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.

		Now Playing: 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.
		Part Two Sawing Logs Watch the sawyers at work, controlling massive computerized bandsaws.
		Part Three Kiln Drying You’ll see and hear details about Horizon’s state-of-the-art dry kilns, and you’ll see how the kiln crew sometimes relies on old-fashioned methods to gauge moisture content.
		Part Four 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.