Harvest Your Own Lumber: How to Fell, Saw, Dry and Mill Wood

In today’s artisan, hands-on, and environmentally conscience landscape, there are many reasons to harvest your own lumber: you can access new species and unique cuts of wood; you can save a healthy log from the landfill by finding it a useful purpose; and there’s a pleasing symmetry in building a toy for a grandson from the branch that held his daddy’s tire-swing. Plus, harvesting your own timber will save you a few bucks.

A concise guide for the small shop or enthusiastic hobbyist, Harvest Your Own Lumber covers all of the important steps in the conversion of wood. John English takes the reader from selecting the raw material to the final drying of the harvested timber. All of the steps in between are explained in clear text accompanied with photographs and charts that make the process of harvesting your own lumber a guaranteed success.

The process of harvesting your own lumber is much more than just felling the tree and sawing it into usable boards. You must consider which species of tree will produce quality timber; how to safely fell the tree; and how to dry and mill the log into usable lumber. Harvest Your Own Lumber explains and illustrates the various choices available from what types of grain pattern to expect to the many defects to be aware of. Also included is an extensive chapter on chain saws and safety while felling trees.

Harvest Your Own Lumber also provides detailed information on sawing to grade — that is, how to get the best yield with the specific grain — plus useful information on humidity and wood, kiln and air drying, various types of kilns and milling rough boards to get them flat and straight. Harvest Your Own Lumber is a must-have handbook for any woodworker, builder, carpenter, or craftsman that relies on good quality wood.

Publication Date: February 2015

$18.95 ($19.95 Canada) • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 130 pages

ISBN 978-1-61035-243-7

250 Color Illustrations