Large commercial sawmills generally receive logs that are several feet in diameter and over eight feet long. Other commercial sawmills receive logs that are smaller in diameter. A Log with a diameter of less than nine inches are generally discarded by commercial sawmills. These small diameter logs are cut into fire wood, chipped, or discarded.
Some wood species have desirable properties, but are not accepted by commercial sawmills. These species include pare, thorn apple, American elm, butternut, magnolia, peach, mesquite, persimmon, sassafras, birch, pecan, beech, grapefruit, sycamore, alder, olive, bass, almond, orange, dogwood, blue spruce, apricot, hickory, juniper, plum and many more. Most of these species can not be purchased anywhere except as firewood or standing trees.
Most hobby wood workers and others that work with wood have a table saw, and possibly a band saw. The table saw generally has a circular saw blade with a ten inch diameter. The saw blade may be somewhat smaller or larger in diameter. Twelve and fourteen inch diameter saw blades for table saws are available. It is also possible to obtain table saws that are capable of employing circular saw blades with diameters that exceeds fourteen inches. The saw spindle that rotates the saw blade is below a top surface of the saw table. A drive pulley on the saw spindle is also below the saw table. As a result the maximum distance that the saw blade extends above the table top surface is less than half the saw blade diameter. Two cuts are therefore required to form one flat surface on logs that are larger than the maximum cutting depth of the saw blade. One cut cuts a slot in a log. A second opposing slot in a log should intersect and be parallel to the first slot. The two cuts are ideally in a common plane to form one flat surface extending the length of the log. In the past, methods of using a table saw to mill logs have proven difficult and ineffective. Severely limited by the height of the blade and lack of a precision holding method for the log. As a result of this problem, many woods that could make attractive products have been used as fire wood or left on the ground to rot.