Process Wood Goes Through; From Tree To You

We all use wood for so many things, from the books we read to the bills we pay

, and the bed we sleep on, the tables we eat on, everything, we use it and see it all around. It starts from those beautiful trees we have right in our own back yards. But how does it go from that beautiful tree giving you shade in the back yard to a lumber yard selling it to you to make your deck or picnic table?

In the United States the process of getting the timber from the woods to your lumber yard starts out with a fully grown tree. Preferably older trees, they are stronger and have hit their full length, but these trees are slowly becoming more difficult to collect so now lumber yards are using second and third generation trees, these trees are younger and smaller than old ones. Another issue is that they are less stable as older trees because they contain a higher percentage of juvenile wood.

First the trees are cut down by either hand or using a chainsaw, or even a large machine called a "feller buncher". Then the branches are removed with a chainsaw, this is called limbering, then the trees are inspected for knots or defects before being brought to a lumber mill; there the wood is cut into different sizes. The bark is removed using a sharp toothed grinding wheel or a high pressure water jet. The bark can then be cut into tiny pieces and sold as decorative garden mulch or just tossed. The logs are placed on a chain conveyor and cut into premeditated lengths. Then continued to be cut into the perfect measurements to be sold, if the wood is meant to be cut into smaller sizes it will go through a series of buck saws that cut them into smaller pieces.

Once all boards are cut to the size needed to be sold they are then dried this is a very important step in preventing wood decay and preventing it from warping or shrinking later during use. Once this step is done they need to be planned, all this means is that they go through the process of making sure all measurements are exact and all surfaces are smooth. And finally they grade the timber, each piece of lumber is inspected and graded, they stamp the wood with information about the material and now it is ready to be sold.

As for the process of tree to paper, that is a whole different process! Here, they collect the trees, immerse the logs in water, remove all bark, grind the wood into a pulp, and then the pulp is bleached. Then it is moved down a wire screen and is drained and then squeezed between large rollers to remove most of the remaining water, next run through heated rollers to remove the final remaining water. The finished product is then rolled into large rolls which can weigh up to 25 tons and be up to 30 feet wide. A slitter cuts the paper into smaller easier to handle rolls and then you have paper.

But remember, the lumber mills are generally required to plant more trees than they harvested so that we don't run out of forests. It is important that once a tree is cut down to be sure more will grow in its place and survive to adulthood.

by: Mark Hawkins

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