“My cousin, Nathan Stewart, and I are in the wood business together. I started this as a commercial firewood business but it’s evolved and grown into making and selling slabs, furniture, and kindling. We’re sawing for ourselves and others. And we’re still processing and selling firewood. There’s a real value-added aspect to what we do. Logging, sawing for ourselves, custom sawing for others, firewood, furniture, woodlot improvement – we’re integrating them all and they all work together.
100 acres of timber
This all started because I have a farm with 100 acres of timber – walnut, red cedar, oak, ash, sycamore, and more. My grandparents had some of it logged and it had been left a real mess. I started the firewood business by cleaning up the slash and leftovers the loggers left behind.
I got bigger chainsaws and tractors to clean things up and turn it into firewood. I worked at it for several years. Meanwhile, I started going around to sawmills and asking what lumber was worth. Then I started logging.
Old vs. new logging practices
Older logging practices simply take out the high-value trees and leave everything else behind. That can leave a mess like what happened at my grandparent’s place.
Nathan and I use more current timber stand improvement techniques like those from the Missouri Department of Forestry. We harvest while doing the least damage. And we improve the quality of the overall woodlot at the same time. One phrase we go by is ‘worst first harvesting’ – we take out the dead, dying, damaged trees and inferior species first. Some of the slash should be left in the woods to return nutrients to the soil. Other things, like standing trees that have been damaged, should be removed.
We harvest trees selectively for lumber and for firewood. I’ve studied a lot about timberland improvement and how selective cutting improves the quality of a woodlot. We also offer forest landowners the service of timber stand improvement. We cut ‘worst first’, selectively taking out the lower grade trees to improve the overall stand.
Depending on the job, we sometimes offer woodland improvement services at no charge to the homeowner. They get an improved woodlot and we get the trees we take out.
Alaskan chainsaw mill
I started making furniture with an Alaskan chainsaw mill. That’s a very slow sawing process so I recently invested in a TimberKing sawmill. That’s when Nathan and I started working together. It has really boosted my production of slabs, tables, benches and more.
We sell the furniture we make to locally and nationally. For example, I built a walnut conference table for our local Chamber of Commerce. We also sell products all across America via the internet. We sell through Etsy and also through our own website.
Shopping for bandsaw mills
When I got into furniture making, I looked at TimberKing and also mills like Hudson, Wood-Mizer, even handmade mills the Amish community makes. TimberKing’s 4-post head and the measuring system looked really good. I looked at Norwood but it looked flimsy – it has holes in the frame. TimberKing seems more rigid than other saws and really was the only choice for us.
I was considering the 1400 but the 1600 has more hydraulics – like one little lever to raise the log stops, hydraulic log lifters, log turner, and more. It’s pretty automatic and I’m very impressed.
The Computer Setworks system is great. The computer does all the thickness measuring and boards come off the mill within 1/32” or less. Sawing is virtually identical board-to-board and the surface quality is impressive. Clients of our often compliment us on the quality of our boards.
Tickled
The TimberKing company has been really great to us. I have nothing negative to say at all. They’re really helpful and every time I email them I get a quick response. I’m quite satisfied. I’d tell others that if you’re interested in a sawmill, get the next bigger one than you’re thinking about. As I say, I thought I’d get the 1400 but actually needed the 1600.
I’m definitely tickled with my TimberKing. It’s easy to operate and changing blades is not hard at all. All the adjustments are simple and it has a big capacity – logs up to 36” diameter and 20’ long. Business is good. We have big plans for the coming year: we want to add more space including a showroom for our customers to shop in.”
— Casey Holman, H & S Sawmill & Furniture , TimberKing 1600 Owner, Richmond MO
HAVE QUESTIONS? 3 ways we can help you
• Call us 1-800-942-4406
• Email us [email protected]
• Visit us on Facebook