After the trees are cut down they are taken away. Most logs are carried out of the forest on special Lorries or trains. They are taken to a sawmill. At the sawmill, huge saws can quickly cut up large tree trunks.
Animals can be used to pull logs out of the forest.
In some forests, big machines cannot be used. In these places animals, such as horses or elephants, are used to transport logs out of the forest. The animals can easily move between growing trees and do not harm the environment.
A saw cuts the tree into planks.
At the sawmill the bark is trimmed off and the logs are cut into planks. Logs can be cut in different ways to give different grain patterns. Hardwoods can be cut into thin slices called veneers. Veneers are used to decorate objects.
These planks are drying.
The cut planks cannot be used straight away because they still contain a lot of sap. Sap is the liquid or juice inside the wood. Freshly cut wood is called ‘green’ timber and needs to be dried out so that it will not twist, bend, crack, or shrink when it’s used. Drying the wood is called seasoning.