JANELLE PATTERSON The Marietta Times Jack Haessly, president of Haessly Hardwood Lumber Company in Lower Newport, radios up to the sawmill above Barker Cemetery last week to check the status of an order.

By Janelle Patterson

The Marietta Times

jpatterson@mariettatimes.com

LOWER NEWPORT–From log to board, hardwoods have a long road before they’re crafted into floors, cabinetry or furniture.

That’s where operations like Haessly Hardwood Lumber Company near Newport come in.

They take logs of oaks, poplars, maples and many more tree species and use every inch for plywood, pallets, playground bedding, farm animal bedding, wood chips for alloy production and mulch.

“The good thing about our business today is there’s no waste,” said Jack Haessly, 82, president of the company. “And it’s great to be a manufacturer because you create something that is a worldwide product. There’s enjoyment in knowing you make something others benefit from.”

Haessly’s two sons Mark, 59, and Steve, 56, grew up on the property off of Ohio 7, learning the business instilled in Jack by his father Norman. Now the three work in partnership to oversee not only an on-site sawmill operation, but also the lumber production and grading and the pallet building operation.

Sawmill

Steve oversees the sawmill which sits up on the hill behind Barker cemetery.

When logs are brought in by haulers they are first unloaded and sorted by species in pens surrounding the mill.

“A board foot is considered 12 inches by 12 inches by 1 inch, and we have about 1.3 million board feet in logs on location,” said Jack.

Then logs are loaded into the debarker, which not only performs the job associated with its name, but also the first of many quality checks.

“It goes through a big metal detector,” explained Jack. “If there’s any metal, like nails or spikes, we don’t want that going through our saw blades and breaking them or getting caught.”

Bark shaved off is routed elsewhere to become mulch.

Sawdust made throughout the whole process is captured for resale as bedding for local farmers.

After a log is debarked and cleared by the metal detector, Steve scans it and directs the computerized slab removal process through a series of buttons, levers and foot pedals in a cabin above the logs.

“He’s basing his cutting decisions on what he sees,” said Jack.

“On average 325 logs go through here in 8.5 hours,” added Steve.

Then the big chunks of wood, called cants, move through a conveyor system to be cut, recut and cut again by the resaw, also maneuvered by levers, foot pedals and buttons.

Paul Miller operates the resaw, when not working as a backup for Steve and said the levers and pedals are practically second nature.

“I put one down and it calls the next log, or another and it shifts it to the left or right so I get the right cut,” said Miller as he demonstrated his work. “It takes a minute for the cant to get back around so I can cut it again.”

Then the boards cut off the cant make their way down another conveyor to a trimmer saw which not only cuts and does a rough judgement on grade level, but also sorts based upon length and grade.

“Higher grades are used for furniture, doors or trim and flooring is usually made out of oak by popular demand,” explained Jack.

Afterward, staff on a lower level take the boards from the conveyor and move them to the appropriate stack to be trucked downhill.

Remaining cants, now just the center of the log left, are sent to the pallet operation down below separately.

Lumber

Quality boards are further inspected, marked, separated, stored, dried and catelouged and stored again in the lumber yard before shipment across the world.

“We can track every board through the computer,” said Mark.

First, the boards are pushed through a conveyor system where staff add spiral-carved sticks between the layers so the boards can be stacked.

“And all of that lumber you see stored by the road, that sits under there until there’s space in the kilns to dry them,” he explained.

He emanated excitement as he talked through the whole process of two inspections, kilns and fulfilling orders.

Once in a kiln, the boards are heated for two weeks until the moisture content is at 6 percent, ensuring the wood doesn’t warp.

“We even have tests we do as the boards are dried in the kilns to know when they’re ready. But it’s like baking a cake. You bake it too much, you burn it,” he added. “We then check the boards, then check them again by color code and take pictures of every stack to make sure what we send out is a consistent grade.”

Pallets

Meanwhile Pallet Shop Supervisor Tom Becker takes on the leftover cants to make pallets varying in size based on commercial need.

“There are three types of pallets we make based on what the customer needs,” he explained. “There’s four-way, two-way and block pallets. Basically all that means is how many directions you can come at the pallet with a lift to pick it up.”

Cants are roughly cut in the shop into 52-inch boards which are then notched and nailed before two employees add what Becker called “stickers.”

“Those are the small sticks you see around the edge of the pallet,” he explained. “They stop your boxes from sliding around on the pallet.”

Then the pallets are heat treated to international shipping standards and shipped to customers from the U.S. to China.

Ancillary activities

Jack was quick to point out that without every individual on staff completing their role well, the whole operation would suffer.

He said additional support and products made on site include:

¯ Saw sharpening.

¯ Farm bedding.

¯ Mulch production.

¯ Playground bedding.

¯ Sales and customer service.

“Every person here is valuable and has a critical role,” he said. “And communication is key around here. We need it and rely on it. The people and our communication are what make this business successful.” The company employs 70 people across its operations.

At a glance

History of Haessly Hardwood:

≤ Founded by Norman E. Haessly, who lived from 1913 to 1993.

≤ Norman began his business making products for World War II and moved his family between northern Ohio and Pennsylvania until 1949.

≤ In 1956 Norman’s son Jack Haessly, now 82, joined the business after school and the pair moved the operation to Washington County on Ohio 26.

≤ In 1959 they moved the business to Newport.

≤ In 1961 they moved to the current location in Lower Newport as the business expanded.

≤ Jack, who is president of the company, now shares the business with his sons Mark, 59, and Steve, 56, who are vice presidents and oversee major operations of the sawmill and lumber yard.

Source: Jack Haessly, president of Haessly Hardwood Lumber Company.