Log bucking

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Bucking is the process of cutting a felled and delimbed tree into logs. This can be a complicated process because logs destined for plywood, lumber, and pulp, each have their own price and specifications for length, diameter, and defects.

The person bucking is generally called a Bucksawyer or Bucklogger, and runs as many saws as he can, switching out saws as soon as one is dull. The reason for this is the bucksawyer is typically paid per section of log he cuts. Generally you will find a bucklogger at the smaller sawmills that aren't fully mechanized. This method of logging is perhaps more dangerous than the actual felling of the trees for the bucklogger is usually cutting from the edge of a treepile which can be twenty feet high and as long as there is room to dump them from the truck. Each tree has to be picked out of the pile and cut so that a controlled fall of more trees can be worked as the former fall has been cut and skidded to its respective pile.