Keep your saws sharp

Goal: stop dull saws from costing you logs.

1. Watch the Saws gauge at the top of the page. It shows a percentage and a word: “sharp” at 80% or more, “getting dull” from 40% to 79%, and “dull, wasting timber” below 40%.
2. Select a parcel that still has standing timber. The sharpening buttons only appear for such a parcel, below the Cut timber button. They do not show for cleared ground.
3. Check the Cut now line. When saws are dull it ends with a note such as “and dull saws (12% wasted)”.
4. Choose how to sharpen:
   • File the saws yourself costs one crew-day.
   • Hire the saw filer costs 150 bd ft and no crew-day.
5. Click one. The gauge goes back to 100%.

Each cut takes 20% off the saws. Clearing seedlings takes only 5%. A saw yields 70% of a cut at 0% sharpness and 100% at 100%, so a fully dull saw wastes 30%.

As a rule of thumb, hire the filer when the saws drop to about 60% before a mature or old growth cut. At that point a 12-log parcel already wastes more than one log, which is worth about as much as the 150 bd ft fee. Use the crew-day option when the crew is idle or your lumber is short.

What can go wrong

If the crew is resting (with No waiting off), the self-filing button is greyed out. The filer still works.

If your lumber is below 150, the filer button is greyed out and the crew-day is your only choice.

Buying a Forest Reserve stand also wears the saws, so file before you buy.

A filing shop (see open a business) makes the filer free. The button still shows 150 bd ft, but nothing is charged. The ledger reads “Your filing shop sharpened the saws.”

Rules and numbers: crew, cutting and saws.