallel to the outside of the piece. The full length boards 

 thus come off the outer portions of the log. This part, as 

 suggested above, is likely to be less defective than any other 

 and hence it is desirable to get as many standard length boards 

 out of that section of the log as possible. 



The result of this plan will be that a pointed piece of timber, 

 containing the heart, will finally be left, and this can then be 

 turned around and the sawing done from the opposite direction, 

 the short pieces thus resulting all being out of the heart. Of 

 course, some good lumber may thus be made into culls by reason 

 of their shortness, inasmuch as the acute angle formed at the 

 narrow end of the log by the plan of sawing parallel with the 

 sides takes in a considerable amount of good material adjoining 

 the heart at the butt end; but it is urged that the amount that 

 is thus lost is not anywhere near as great as in the operation of the 

 other plan, which involves making culls out of the outer sections, 

 which might have gone into firsts and seconds. 



Those who oppose this plan and favor tlic usual method insist 

 that the time taken to get the log shaped up properly, because 

 of the necessity of an unusual amount of blocking, if the sides are 

 permitted to remain divergent, is so great that whatever benefit 

 there is through saving good timber is quickly lost. This is 

 purely an opinion, however, and is contradicted by those who 

 use the other system. A record of the actual time taken to do 



the work under the differing conditions would have- to bo secured 

 in order to dispose of this feature of the question. 



"In sawing a swell-butted log," said one of the leading 

 sawmill men in the Central South, "it is certain that a part of 

 the lumber manufactured will be cull stock, because all of it 

 cannot be full length. Under the plan generally used, the cull 

 stock is taken off the outer part of the log, which is almost 

 certain to be the best part of it. Under the method followed 

 in my mill, the cull stock is made out of heartwood, which 

 is the poorer part of the log anyhow, and if defective will lower the 

 grade of the lumber. The transfer of the cull stock from the 

 outside to the inside means increasing the value of the resulting 

 lumber materially. I have used both plans, and I kuow that 

 my mill can turn out as much lumber handling the swell-butted 

 logs in the manner indicated as if the simple, easy plan of 

 sawing slabs off the butt and lining up right off the reel were 

 followed. And in these days of high-priced logs, I would rather 

 take a little more time and get better lumber than to save time 

 at the expense of the grade I am producing." 



One disadvantage of the plan of sawing parallel to the sides, 

 which has been referred to by some millmen, is that frequently 

 the saw dodges a trifle in going through the timber, making a 

 defect which has to be cut out. This is a little hard to under- 

 stand, especially as the log is being cut parallel with the grain. 

 Irregularities in the growth of the tree may cause the saw to 

 miss, and it is possible tliat this is the explanation of the 

 defect, which is said by those who follow the plan to be the 

 only drawback of consequence. 



One of the principal advantages secured through the use of 

 the method is that in the case of many swell-butted logs, espe- 

 cially those which are more than 30 inches in diameter — oak 

 timber is being principally considered — and are accordingly from 

 old trees, which have had a chance to begin to deteriorate, there 

 are serious defects. These, as a rule, are found at the butt end 

 of the log, near the heart. This is an important consideration 

 in sawing logs of this character, for it is plain that if the sawing 

 is done parallel to the sides of the log, the defects at the butt 

 will be missed in many more boards than if the log were straight- 

 ened up by sawing a slab off the butt and cutting right through 

 after that. 



In a good many cases a skillful sawyer can take a defective 

 log of this kind, and in spite of the imperfections, which are 

 concentrated at the butt end near the heart, can get nearly all 

 good stock out of the timber by keeping away from the rotten 

 or shaky section as long as possible. If he had run his saw 

 parallel with the heart of the tree he would have soon reached 

 these defects, and much of his lumber would have been low- 



