Found an interesting e-book - The Farm Woodlot

Brmorgan · Mar 13, 2010

31MB PDF HERE

It's from 1914, but after skimming over a bit of it there's still a ton of good relevant information in there. Everything from tree species, woodlot management, and pest control to logging and wood products. Mostly from a more eastern point of view, since it was written out of Minnesota. I was especially interested in P. 174 about the Pine beetles - sounds like everything old is new again 100 years later. By the sounds of it they knew just as much about them back then as we do now.

BTW this book is copyright free.

Brmorgan · Mar 13, 2010

Still finding more, will add here as I do:

How to Build and Operate a Sawmill

There's a wealth of information in there about grade sawing etc. as well. Looks like Google is blocking a fair amount though.

The Art Of Saw Filing 4MB PDF

Again, old, but I don't think sawfiling theory ever went obsolete over the last 100 years.

Ted J · Mar 14, 2010

leadarrows said:
The sawmill link is is not working for me.

try this one:

How to Build and Operate a Sawmill

Brmorgan · Mar 14, 2010

leadarrows said:
The sawmill link is is not working for me.

Yes it should be good now.

More:

Lumber Manufacture in the Douglas Fir Region

The Kiln Drying of Lumber: A Practical and Theoretical Treatise

Seasoning of Wood: A TREATISE ON THE NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL
PROCESSES EMPLOYED IN THE PREPARATION
OF LUMBER FOR MANUFACTURE,
WITH DETAILED EXPLANATIONS OF ITS
USES, CHARACTERISTICS AND PROPERTIES (12MB PDF)

The Home of the Redwood: A Souvenir of the Lumber Industry of California
From 1897. Some AMAZING photos of the early Redwood industry in that one, not to mention a ton of history.

California Redwood: The Pacific Lumber Company
A lot of good photos and info in there as well.

Self-Instructor on Lumber Surveying
Old but still relevant, a lot of good info in there. Seriously, you can't buy books like this today at all. This stuff is great.

Chicago Yard Grading
So named because Chicago was (and still is) the central hub for nearly all lumber shipments in North America. The lumber commodity price is often referred to the "Chicago index" to this day because it refers to the price of the lumber delivered to the Chicago yard. This would have likely been one of the first publications to set standardized lumber grading rules; before the "Chicago Rule" was adopted there wasn't much of an industry standard - what one mill called a #1 might be a #2 at another, so it was up to customers and producers to come to individual agreements over quality. Today's NLGA standards are largely based on the Chicago rule set, with changes to accomodate modern technology and advancements.

jdrum · Mar 14, 2010

brad thus stuff is golden! if for no other reason than to bring us back to basics. the information hear is the building blocks that puts us where we are today. much of this should be required reading!
you just earnd a bunch of atta-boys (sorry! should be atta-mans)

jim