How Oregon 70-Year-Old Family Mill Turns Giant Douglas Fir to Lumber - Heavy American Sawmills Tour

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]There's something deeply [music] satisfying about watching a massive log, a tree that took decades to [music] grow, get broken down into perfectly shaped grade A lumber in a matter of minutes.

[00:00:11]And if you want to see that process done at the highest level, you head [music] straight to the heart of Oregon's timber country. Riddle, Oregon, home of Dr. Johnson Lumber Company.

[00:00:21]But before we get into all that, let's talk about the raw material. Because at DR Johnson, it all starts with Douglas fir.

[00:00:28]And they're very particular about it.

[00:00:31]Douglas fir, known scientifically as Pseudotsuga menziesii, is the backbone of the Pacific Northwest timber industry. This isn't just any softwood.

[00:00:40]Douglas fir is one of the strongest, [music] most versatile conifers in North America.

[00:00:45]It's got a tight, straight grain, excellent strength-to-weight ratio, and it takes [music] nails, screws, and glue exceptionally well.

[00:00:54]For structural lumber, [music] the kind that goes into framing houses, building bridges, and constructing commercial buildings, Douglas fir is essentially the gold standard west of the Rockies.

[00:01:04]Oregon alone produces billions of board feet of Douglas [music] fir every single year. And Riddle sits right in the sweet spot of that growing region, surrounded by the dense, productive forests of the Umpqua Valley.

[00:01:17]The logs that come [music] into Dr. Johnson's mill are sourced locally. This is Oregon's timber country in the most literal [music] sense.

[00:01:25]Timber trucks roll in carrying massive logs, typically ranging from 8 inches up to well over 30 inches in diameter.

[00:01:33]These are logs from managed private forest lands and timber sales off federal lands [music] in southern Oregon.

[00:01:39]The supply chain is deeply local and deeply connected to the land that surrounds the mill.

[00:01:45]Now, let's walk through what actually happens once those [music] logs hit the yard.

[00:01:49]The process begins the moment logs arrive at the log yard.

[00:01:53]A massive outdoor staging area where incoming timber is scaled, sorted by diameter, [music] and organized by species and grade.

[00:02:02]At a modern mill like Dr. Johnson's, this sorting [music] process is critical.

[00:02:06]The size and quality of each log determines exactly how it will be processed and what products it can yield.

[00:02:12]Larger diameter logs have more flexibility. They can [music] be cut into wider boards, beams, or specialized products. Smaller diameter logs get routed into their own dedicated [music] processing lines.

[00:02:23]Before any cutting begins, every log has to go through the debarker. Bark may look harmless, but for sawmill equipment, it's an absolute nightmare.

[00:02:32]It's full of abrasive grit, dirt, and sometimes [music] embedded rocks and metal fragments from old fence staples or logging debris that can destroy expensive saw blades in seconds.

[00:02:43]The debarker at Dr. Johnson is a high-powered ring style or rosser head debarker that strips the bark cleanly [music] and quickly as the log spins through the machine.

[00:02:53]The removed bark isn't wasted. It gets sent to the cogeneration boiler system where it's burned to produce steam and electricity that powers the mill itself.

[00:03:02]Zero waste.

[00:03:04]After debarking, logs move into the mill proper and approach the headrig, the most critical piece of equipment in any sawmill. The headrig is the first saw that makes contact with a log, and its job is to reduce that cylindrical log into large flat-sided blocks called cants.

[00:03:21]Think of it as the log's first major transformation.

[00:03:24]From a round tree trunk to something that can be precisely sliced into dimension [music] lumber.

[00:03:29]At industrial operations like Dr. Johnson's, the headrig is typically a large diameter band sawmill, often a twin band or double-cut [music] band saw system.

[00:03:39]Band saws are preferred over circular saws at this scale for several reasons.

[00:03:44]They produce a thinner [music] kerf, the width of material removed by the cut, which means less wood lost to sawdust.

[00:03:50]A thinner kerf equals more usable lumber out of every log, which directly affects profitability.

[00:03:57]Modern scan and optimize systems [music] use lasers and 3D imaging to map the exact shape of every incoming log, then calculate [music] the optimal cutting pattern in a fraction of a second. The computer factors in the logs taper, sweep, any natural curve in the log, diameter, [music] and knot patterns to determine the cut sequence that produces the most board feet of the highest possible grade.

[00:04:20]The head sawyer [music] reviews this and makes final calls, overriding the computer when necessary, based on experience and judgment. At Doctor Johnson, large logs, particularly those old [music] growth quality Douglas fir, coming in at 24 inches or more in diameter, are often processed on the head rig in what's called a four-sided approach.

[00:04:41]The sawyer makes [music] a slab cut on two opposing sides first, flattening the log into what's called a cant, then rotates it [music] 90° and makes the opposing cuts.

[00:04:51]This transforms the round log into a large rectangular block that can then be fed through the next stage of processing [music] with precision.

[00:04:59]Once the cant leaves the head rig, it moves into the gang saw, a machine that simultaneously [music] slices the cant into multiple boards in a single pass.

[00:05:09]Gang saws at industrial mills use multiple circular saw blades or band saw blades mounted in parallel on the same arbor, set at specific spacings that correspond to standard lumber dimensions.

[00:05:21]After the gang saw, boards move through the edger. Edging is the process of trimming the wane, the curved bark adjacent edges, off boards to give them straight parallel sides.

[00:05:32]Raw sawn boards often still have irregular edges from the natural curvature of the log, and the edger squares them up.

[00:05:39]Like the head rig, modern edgers are paired with scanning systems and optimization software that determine the best edging pattern to maximize both width and grade.

[00:05:50]After edging, boards move to the trimmer, a multi-saw station that cuts boards to their final standard lengths.

[00:05:57]Standard dimension lumber comes in lengths of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 ft. And the trimmer makes those final cross cuts to hit those marks.

[00:06:07]Again, optimization software controls the trim decisions, choosing end trim points that remove defects, splits, bark pockets, rot, while preserving maximum usable length.

[00:06:18]From the trimmer, freshly sawn green lumber drops onto the green chain, historically a literal chain conveyor, where workers would manually pull lumber off and sort it by size and grade.

[00:06:29]At modern mills, much of this sorting is now done with automated scanning and sorting systems that can read each board's grade characteristics at high speed.

[00:06:39]But even with automation, experienced graders are still involved at Dr. Johnson. Human eyes and judgment remain essential for final quality assessment.

[00:06:48]Fresh sawn Douglas fir comes out of the mill with a moisture content that can range from 30% to well over 100% on a dry weight basis.

[00:06:58]That's way too wet for most applications. Wet wood shrinks as it dries, causing warping, checking, and dimensional changes that would make it completely unsuitable for construction or finished products.

[00:07:11]The lumber needs to be dried to a target moisture content, typically 19% or below for standard construction lumber, down to as low as 6 to 8% for precision engineered products.

[00:07:22]Dr. Johnson operates large capacity dry kilns, enclosed chambers where carefully controlled heat, air flow, and humidity bring the lumber's moisture content down to specification in a controlled, predictable way.

[00:07:35]The kilns at a mill this size are typically conventional steam-heated kilns, sometimes supplemented by heat from the cogeneration system.

[00:07:43]A full kiln charge of green Douglas fir lumber typically takes anywhere from 3 to 10 days to reach proper moisture content, depending on thickness, initial moisture, and target final moisture level.

[00:07:56]Getting this right is critical. Over-dry lumber is brittle. Under-dry lumber will shrink and move after it leaves the mill.

[00:08:04]Once kiln-dried, the lumber goes through the planer mill. The planer is a high-speed machine that passes each board through spinning cutterheads that shave the surfaces down to a smooth, consistent dimension.

[00:08:16]When you buy a 2x4 at Home Depot, that's actually 1.5 in x 3.5 in.

[00:08:21]The difference between the nominal size and the actual size is what the planer removed.

[00:08:26]Planing produces smooth, consistent surfaces and brings every board to its final specified dimensions.

[00:08:33]At Doctor Johnson, the planer mill runs at high speed, hundreds of feet of lumber per minute flowing through the cutterheads.

[00:08:40]Any board that comes through kinked, twisted, or otherwise out of spec gets flagged for a second pass or regrade.

[00:08:48]One of the things that makes Doctor Johnson an impressively efficient operation is how little goes to waste.

[00:08:54]At every stage of the sawmill process, debarking, primary breakdown, edging, trimming, planing, material is removed from the lumber stream.

[00:09:03]That material doesn't disappear. It gets processed into valuable byproducts.

[00:09:08]Sawdust and fine shavings are collected from the planer mill and sold to particle board manufacturers or used as animal bedding.

[00:09:16]Chips from the edger and trimmer are sold to paper mills or oriented strand board manufacturers.

[00:09:22]Even the bark stripped from incoming logs gets burned in Doctor Johnson's cogeneration boilers.

[00:09:28]The cogeneration system, one of the earlier investments Don Johnson made as he expanded the company, burns wood waste to produce heat and electricity.

[00:09:37]The steam from the boilers drives turbines that generate power for the mill, while excess steam is used to heat the dry kilns.

[00:09:45]It's a beautifully circular system. The lumber operation generates its own waste, which fuels the energy needed to dry the lumber it produces.

[00:09:54]It's this combination of sawmill heritage, engineering innovation, and operational efficiency that makes Doctor Johnson Lumber such a compelling story.

[00:10:04]From a 10-man operation cutting 10,000 board feet a day back in 1951, to a 200-employee company that pioneered CLT manufacturing in America, all from a small town in the Oregon hills. That's American industry at its finest.

[00:10:20]The kind of place that gets the work done, does it right, and doesn't ask for much credit.

[00:10:59]Walk with it.

[00:12:11]>> Yeah, that's it.

[00:13:34]>> Cross the Atlantic and head to the rolling green hills of mid Wales and you'll find [music] one of the most productive of sawmills in the United Kingdom, the New Bridge on Wye Sawmill, part of BSW [music] Timber, the largest sawmilling company in all of Britain.

[00:13:49]New Bridge on Wye sits in Powys in the heart of mid [music] Wales, exactly the kind of quiet agricultural area you wouldn't expect to find an industrial scale timber operation.

[00:14:00]But the Welsh forestry sector [music] is substantial and BSW has invested heavily to tap into it.

[00:14:06]Since 2013, [music] the company has poured over 4 million pounds into the New Bridge mill, including 2 million pounds on two biomass fueled boilers and a major investment phase that ultimately [music] doubled the site's production capacity.

[00:14:20]The primary raw material at [music] New Bridge is Sitka spruce, the workhorse conifer of British commercial forestry.

[00:14:26]Sitka spruce grows [music] fast in the cool wet climate of Wales and Scotland, making it the dominant plantation [music] species across the UK.

[00:14:35]The New Bridge mill processes lengths ranging from 3 m up to 4.8 [music] m, handling an annual input of 210,000 cubic meters of roundwood and turning it into 150,000 cubic meters of finished sawn timber every year.

[00:14:51]That's a significant conversion ratio and it reflects how efficient >> [music] >> modern softwood sawmilling has become.

[00:14:57]The production line at New Bridge reflects BSW's [music] broader commitment to technology.

[00:15:02]Following its major investment program, the mill runs a high-speed edging line that processes boards quickly and precisely, squaring edges and maximizing [music] usable width from each piece.

[00:15:13]Alongside that is a small log profiling line, purpose-built to handle the smaller diameter logs that are increasingly [music] common as plantation forests in Wales are harvested at younger ages.

[00:15:25]A small log profiler uses a series of chipping heads and [music] saws to simultaneously process multiple surfaces of a small log, converting it into structural [music] cants or boards with very little waste and very high throughput speed.

[00:15:39]Crosscut stations, automated stacking systems, and a sophisticated multi-leads [music] handling system move material through the facility with minimal manual intervention.

[00:15:49]The plant run production monitoring [music] platform, installed across all BSW mills, continuously tracks throughput, downtime, and overall equipment effectiveness in real time, giving management an instant picture of mill performance at any moment.

[00:16:04]After primary sawing, [music] Newbridge lumber moves through kiln drying, stress grading, and timber treatment.

[00:16:11]Stress [music] grading is critical for construction lumber sold in the UK market. Every structural piece must be mechanically tested and certified to a strength class, with C16 being the most common [music] grade for standard framing applications.

[00:16:26]Timber treatment at Newbridge involves pressure impregnation with preservative compounds, >> [music] >> making the finished lumber resistant to rot and insect attack, essential for fencing, landscaping, and outdoor construction products.

[00:16:40]The finished range covers everything from structural C16 framing timber to fencing boards, pallet components, cladding, and decking.

[00:16:48]All certified under FSC >> [music] >> chain of custody standards, meaning every piece of timber can be traced back to its sustainably managed [music] forest of origin.

[00:18:02]>> From the industrial scale of American and British sawmills, we shift to something that feels entirely different, and in many ways more honest. We're heading to Toyvola in the municipality of Mäntyharju in Southern Finland's South Savo region, where a craftsman named Veijo Karppinen runs a traditional sawmill operation rooted in Finnish forestry heritage.

[00:18:24]What we're watching in this clip is something you don't see every day.

[00:18:28]Three full pine logs, genuine Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris, being processed through a sawmill line from raw trunks to finished sawn timber boards.

[00:18:38]Scots pine is Finland's signature timber species, a slow-growing conifer that produces wood of exceptional density, resin content, and natural durability.

[00:18:48]The sawmill equipment at a traditional Finnish operation like Karppinen's is purpose-built for efficiency with precision.

[00:18:55]The centerpiece is a frame saw, a type of reciprocating multi-blade saw that's been a cornerstone of Scandinavian sawmilling for generations.

[00:19:03]Unlike band saws or circular saws, a frame saw drives multiple parallel blades simultaneously in an up-and-down stroke, slicing a log into multiple boards [music] in a single pass.

[00:19:14]The curve from a frame saw blade is thin and consistent, and because all cuts happen simultaneously, the throughput per log is very high.

[00:19:23]For a small to medium operation cutting logs of consistent diameter, the frame saw is beautifully efficient.

[00:19:30]The process at Kärkkäinen's Toyola Mill begins with the logs arriving pre-measured and sorted.

[00:19:36]Finished pine logs destined for quality sawn timber are typically harvested in winter when the sap is down, the wood is at lower moisture content, and the cold temperatures help preserve timber quality during transportation.

[00:19:49]Each log is positioned carefully on the log carriage or infeed deck, oriented so it's best face will yield the most usable lumber.

[00:19:57]For these pine trunks, the operator assesses each log individually, noting any taper, sweep, or significant knots before committing to a sawing pattern.

[00:20:06]The infeed system guides each log into the primary saw with steady, controlled pressure.

[00:20:12]As the saw works through the pine, the characteristic resinous scent of fresh-cut Scots pine fills the air, rich, almost medicinal, deeply distinctive.

[00:20:22]The first cuts free the outer slabs, those curved, bark-rimmed pieces from the outside of the log that can be sold as garden edging, fence rails, or firewood material.

[00:20:32]Nothing gets wasted in a well-run traditional finish sawmill.

[00:20:36]The remaining cant is then reoriented and passed through for subsequent cuts, transforming it into a series of boards of specified thickness, typically 50 mm, 63 mm, or 75 mm for structural uses, or thinner 22 mm and 32 mm boards for cladding and interior applications.

[00:20:55]After sawing, the fresh green boards are hand-stacked with stickers, thin spacing strips placed between each layer to allow air to circulate freely through the stack during air drying.

[00:21:06]Traditional air drying is slower than kiln drying, but gentler on the wood.

[00:21:10]And for high-quality pine intended for joinery, furniture, or specialty construction uses, some customers and craftsmen still prefer air-dried timber for its stability and character.

[00:21:21]The stacked lumber is stored under cover, but in open-sided sheds where air movement can gradually bring moisture content down from the green 50 to 60% range toward the 15 to 20% needed for most applications.