In most modern woodworking facilities, all rough sawn hardwood will find its way through a planer, a ripsaw, and a moulder, (amongst other processes), as it is converted from a board to a saleable product.  

Hardwood manufacturers, like Baillie, have worked side-by-side with customers for years to try assist in their efforts to reduce waste from their manufacturing process.  From custom sorts and surfaced lumber, to ripped-to-width solutions, hardwood lumber suppliers have been adding more and more services to traditional rough, random width and length products to provide more value to their customers. 

For Baillie, a recent example of this effort and our continued investment in services for our customers is the addition of a high-speed moulder to our Hardwood Ripping Division location in Sherburne, NY. This new equipment will provide us with the capability to create S4S Boards for our manufacturing customers and service the hardwood distribution market across North America more effectively.

S4S or “Surfaced four Sides” lumber is sent through a moulder leaving a smooth finish on all four sizes. The process is started by first taking random width lumber, planing the faces and straight line ripping 2 edges. It is then finished through a moulder to the exact thickness and width required.

We have found when servicing particularly distributors that the special services we offer such as custom packaging, special product labelling for retail application, and even smaller “contractor packs” are well received and helpful in mixed load offerings. 

A benefit we enjoy being able to pass along to our customers is being a resource-based company. This ensures we can regularly and consistently source the lumber needed and have hardwood lumber to process for our customers. All the primary North American hardwood species we provide can be processed at our Ripping Division and produced into S4S. This includes, but is not limited to hard maple, soft maple, red oak, poplar, walnut and white oak in all thicknesses and grades.  Special consideration is given to offering the tropical hardwood lumber products we offer as S4S. All opportunities for this are considered on an individual case basis.  In addition, we regularly combine S4S lumber and other hardwood products as mixed loads for those who do not need a full truckload of S4S material at one time.

If you currently using or selling S4S hardwoods in your business, give us a call. We would be happy to show you how we can make the entire hardwood buying process simple and easy for all or some of your hardwood lumber needs!

For more pictures of our hardwood ripping and S4S products click here.