Some people think of a sawmill as a place to buy lumber for their building project. When you go to a lumber hardware store you typically are looking for 2×4, 2×6, 2×8 and so on, that are made mostly out of Pine lumber or (softwood). This lumber is used for framing up your house and many other applications. But here at GF Hardwoods and Moss Sawmills we specialize in a different type of lumber than most realize. Our lumber is mostly all (Hardwood) and is used in several different industries.

The term (Hardwood) is wood from a broad leaf tree. Some examples we saw here are: Poplar, Ash, Hickory, Red Oak, White Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Soft Maple, Hard Maple, Beech and Basswood. The term (softwood) is wood from a conifer or evergreen tree. Some examples are: Pine, Cedar, Fir, Redwood, Spruce and Hemlock.

The (hardwood) lumber we produce is mostly 4/4, 5/4 and 6/4 thickness. It looks confusing at first, but the way it works is look at it all in ¼ inch increments. So, 4/4 is four ¼ inch increments. Same way quarters are used in our currency. If you have four quarters you also have a dollar or 4/4 and five quarters will equal one dollar and a quarter and so on.

When you see 4/4 lumber it should equal 1 inch thick. 5/4 lumber will be 1 ¼ inch thick and 6/4 lumber will be 1 ½ thick. We do saw our lumber around 1/8 inch thicker than the final dimensions. This is because when the wood is kiln dried it shrinks because most of the moisture is pulled out of the wood. A good example of this is dried apples.   When they are freshly cut up and put in a bag they may fill the whole bag, but after they are dried out the bag may be half full.

The lumber we produce is used in several different industries. Hardwood flooring companies use our lumber for their product. They will sand and trim the lumber and put tongue and grooves in each piece. The furniture industry also uses our product to make the interior frames for couches and chairs. And some species will be used as the visible parts of the particular piece of furniture.

The cabinet industry uses our product as the face of the cabinets and also the frames and shelves. Other products that are made with our lumber are dowel rods, closet rods, knife handles, tool handles, picture frames, table tops, and many other (Hardwood) related items. We also produce cants, which are mostly the center of each log. They are random widths and are four or six inches thick. These are sold to pallet manufacturing plants. These pallets and crates are sent all over the world for transporting goods.

All the lumber we produce here is Appalachian hardwood. We sell to companies all over the U.S. and some are exported across seas to foreign countries. Appalachian hardwood is highly desirable across the world, so we need to be thankful that we live in the heart of Appalachian country. So, look around at all the (hardwood) products in your house and just think it was more than likely produced at a sawmill very similar to ours. Who knows? It may be lumber that was sawed and kiln dried right here in Moss, Tennessee.

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