bolt stops here: Veneer Products of New Brunswick is using a central sort yard and Hultdins grapple saw to maximize veneer bolt production, The

Canadian Forest Industries, Mar 2003 by Jamieson, Scott

Talk to any hardwood veneer producer in any province, and conversation eventually comes around to log supply. Put simply, it's hard to get your hands on many of the quality veneer logs that are out there. In the rush to load the trucks, the major players in the softwood and hardwood commodity sectors don't always capture the maximum veneer value in all of the stands they harvest.

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Given the increasing need for speed in these days of lean margins, and the relatively small volumes of veneer logs involved, there aren't any obvious solutions on the horizon. Yet one hardwood veneer company in central New Brunswick has taken matters into its own hands in an attempt to bag more of the quality logs it requires from the region's mixed-quality supply.

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Own Back Yard

Veneer Products of New Brunswick has been running a merchandising yard adjacent to its mill in Napadogan, NB, since 1997, extracting sawlogs, pulpwood, firewood, and, of course, veneer bolts. The family-owned business favours hard maple for its key clients in the skateboard business, but also peels birch and oak for a product range that runs from guitar cases to furniture. Tapping a wood supply of just over 17 000 m[Symbol Not Transcribed]/yr, owners Ted and Margot Samuel manage to employ a staff of up to 65, as well as eight to 10 students, depending on the jobs on hand. The key to generating this employment, however, is getting the right 17 000 m[Symbol Not Transcribed]. That's where the new sort yard comes in.

The heart of the merchandising operation is a Cat 320B L loader fitted with a Hultdins grapple saw. Safe and warm in its cab, seasoned log scaler Larry Richard works through the logs in a meticulous, but efficient manner. He is sorting through what the mill calls "log-potential semi tree-length" hardwood. In theory, the pulpwood has been removed from the tops of these logs in the bush, and each contains at least one sawlog to help make Larry's efforts worthwhile. Ted estimates that some 40% of the mill's supply now arrives in this form, a workload he's happy to deal with.

Positioning his Cat in front of a log pile, Larry handles one log at a time, pinching it in the grapple to give him an unobstructed view. He looks at each end to make sure the wood is sound, and then right down the barrel to gauge the log's curvature. If he sees rot or physical deformities at either end, Larry uses the grapple saw to snip off a two-foot section, which he drops directly into pre-weighed metal bins to be sold as firewood. He then checks the end again, and continues on.

With a clear idea of log quality, taper and curvature, Larry holds the logs over a rugged ski-type measuring template to buck out the desired products. The first marker is at 6 feet, and steel posts mark out each additional one-foot increment thereafter. It's a painstaking method that does not lend itself to roadside slashers and softwood commodity loggers being paid by the cubic metre.

In addition to sawlogs and veneer bolts, Larry can make four-foot pulp logs, which are collected and eventually shipped to a hardwood pulp mill in nearby Nackawic. Because of the centralized location of the sort yard, the mill has even managed to find an outlet for the odds and ends that are made in Larry's quest for maximum value products. As the operator explains with pride, there is little waste.

"As long as there is an 8' 10[Symbol Not Transcribed] [straight double quote] sawlog left in it, the tree comes to us, and then nothing is wasted. I can cut my two-foot section looking for sound veneer, get the veneer I want, and then still recover that two-foot section as firewood. In the bush, it just wouldn't make sense to put that two-foot piece aside as firewood. Instead, you'd cut the butt section off as veneer, but then with the rot it'd become a sawlog and we'd lose it."

In contrast, Larry pegs veneer bolt recovery using the sort yard at 30%, with sawlogs accounting for another 40%. Sometimes it does pay to do it yourself.