A board is just a board – right?

If the annual production of Finnish sawmills was stacked up in the height of this model wall, it would extend for a distance of 5,000 km! Examine the product range of a sawmill and the characteristics of sawn timber cut from different parts of a tree. In which direction does the sawn timber bend the most? Can you spot differences in the density of the wood?

Sawmills use nearly half of all the roundwood used annually by the Finnish industry. When a tree is felled, the parts that end up in the sawmills include the thick, straight stem called a log, and a thinner part known as a small-diameter log. Sawmills represent the first level in the processing of wood raw material. Sawmills manufacture thousands of different sawn timber grades and dimensions according to wood species, length, thickness, width and moisture content. The end products range from basic sawn timber to small batches of more specialised items. The way a tree is sawn and planed depends on the log grade and the intended use of the sawn timber. Sawmills are highly automated. Sawn timber is used in, for example, the construction sector, and the carbon contained in the wood remains bound in the wooden structures for a long time. A major share of the sawmilling industry’s products is exported.

Sawmills often have further-processing plants, such as planing mills, glue-laminated timber mills and component mills, annexed to them. Approximately 50 per cent of all logs are turned into by-products such as sawdust and bark, which are used as raw material in the board and paper industry.In fact, some plants in the industry are massive sawmills supplemented with their own pulp and paper mills.