Firewood,  Sawmill

Sawmill secondary processing firewood and kindling

I mean really, how much work can it be making firewood kindling? Grab a few boards and an axe, chop it up and done. Well that’s the condensed summary version.

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Racks of firewood kindling set to the side for seasoning.

I try my best to make the most of all parts of the logs that come into the sawmill yard. When saw milling logs, the first few pieces off the log are typically waste by product. They usually accumulate quite rapidly and get sold off, given away or dumped into the field to compost back to the earth.

firewood, kindling, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Sawmilling slabs off the logs.
firewood, kindling, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Sawmill slabs pile up quickly.

Each board comes off the pile and gets sorted as to how it can be further processed into pallet cants, kindling or mulch. Then its cut to length.

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Processing sawmill slabs.

Generally the board lengths can range from 32, 36, 48, and 49 inches.

pallet cants, firewood, kindling, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Resawing for pallet boards.

Then its back to the mill to cut into 3 or 4 inch wide boards.

pallet cants, firewood, kindling, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Batch sawing for pallet wood.

The boards are then sorted and set aside. All the waste material gets cut down to 12 inch lengths for kindling and tossed into the wheelbarrow.

pallet cants, firewood, kindling, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Organizing the work yard for pallet making.

What’s all the pallets for you ask? Its for stacking firewood so that it seasons better (faster). Note that under the pallet are other slabs from the mill. Generally those are graded not even worthy to make pallets, I call them skids. They help keep the pallet off the ground, allowing the pallet to last a little longer by a year or two.

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Cords of firewood, stacked and measured.

Sometimes the pallet boards are cut down even further to use for stacking lumber.

lumber sales, kindling, firewood, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Rough cut stacked and stickered.

Softwood slabs like spruce and fir that come from smaller diameter logs are made into skids.

lumber sales, kindling, firewood, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Skids set aside for use later.

The remaining by-product that is too short for the kindling pile goes here to the mulch pile, where it will eventually will pass through the chipper to be made into landscaping mulch.

landscape mulch, kindling, firewood, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Landscaping mulch sold by the 20L pail.

And finally there is the kindling, which is the end of this journey. All the pieces have to be split first.

A little bit of slow motion capture… just for fun.

From here the wood is stacked, seasoned and then used for starting cozy fires in homes and camp sites. We sell kindling and firewood in bulk or bagged. Contact us for more information.

firewood, kindling, sawmilling lumber, bi product, waste management, reducing, recycling, reusing, Loch katrine, Antiogonish County, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia
Bulk kindling.

A Newfoundland born Canadian with a life long interest in woodworking, baking and anything else that peaks my curiosity.

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