Non-Conventional Forest Products for the sawmill

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I will be writing an article for SAWMILL & WOODLOT on non-conventional products from the sawmill.  The idea is that a sawmill might explore the opportunities for making a "value-added" product and enhance the mill's profit.  I am not limited to green items or to large items.

Some of the products would include herbal medicines (such as slippery elm bark), boards for grilling fish in the BBQ, tomato stakes, kiln stickers, cedar closet smelly pieces on a hook, sweeping compound, pellets of aromatic species for the home grill to enhance flavor with smelly smoke, wood samples of 45 species in a  box--uniform size,  short lumber pieces, 12" long cutoffs (KD, random width), etc.

Do you have ideas that you would share and that I might be able to include in this article?  Thanks.

[thecfarm]

Small hollow pieces for bird houses,bigger ones for planters.
I hope POSTON won't mind. I like this one.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,68573.0.html

[Ron Wenrich]

I was at one mill where the mill owner told me his daughters made money by peeling bark off of cherry logs.  Back then, they used the bark to flavor cough drops.  I don't think they use it anymore.

I also had a client that used to make aromatic bedding for pet shops.  He put them in 1 and 5 lb bags.  He would take boards and just plane them down.  Then, to dry them, he put it in a clothes dryer.  They were done when they started to smoke.   :D  He used sassafras, cherry, cedar, and about anything that smelled good.  He was getting 35 cents a pound, and that was 30 years ago. 

Another thing you could do is cut white oak pieces for shitake mushrooms.  You only need small piecSs that are sawn in half.

Slabs can also be used as planters.  Cut them thick enough for benches.  There's also turning stock. 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

 

 

[thecfarm]

I forgot about that one.  ;D

[Kcwoodbutcher]

Speaking of drums- I make a lot of drum shell blanks for a particular company. Most blanks are 4 feet long, 7 inches wide and a half inch thick. I dry them , plane them to specified thickness ( there isn't much wiggle room here ) and then put scarf joints on the ends. The finished drum eventually comes back to me for bearing edges and snare beds. Most of the wood I provide is walnut but they like weird species when I get them. If I don't have the wood they need they bring me boards for resawing into blanks. This has allowed me to work with exotics and highly figured wood that I would never dream of seeing.

[Nomad]

     ERC sawdust, chips, whatever is valuable.  I have people bag it for little sachets for closets, "dainties" drawers, hanging on walls, etc.  I'm also told that a pillowcase filled with it makes a dog bed that ensures fleas decide to live someplace else.
     

[taw6243]

 

I cut Diagonal sliced walnut and northern white cedar as in the picture.
The cracked ones I carve into trees with the crack as the trunk. I have cut some as wide as 20" x 8' long x 2" thick, got 3 out of one northern white pine log  and charged $125.00 for each one, plus sold all the rest of the square ended ones. That one pine log I made a little over $700.00 just because it was cut that way for end tables, snack bars, coffee tables and bartops.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Taw.....I'm impressed! VERY good.

[WDH]

Taw,  I am very impressed!

Gene,

Cutting cookies for use as table decorations, candle holders, etc. for weddings.  Round cooking are "in" right now with the Wedding Planners.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Taw......tried to answer you PM. You have a block on it.....can't get through.

[NWP]

Hickory, oak, cherry, pecan, etc. sawdust for smoking. Sell by the pound in bags. A google search will show what's out there available.

[longtime lurker]

Sawdust makes a good filler for explosive columns when blasting. It doesn't warrant a premium like say sawdust for smoke houses... but it doesn't require seperating from other species running through the mill or require compliance with any food health regulations either. Anywhere there are operating mines or quarries its a product that if you can guarantee regular supply is worthy of investigation.

[taw6243]

Taw,  I am very impressed!

Gene,

Cutting cookies for use as table decorations, candle holders, etc. for weddings.  Round cooking are "in" right now with the Wedding Planners.

I get a lot of mothers and fathers coming here to buy diagonal slices and cookies for their daughters weddings, lately they want the crosscuts of Eastern red cedar fluted logs.

Tim

[Brucer]

The local kitchen supply store had some interesting cutting boards which I reverse-engineered.

They were made from flitches taken off the sides of Western Larch, that had the pale sapwood on one face and the reddish heartwood on the other face. These were sawn into planks, planed, and glued together, probably into a 6x6. The fabricated timber was then turned sawn again so each board was made up of long strips of 1 x 1's. These pieces were planed and every second piece was flipped 180 degrees and then glued back together. Finally, the pieces were cross-cut and the resulting squares were glued together to make cutting boards of various sizes.

The effect was to have repeating patters of 1" squares that had different colours of wood in each square. It was obviously labour intensive but they were priced high and still moved out of the store in a few days.

[thecfarm]

taw6243,that looks mighty fine.

[Brad_S.]

I have a friend who is grinding all the wood/slabs/slash he can find and letting it compost for a couple of years. He then tills it lightly into the soil and grow simulated wild ginseng on it

I had a client who needed porch posts for a rustic cabin. they needed to taper for a given length and then be straight. I made a four of these and a dozen with just a straight taper.


 


 

[LittleJohn]

I had a neighbor, who is way in the nature, I MEAN WAY INTO NATURE; and he asked if I could saw some logs, cause he need a new outbuilding/chicken coop thingy.  So I agree thinking that we would be sawing lumber; silly me.

Nope he had a whole pile of 9" - 18" pine logs that want to make siding out of and if we got lucky some 2x4 or what not. Of still sound simple, his idea for the side was take slabs off the logs that had a 4" - 6" with bark on so he could nail to the outside of the building as siding.  Well needless to say several week later, after all was said and done, their was his "siding", some 2x4's and pile of sawdust.

Note to self, trying to get a consitant slab to come off a tapered log is a lot harder than trying to find a straight boards when sawing.

[Don_Papenburg]

I don't know if you could make money from them but stumpkins are fun to make and use.
uses up the hollow log ends

[mesquite buckeye]

We can make cutting boards of various and irregular shapes from our short trim pieces. Lots of these are not very useful as lumber, but often highly figured. Food prepared on mesquite seem to have some flavor enhancement.

We also get flooring blanks from our short and otherwise defective logs. (more mesquite)

Also fireplace mantels, bookmatched table tops, and so on. ;D

I always enjoy your articles. Keep them coming. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

[dboyt]

I'd love to see info on small-scale charcoal production, if there is such a thing.

I always enjoy your articles. Keep them coming. ;D 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

X2!

[Alexanderthelate]

woodlandantics.wordpress.com

http://www.flyingshavings.co.uk/

These guys do charcoal, look on the side bars. I've considered making charcoal my self, but I don't know how it would pay off.

[Jim_Wahl]

I'm not sure whether this qualifies as a sawmill product, or even byproduct, but pawpaw
extract is proving to be quite promising as a treatment or cure for cancer. I think the
substance is in all parts of the tree, but is most concentrated in the inner bark. There is
currently only one buyer/producer, but that may change as news of this comes out.

[whitepine2]

  How about Danish candles,made by cutting a round lengthwise in an X almost all the way but making deeper cut in center at bottom.
Fuel oil is then dumped into bottom and lit off with paper,this will burn for hours as it makes it's own draft,fun in summer time outside
at nite.
             Whitepine2

[thecfarm]

whitepine2,I think I saw those at walmart. I forgot now what kind of wood was used. maybe white birch?
Welcome to the forum. Must have white pine where you are? I have some on my land.