Unwrapping The Log

As I was growing up, I often wondered what happened to the lumber from the trees that were taken down in my neighborhood. The "tree chipper" was a really cool piece of machinery, but it didn't take long, even at 12 years old, to realize there must be a better use for urban saw logs than going thru the chipper.

Let us fast forward to 1998 when I got my first sawmill. Opening up my first log was like opening presents at Christmas time, it didn't matter how it was wrapped, I just couldn't wait to see what's inside. To this day, I still look forward to "unwrapping the log."

Urban timber usually has interesting figure. Not many urban logs are straight, clean, and round. Curves, branches, crotches, damage from accidents such as lightning, can make for unique figure not commonly found in forest grown timber. Urban trees are a beautiful, under utilized natural resource that is too often considered a waste product or disposable. My passion is taking this resource and extracting as much usable product as possible for further use.

Sawing for customers on a "one on one" basis allows me to extract the best figure out of logs and yields some very unique looking pieces. Equipment can be updated, methods can change, but my devotion to good use of this natural resource is driven by my passion for doing it right.

I hope you find my site informative and are inspired to the many possibilities John's Urban Timber can offer you.