William Fox’s short “History of the Lumber Industry of New York State” in the Sixth Annual Report of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission (1901) includes a photograph (shown here) of a crew scaling and marking logs at a skid way.
Scaling is the term used for the measurement of logs to determine their usable wood content. When developing tables for log measurements, certain assumptions were made concerning natural variations in diameters (log’s thickness inside the bark) and reductions for waste due to unseen defects, saw kerf (saw width) and slab loss at the mill.
During the 19th Century and afterwards, mills in most lumbering regions of the United States measured and sold lumber by » Continue Reading.
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