The lumber industry was one of the first mechanical activities established in Ontario, and dates back to the early days of the settlement of the country shortly after the American Revolution. At that time the entire country now embraced within the limits of the Province was densely wooded.
Full Answer
What is the history of the Canadian lumber industry?
In the Ottawa country, J.R. Booth 's firm produced over 30 million board feet of pine lumber in the 1870s, and in the next decade it built the Canada Atlantic Railway to bring out the cut from its Parry Sound licences. In Canada West the firms of Mossom Boyd and D.D. Calvin experienced similarly spectacular successes.
What kind of lumber is made in Canada?
In Canada, the principal softwood lumber species are spruce, pine, hemlock, Douglas fir, larch and western red cedar, while the predominant hardwood species are birch, maple and oak. British Columbia produces roughly two-thirds of the softwood lumber supply, and as a result, softwood plywood is manufactured predominantly in that province.
When did British Columbia become a timber industry?
In 1917 it surpassed the production of every other province, and by the late 1920s British Columbia was producing half of Canada's annual cut of timber. As in the East, railways as well as waterways brought timber to mills or ports. Today, the industry primarily uses trucks.
What was the timber trade in Canada?
Timber Trade History Wood was the staple of Canadian trade for much of the 19th century. Fueled by European demand, the timber trade brought investment and immigration to eastern Canada, fostered economic development, and transformed the regional environment far more radically than the earlier exploitation of fish and fur.
When did the lumber industry start in Canada?
Although James Cook's men had cut logs for masts on Vancouver Island in 1778, lumbering in British Columbia did not begin seriously until the 1850s.
Why is Canada famous lumbering?
Commercial lumbering is developed in Canada because there is coniferous forest region, which provides soft wood, which is easy to cut, carry and durable.
When did lumbering begin?
1607The logging industry began in 1607 when the Jamestown settlers cut down lumber to build the first settlement in the new world. It has not withered away over the centuries, in fact, the lumber industry in the United States is extremely important to our economy; consistently supplying lumber throughout the world.
Where does lumber come from in Canada?
Hardwood lumber and plywood are manufactured in Ontario and Québec, and oriented strand board is made across Canada near the necessary supplies of aspen and poplar.
Why is lumbering an important occupation?
These trees yield soft wood (which in turn is used for a variety of products such as paper, newsprint etc.) and they grow in pure stands with one species covering large part of the area. This makes lumbering a significant occupation in the coniferous forests.
Why is lumber so important?
Wood has played an important role in the history of civilization. Humans have used it for fuel, building materials, furniture, paper, tools, weapons, and more. And demand for wood continues to increase annually, spurring conflicts between neighboring states over control of shared resources.
Who started the lumber industry?
None was bigger than Frederick Weyerhauser and his company, which started in 1860 in Rock Island, Illinois and expanded to Washington and Oregon. By the time he died in 1914, his company owned over 2 million acres of pine forest.
Where did lumber come from?
Lumber is a generic term that applies to various lengths of wood used as construction materials. Pieces of lumber are cut lengthwise from the trunks of trees and are characterized by having generally rectangular or square cross sections, as opposed to poles or pilings, which have round cross sections.
Where is timber first discovered?
Living History In India, timber frames date back to 200 BC. Teak timbers were shaped and then connected with bamboo pegs. Japanese builders discovered the benefits of working with more fibrous timbers after witnessing that stone buildings would often crack under stress during earthquakes or typhoons.
Where is the most lumber found in Canada?
While there are lumber industry jobs across Canada, they are most heavily concentrated in four provinces: British Columbia (40.8%), Quebec (29.5%), Alberta (10.1%) and Ontario (8.6%).
Which province produces the most lumber in Canada?
British ColumbiaThe main lumber producing provinces are British Columbia (at least 2,606,000 cubic meters in January 2017), Quebec (1,467,300 cubic meters), Alberta (798,800 cubic meters), and Ontario (476,400 cubic meters).
What country produces the most lumber?
ChinaChina, by far the largest producer and consumer of woodbased panels and paper, has grown in importance as both a producer and consumer of forest products, and has recently overtaken a number of other big players in key product groups (e.g. the United States of America in sawnwood production).
Where is lumber found in Canada?
The remainder of the industry is supplied by hardwood (from deciduous trees, e.g., birch, maple, oak) found mainly in southern Ontario and Québec and the Maritimes. Though technically not hardwood, Alberta produces large volumes of aspen and poplar. (See also Pulp and Paper Industry; Forest Harvesting; Timber Trade History; Forestry .)
Why is the number of sawmills in Canada decreasing?
These include the recession beginning in 2008, the permanent reduction in the size of Canada’s newsprint industry and the diminishing volume of roundwood available to lumber producers because of ever tightening environmental regulations.
What is plywood grade?
Softwood plywood is produced in three grades: sanded (for high-quality finishing), unsanded (for construction use) and overlaid (for special uses). For general construction and other structural purposes, the most common type of panel is sheathing, the unsanded grade. About half the plywood consumed in Canada is used in house building and agricultural construction; industrial uses take up another third; the balance is consumed in a multitude of miscellaneous uses.
What is lumber graded into?
To ensure uniform quality, lum ber and plywood are graded into categories by standardized procedures. Most of the lumber produced in Canada is used in construction, mainly for house building; it is classed as dimension lumber and is graded into width and use categories. Other classes of lumber include factory lumber and shop lumber (used to manufacture high-quality mouldings), panelling and flooring.
What is the primary unit used in sawmills?
In sawmills that process small-diameter logs, the primary unit may be a chipper canter with integrated sawing units, or a system of multiple-band or circular saws, designed to operate at speeds up to 100 m per minute. About three-quarters of the lumber produced in Canada is further processed in planer mills that smooth the rough surfaces and dimension the pieces. Over half the lumber is dried, either in kilns or outside, to remove excess moisture and/or kill pathogens that may be present in the wood.
What are the products of lumber?
The products created by the lumber and wood industries include lumber, veneer, plywood, particleboard, oriented strand board (formerly called flake, chip, or wafer board), wood pellets and wood composites (or engineered wood). These products are created by mechanical processes such as sawing, peeling, slicing or chipping.
How are veneers made?
Veneers are produced by holding a log firmly at each end in a lathe and rotating it against a knife. The veneer exits from the lathe knife in a continuous ribbon that is clipped to desired widths or to eliminate defects. After drying, the veneers are sorted into sets, each of which will form a plywood panel of the desired thickness and size. Alternate sheets are coated with glue that forms a waterproof bond when subjected to high temperature and pressure in a hot press. The rough plywood panels are then trimmed and may be sanded.
What were the changes in the British Columbia lumber industry?
Working and living conditions improved as city industries and West Coast logging camps competed for labour . These changes, when combined with the opening of the Panama Canal and the exhaustion of eastern forests, meant the centre of Canadian wood production gradually shifted westward (though the eastern lumber industry retained much of its traditional and seasonal character into the 1930s).
Where did lumber come from?
The pattern of the lumber trade is hard to summarize, since international markets were widely separated. Beginning in the 1830s, increasing quantities of lumber were shipped from British North America to Britain, the US and the West Indies. During the period of reciprocity with the US and the construction of railways and canals, the importance of the American market grew: 400 million board feet of British North American lumber passed through Oswego, NY, between 1864 and 1866, and wood exports to the US from the Province of Canada were worth almost $7 million in 1866-67. While these numbers are impressive, up until the 1880s combined lumber and timber sales to Britain were still more valuable than those to the US. It was not until 1905, with imports of some $18 million, that the US accounted for more than half of Canadian forest-product exports.
What was the main staple of the wood industry?
Despite the importance of the naval mast trade, sawn lumber and square timber were the major staples of the wood industry. Lumber, the product of sawmills, was prepared mostly as planks and boards. Square timber—known in the Maritimes as "ton timber”—were baulks or "sticks" of wood hewn square with axes and shipped to England, where they were often resawn. Strict specifications governed the market—the wood was allowed to have a "wane" (bevel) and slight taper, but these specifications varied according to the stick's dimensions and changed with time. Waste was quite considerable: 25-30 per cent of each tree was discarded.
What was the main reason for the lumber trade in 1850?
By 1850, however, as lumbering moved into more remote areas, expenditure on the clearing of boulder-strewn streams (to transport the timber via the water) became necessary.
How did the snow road affect the logging industry?
Men equipped with "jam dogs" (iron hooks), cant hooks or peaveys, and often immersed in chilly water, began the dangerous task of floating the cut-out on streams overflowing with melted snow. When more open water was reached, or where falls and rapids could be bypassed by timber slides, logs and timber were assembled into RAFTS to continue downstream to mills or to river-mouth booms (especially at Québec, Saint John and the mouth of the Miramichi River ), from where they were shipped abroad. As steam power replaced water power in sawmills, it increased mill capacity and extended the season of mill operation; however, it did not break the pattern of winter logging. Although railways reduced the industry's dependence on rivers to transport timber to the mills, their initial importance was in carrying lumber from mill to market, and by the end of the century, specialized logging railways still only had a slight impact on eastern Canadian operations.
What did loggers do in the fall?
In the fall, loggers would build camps (see shanty) and clear rough roads for hauling hay and provisions, and for moving logs or timber to the streams. The industry depended heavily on the muscles of men and beasts, as manual logging techniques were used until about 1912.
How were trees felled?
Trees were normally felled with various types of timber axes (until the 1870s, when the crosscut saw became more common), and "bucked” (i.e., sawed) to stick length. Timber was squared by axemen, because square logs were easier than round logs to store and transport on Europe-bound ships. The process of squaring a log began by “lining” the wood along two sides to mark the dimensions of the desired square, and then “scoring" to remove the unwanted outside wood in rough slabs. From there, the sides of the log were rough-hewn (i.e., coarsely chopped) and then smooth-hewn using broadaxes. The process was then repeated with the remaining two sides of the wood. Before transportation, the ends of the stick were trimmed to a pyramid shape.
Where did England turn to for lumber?
As a result, England turned to Canada, where a seemingly inexhaustible supply of wood was available. Lumber camps sprung up in the forests of the Maritimes and central Canada. The shanty house on display is a reconstruction of a typical structure used to house lumbermen in an early Ottawa Valley lumber camp. When peace came to Europe, there was ...
What was the timber trade?
The Timber Trade. In the early nineteenth century, a new industry emerged in the for ests of eastern and central Canada. The Napoleonic wars created a tremendous demand for timber to build British warships; however, a blockade of French ships prevented England from buying wood from the Baltic states, which had previously been its main supplier.
What was the purpose of sawmills in the mid-century?
By mid-century, however, sawmills were producing more and more milled lumber, and not all of it was being exported overseas. Wood was needed for the shipbuilding industry, for urban development in Canada and the United States, and for the production of paper for the newspaper industry.
Why did North America produce square logs?
Up until 1830, North America produced primarily square logs because they were easier and safer to stow on ships bound for Europe than round logs. By mid-century, however, sawmills were producing more and more milled lumber, and not all of it was being exported overseas. Wood was needed for the shipbuilding industry, for urban development in Canada and the United States, and for the production of paper for the newspaper industry.
Why are trees cut in winter?
There were several reasons for this: it was easier to fell trees when the sap was not running; it was easier to haul timber over the snow onto the ice roads; and there was always a surplus of cheap labour in the winter .
Why is wood used in everything?
Because of its widespread availability, versatility and ease of use, wood was employed in virtually everything made -- from shoes, eating utensils, furniture and houses to jewellery, ships, wagons and weapons. Our ancestors developed specialized tools for the cutting, shaping, joining and piercing of wood. They subsequently developed measuring instruments, clamping devices and other auxiliary tools for woodworking.
When were pointers used?
Also known as drive boats of lumbermen's bateaux, pointers were used extensively from the first half of the nineteenth century until the 1960s, by which time they were made obsolete by logging roads and trucks that could be used year-round. This miniature pointer was built by John Cockburn of Pembroke, Ontario, to the same design used by his grandfather 100 years earlier.
What is lumber used for?
Lumber is mainly used for structural purposes but has many other uses as well. Lumber may be supplied either rough- sawn, or surfaced on one or more of its faces. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making, and manufacture of other items requiring cutting and shaping.
What is finished lumber?
Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes, mostly for the construction industry – primarily softwood, from coniferous species, including pine, fir and spruce (collectively spruce-pine-fir ), cedar, and hemlock, but also some hardwood, for high-grade flooring.
What is resawing wood?
Re-sawing is the splitting of 25 by 300 millimetres (1 by 12 in) hardwood or softwood lumber into two or more thinner pieces of full-length boards. For example, splitting a 3-metre (10 ft) long 50 by 100 mm (2 by 4 in) into two 25 by 100 mm (1 by 4 in) of the same length is considered re-sawing.
How is lumber cut?
Lumber is cut by ripsaw or resaw to create dimensions that are not usually processed by a primary sawmill . Re-sawing is the splitting of 25 by 300 millimetres (1 by 12 in) hardwood or softwood lumber into two or more thinner pieces of full-length boards.
How long is finger joint lumber?
Finger-jointed lumber – solid dimensional lumber lengths typically are limited to lengths of 22 to 24 feet, but can be made longer by the technique of "finger-jointing" by using small solid pieces, usually 18 to 24 inches long, and joining them together using finger joints and glue to produce lengths that can be up to 36 feet long in 2×6 size. Finger-jointing also is predominant in precut wall studs. It is also an affordable alternative for non-structural hardwood that will be painted (staining would leave the finger-joints visible). Care is taken during construction to avoid nailing directly into a glued joint as stud breakage can occur.
How long is a unit of lumber?
The length of a unit of dimensional lumber is limited by the height and girth of the tree it is milled from. In general the maximum length is 24 ft (7.32 m). Engineered wood products, manufactured by binding the strands, particles, fibers, or veneers of wood, together with adhesives, to form composite materials, offer more flexibility and greater structural strength than typical wood building materials.
How thick is 4/4 lumber?
3⁄4 in (95 mm) Also in North America, hardwood lumber is commonly sold in a "quarter" system, when referring to thickness; 4/4 (four quarter) refers to a 1-inch-thick (25 mm) board, 8/4 (eight quarter) is a 2-inch-thick (51 mm) board, etc.
Products
Tree Species and Regional Production
- In Canada, the principal softwood lumber species are spruce, pine, hemlock, Douglas fir, larchand western red cedar, while the predominant hardwood species are birch, mapleand oak. British Columbiaproduces roughly two-thirds of the softwood lumber supply, and as a result, softwood plywood is manufactured predominantly in that province. Hardwood lumber and plywood are ma…
Trade
- Most of the lumber produced in Canada is exported; less than 40 per cent is consumed domestically. Since the mid-19th century, the United States has been the most important buyer of Canada’s lumber. For nearly as long, however, and especially since the 1980s, Canadian lumber producers have been subjected to a number of tariffs and restrictions that...
Lumber and Plywood Manufacturing
- General Process Mechanical or hydraulic debarking is the first step in converting a sawlog into lumber. In conventional sawmills, large logs are placed on a moving log carriage and passed repeatedly through a band or circular saw, each pass producing boards that normally require further processing on edgers, resaws and trimsaws. In sawmills that process small-diameter log…
Particleboard and Oriented-Strand Board Manufacturing
- Particle Board Wood particleboard is a panel product manufactured by bonding particles of wood together with an adhesive in a press. Since the product is manufactured from small pieces of wood, properties of the finished board, such as density, hardness and elasticity, can be engineered into the panel. The various wood elements are screened and separated by size and s…
New Products
- In the 21st century, Canada’s lumber and wood industries have worked towards manufacturing new, high-tech products by studying wood’s microscopic, or nano, properties and developing applications for them. These include the production of a range of wood composites that can be used to replace traditional materials, most often plastics. Significant research has been conduct…