Friday, July 22
I woke up as the sky was just
getting light. I lay in bed listening to the dawn chorus of robins,
white-throated sparrows, crows, and songs that I was sure were from rare and
exotic species, if I’d only known what they were. Loons laughed on a lake far away.
I got up at 5:20 and made my
tea. The water in our bay was like glass with a slight mist rising. The moon
was so high that it made no reflection. I went to the dock to get pictures. The
mosquitos were fierce, and I quickly retreated to the cabin.
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| The moon above the dock |
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| Sunrise on still water |
We had reservations for the Hedstrom’s
Lumber Mill tour at 10:00. I’d wanted to go for years, and this was the day it
was going to happen. Afterward, we were also going to have lunch out at a
restaurant we hadn’t been to before.
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| Me by the entrance sign |
Our guide, Mike, was already in
the lumber mill office waiting for us in his Forest Service uniform. He was
based in Tofte, but worked the whole North Shore that was part of Superior
National Forest. This was his summer job. During the winter, he taught fourth
grade in Silver Bay. It would be hard to get two other jobs that fit so nicely
together.
Just after 10:00, the 13 people
on the tour went to a conference room in the office building. Mike explained
that while we were on the tour, we would be wearing earplugs and not be able to
hear him say anything over the noise of the mill. He would talk us through the
process in this conference room before we went to where the action was.
The sawmill was over 100 years
old and was operated by the third generation of Hedstroms, with the fourth
generation working its way up. In 1914, Andrew Hedstrom purchased equipment
from a mill that burned down in Tofte to set up his mill. Fires are the most
common hazards of lumber mill operations because of all the sawdust and other
fuels everywhere.
The mill received about 15 loads
of logs a day. Each truck was weighed as soon as it entered the yard; the
average weight was 80,000 pounds per load. The logs went to the mill by species, pine today, poplar tomorrow.
Mike explained the layout of the sawmill. The logs came in through a
debarker. The big logs went to the head rig while the small ones went to the
scragg saw. The pieces cut by the head rig went to resaw or edging. Resaw also
led to edging, and edging went to grader. The grader, Mike said, was a person,
not a piece of equipment. From the scragg saw, the wood went to a gang saw
(having multiple blades), and then to resaw. Every step also had an arrow
pointing at “to the chipper,” which was where all the scraps ended up.
Separate from the cutting part
of the saw mill was a “filing room.” While you might think this was where the
company records were kept, it was actually where the saws were sharpened. They
changed out the saws daily and sharpened each tooth before using them again.
In my ignorance, I thought that
lumber mills would cut a bunch of the same board at the same time, like today
we’re doing 2-by-4s. In reality, a computer scans each log and calculates how
the log should be cut to maximize profit and minimize waste. Mike showed us a
cardboard model of how a log might be cut with skinny pieces (e.g., 1 x 6)
coming off the sides and larger cuts (2 x 4s, 4 x 4s) coming from the middle.
Before the log entered the mill,
it went through a metal detector. Metal + sawblade = sparks. Sparks + sawdust =
fire. Mike promised to show us the mill’s collection of metal that had been
found in wood.
The green lumber was graded the
first time and then stacked with thin strips of wood called “stickers” in
between each layer to prevent rotting. After air drying, the lumber went to a
kiln for up to a week until it was completely dry. This too is done one species
at a time because different trees dry at different rates. When dry, the lumber
was planed and graded for the last time, which determined the price.
We walked across the yard,
looking at the stacks of logs and green lumber.
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| The yard |
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| Green lumber separated by stickers |
We entered the sawmill in the
breakroom. Mike pointed to a shelf near the ceiling of the scrap metal Hall of
Fame—pieces of wood with axes, horseshoes, sawblades, and so forth stuck in
them. A horseshoe? How did that get embedded in wood?
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| Horseshow and other pieces of metal that were found in incoming logs |
Above the soda machine was a
twisted sawblade to remind everyone what happened when a log with metal went
through a saw.
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| A ruined sawblade |
After putting in foam ear plugs,
we went up a flight of stairs to a catwalk above the action. The logs come in through a debarker.
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| The debarker |
A log was going
back and forth through the head rig, which sawed in both directions. A man
sitting in a green booth watched, manually accepting each cut that the computer
recommended. This job seemed to require unwavering attention to detail while at
the same time being mind-numbingly dull.
In first part of the video, you
can see how the log is automatically turned in the head rig. In the second
part, you can see the boards coming off and going to different destinations,
controlled by a bank of giant screws running perpendicular to the head rig. As
the first cut off the log separated, the screws tip down, letting the thin
board drop to the conveyor for the chipper. The next cut is flat
on both sides but still rounded at the edges. The screws push it forward to
the edger. When boards come off that are square on all sides, a gate comes up
at the end of the giant screws so that the board moves sideways to a flat
surface where many boards can lay side by side. If it still needs to be cut
(for example, a 4 x 8 piece cut into two 4 x 4s or a 4 x 6 cut into three 2 x
4s), it goes to resaw. If it’s done, it goes to transfer
When we first arrived, the resaw
was not operating, and two guys were doing maintenance on a chain that looked
like an oversized bike chain.
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| Fixing a chain |
The boards
coming off the head rig were backing up. We waited until they got the resaw
working again. It had several blades that changed width according to computer
recommendations. Like the head rig, each cut was approved by another man in a
different green booth.
There were two other employees
in this area, both young men. One stood in front of the edger, receiving boards
from the head rig and occasionally from resaw. As he grabbed the board and put
it in front of the edger, two laser beams flashed on it to help him line it up
straight. He pushed it forward until the conveyors grabbed it and sliced off
the rounded edges. There was a button he could press to change the width for
wider or narrower boards. The other young man took the boards from the edger
and the resaw. If there was still a bad edge on the resaw boards, he put it on
a belt to send it to the edger. Otherwise, he stacked them, regardless of size,
into one bin. God, what boring jobs.
We went down to the filing room
next. The saws were enormously long steel belts about a foot wide, with teeth
that were inches long. There were 195 teeth on single edge blades and 220 teeth
on double edge blades. One blade was on the sharpener while we were there. The
process was also automated. The belt moved in a circle as the sharpening stone
ran down each tooth in a shower of sparks.
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| The filer |
Numerous belts were curled up
along one wall, waiting to be sharpened or to go back to the mill.
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| Sawblades |
Next, we walked to the building
where the wood was graded for the first time. As the boards came from the mill
in all their various sizes, they entered a conveyor one at a time. The grader
entered the size and grade for each board as it moved to a giant sorting
machine that ran above a number of huge slings. When the board reached its size
and grade destination, arms flipped up to stop the board and drop it in its
sling.
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| The orange arms flip up to allow boards to drop into a sling with others of their grade |
We left that building and walked
to the kiln, which was in operation. Mike had us feel the sides of the kiln,
which was warm on the panels and hot at the seams.
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| The kiln |
After the wood was completely
dry, it went to another warehouse for final grading and packaging. This
building had floor to ceiling numbered metal shelves where the different sizes
and grades were lined up to be made into plastic-wrapped bundles. The shelves
were enormous, probably long enough to hold all the boards for one bundle in
one layer.
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| Boards lined up on numbered shelves after final grading |
There were neatly piled stacks
of lumber on the floor that needed finishing. Mike pointed out that some of the
short boards were uneven on one end. That would have to be cut off.
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| Ends that need trimming |
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| Plastic-wrapped bundle of lumber going off for shipping |
We didn’t see the planing
building. Due to dangerous conditions, the planer was all enclosed, and there
wasn’t much to see. Also, there was a lot of noise. After the last round of
questions, we returned to the office to put our safety glasses back in the rack.
Jane and I drove to Grand Marais
to have lunch at the Harbor House Grille. The bulletin board by the street had a
little note pinned up in one corner that said, “We have A/C.” Not everyone does
up north, you know. Most of the time they don’t need it.
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| Entrance to the Harbor House Grille |
The A/C felt good that day, I
can tell you. It had been hot in the sun while we were standing around the
lumber yard. After much discussion, we decided to split a ½-pound hamburger. It
is not clear to me why any one person would need a ½-pound hamburger, but they
seem to be popular around here. It did not have the aioli that we love at the
Red Paddle Bistro, but the ciabatta bun was better, and it was a wider, thinner
burger, which I prefer to a massively thick one.
We went to Sydney’s for the last
time on this trip. Sad to be leaving such fine custard.
It was a lovely afternoon for
sitting on the deck because the breeze kept the bugs away. And sit we did, just
enjoying the day. Watching the sparkles on the water made me happy.
When it was time for happy hour,
we finished the Acrobat Pinot Gris as well as the last of the popcorn and mixed
nuts. I made steak quesadillas for a light supper, which was all we needed
after our big lunch.
We lingered on the deck until
the mosquitoes got bad about 7:30. Then we set about the sad task of packing up
and loading the car.
We had our last night listening
to the loons and smelling the pine air. After a very long drive, we resumed our
regular lives Saturday night. Sigh.
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