study the art of full-circle woodworking

Log to Lumber

A weekend sawmilling course on Full-Circle Carpentry, Building the Story of our Buildings

The full circle of woodworking often lives behind closed doors. It arrives in shrink-wrapped plastic on a pallet, or is hidden behind the shelves of stacked ready-made lumber. Cody Wayland is unveiling the process from tree to creative woodworking project in this weekend class with Port Townsend School of Woodworking.

June 2023, Register here

Join Cody to learn the operation of a sawmill and the process of transforming a log into lumber. Each student in this course will have a hands-on experience maneuvering a log onto the mill carriage and then sawing this log into lumber. Students will have the option to purchase the slab or boards that they milled.

In this two-day course each student will learn the process of selecting and caring for logs, what to look for, what to avoid, calculations for amounts of lumber from a given log, and board foot calculations of cut lumber. We will also cover how to divide a log and what types of boards will result from this division, and the strengths and weaknesses of these board types. Each student will also learn the process of safely operating a sawmill and how to usher green lumber through the curing process. Students will leave with a fresh or renewed appreciation for the full circle of woodworking and a deeper connection to the land and creative vitality which springs from building with sustainability. This meaningful experience with material generates a soulful product and a story built.