Horizon Sawmill Tour: Evergreen Initiative
Learn more about the company's conservation practices, in part four of this exclusive video tour.Meet George Terbovich and his crew at Horizon Wood Products, a hardwood sawmill operation in western Pennsylvania. Founded in 1975, Horizon specializes in supplying veneers and sawn logs to European markets. American Black Cherry is the mill’s “signature” species.
These exclusive videos take you through all the steps involved in transforming hardwood logs into lumber. You’ll see how the log manager “reads” each log, marking it with a flitch line–the best place for the all-important first cut. You’ll see the debarking and sawing operations. You’ll also see freshly sawn boards drying in one of the mill’s six massive kilns. And you’ll learn about the mill’s Evergreen Initiative, what Terbovich calls “practical, logical, and thrifty” manufacturing processes.
Part One Introduction You’ll see how logs are sorted and graded, and how the log manager finds “the best way to open the log,” looking for the greatest yield as well as the best grain and figure. |
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Part Two Sawing Logs Watch the sawyers at work, controlling massive computerized bandsaws. |
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Part Three Kiln Drying You’ll see and hear details about Horizon’s six state-of-the-art dry kilns, and you’ll see how the kiln crew sometimes relies on old-fashioned methods to gauge moisture content. |
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Now Playing The Evergreen Initiative An offshoot of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, this is a program that Horizon began several years ago to “assure continuity of the resource,” as Terbovich puts it. |
Comments
Very interesting series of videos. I have some knowledge of the process having had a relative in the business and having used sawyers and kiln dryers throughout my woodworking career. This bring a lot together and increases ones appreciation of this part of the process.
Outstanding being a small time sawyer myself after seeing this you'd think twice about investing in a Woodmizer and all of the necessary associated equipment to process lumber correctly for basically a hobbyist income.
Thanks for providing this series. Very educational.
Very nice videos. No wonder hardwood is so expensive! Woodworking is my hobby and now that I've retired from my day job I can spend more time learning about it. So far my wood supply comes from the big box stores but I'm venturing into hardwoods that I have to purchase online. Very expensive. Imagine doing a whole project from one log or tree, fascinating!
Great video and very interesting! I bought about 100 board feet of walnut from them at the end of 2017. I worked with Pete and he was very knowledgeable and helpful. Fine folks and glad to see this video highlight their work.
I agree, the set of videos was very interesting. I live in the heart of a large Canadian city and have purchased wood for projects from a lumberyard (not a big box) for many years. A couple years ago I visited a mill and bought several pieces of rough sawn white oak. Quality time hand planing brought me much closer to the project I was designing and it made a big difference.
I too did not appreciate the effort and steps in creating quality lumber.
Thanks, very informative.
Videos are very interesting from step one to finish.
I have been buying from Horizon for a number of years and found them to be friendly and helpful to a hobbyist woodworker. They are a great family to buy from. I admire them for developing this series of videos to inform woodworkers and help in our appreciation of what it takes to get the wood we buy to market.
very informative video. thanks for sharing
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