Glossary
Sawmill Operator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential sawmill operator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key sawmill operator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in sawmill operator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Board foot
- Lumber volume unit.
- Cant
- Squared log.
- Debarker
- Removes bark.
- Edger
- Trims board edges.
- Grade
- Lumber quality.
- Grain
- Wood fiber direction.
- Green lumber
- Undried lumber.
- Head rig
- Main log saw.
- Kerf
- Width of a saw cut.
- Kickback
- Wood thrown back by a saw.
- Moisture content
- Water in wood.
- Optimizer
- Computer that plans cuts.
- Sawyer
- Main saw operator.
- Trimmer
- Cuts boards to length.
- Wane
- Bark edge on boards.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Sawmill Operator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Sawmill Operator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.