Turning trees to timber: a chainsaw milling manual specifically developed for small diameter farm or dryland trees in the tropics

Common opinions concerning the sawing of logs into boards with a chainsaw include: it is not possible, hardly anyone does it, it is very wasteful, it produces curved boards, and the finish is very rough. This manual will hopefully overturn these misconceptions, and allow the reader to see milling with chainsaws in a new light, as an increasingly common method of milling timber, being cheap and efficient, available to most people, producing quality timber, with appropriate technology already available and just waiting to be applied. Most chainsaw milling today is ‘freehand’, without the use of any guides, frames or rails that would otherwise help sawyers produce even better quality boards with less chance of accidents. The few studies on chainsaw milling that do exist highlight the need for further training. However, supporting training materials are rarely available. For general chainsaw use and maintenance, there are many manuals produced by manufacturers (e.g. Stihl, Husqvarna) or training bodies (e.g. LANTRA). For chainsaw use in the tropics, see the excellent multi-lingual FAO training manuals. As for manuals on chainsaw milling there are a few such as Malloff’s Chainsaw Lumbermaking and Bjorkland and Griffin’s Sawmilling for Woodworkers, but both detail the use of single types of chainsaw mill. No generic training materials were found that could support the desired and emphasised demand for information on all types of chainsaw milling in general. In a broader context, there is a rapidly increasing demand for timber products especially within tropical countries. This cannot realistically be met from remaining natural forests without over-exploitation and illegal practices, which appear to be increasing with negative environmental effects. On- farm trees or other sources from outside forests have been suggested as possible sources to meet at least some of this demand, but the low timber volumes, different sized and shaped trees and the presence of defects means they are of less interest for conventional sawmilling in fixed mills. Portable sawmilling has increased in popularity as an alternative for decades, chainsaw milling only much more recently, but is now being seen as one of many possible ways to increase timber production outside forests.

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