Summer at Scottish Wood
It’s been a busy few months at Scottish Wood, filled with new projects, new equipment, and some memorable moments here at the sawmill.
From weddings and new machinery to record-breaking Saturday openings, here’s a look at what we’ve been up to this summer.
A Scottish Wood Wedding
July brought some very memorable moments for us as our founder, Jim, was married here at the sawmill.
As such a central figure in Scottish Wood’s past, present, and future, it was incredibly special to celebrate such an important day in a place that has been so shaped by Jim’s vision and ethos.
Jim and Katherine first met in New Zealand, long before the idea of Scottish Wood had ever crossed Jim’s mind. After losing touch for many years, they re-sparked their connection in 2024 and now live a life of eternal summers as they split their lives between their homes of Scotland and New Zealand. During the Scottish summer, Katherine has thrown herself right into life at the sawmill and can often be found lending a hand around the yard.
After a beautiful, blustery ceremony in the woodland, the wedding celebrations moved back into the yard for a bonfire and ceilidh in the timber shed. The sawmill has rarely looked so tidy, with the whole Scottish Wood team pulling together to help make it a truly special day.
And this wasn’t the first Scottish Wood wedding. Back in 2021, we also hosted the wedding of two long-standing members of our team – our yard and shop managers, Danny and Ros.
Now that we’re becoming well practised at hosting (excellent) weddings, should we diversify? It may be tempting, but for now we’ll stick to what we know best. So don’t expect “Wedding Venue” to appear on our products and services page any time soon.
Upcoming courses!
This autumn Scottish Wood will be hosting another Working Woods Scotland course, run by the Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers. We’ve been hosting Working Woods since they started in 2021, and this will be the course’s 9th time running.
Working Woods Scotland is a three-day practical training course that provides insight on the practices involved in growing, managing and processing Scotland’s native broadleaf trees and hardwood timber. As well as covering the physical parts of processing timber in the sawmill, we venture into the background of broadleaves and hardwoods as a valuable (but under-represented) part of the timber industry in Scotland.
Scottish Wood’s Jim Birley is one of three of the Working Woods instructors – joined by forester and sawmiller Kate Tuer, and forester and silvicultural specialist Andrew MacQueen.
For more information about the course (including costs and availability), visit its website at workingwoodsscotland.co.uk.
New kit days!
Everyone loves new toys, and we’re no exception!
Investing in new machinery helps us process timber more efficiently, improve safety around the yard, and make the very most of every log that comes through the sawmill.
This summer we’ve added three notable pieces of kit to our operations.
New Wood-Mizer sawmill
Our sawmills are the heart of Scottish Wood. This year we retired our oldest Wood Mizer and reshuffled the yard to make way for its replacement as our primary mill. Replacing existing machinery may not sound quite as exciting as buying something completely new, but we’re very happy to have a shiny new saw to work with.
Wood-Mizer resaw
The resaw is an entirely new addition to the yard. It allows us to re-cut already sawn timber into smaller sections with greater efficiency. One of its main jobs will be supporting our production of quarter-sawn whisky staves for Speyside Cooperage.
Quarter-sawn timber is essential for whisky barrels because it shrinks more evenly as the timber seasons, helping reduce leakage (because no one likes a leaky barrel!). The new resaw should allow us to increase production and reduce wastage.
We’re looking forward to seeing how this new process fits in with our workflow.
New up-cut saw
The final addition this summer is our new up-cut saw. This is a machine that will be used almost every day and is replacing our current cross-cut saw. We’ll be using the new up-cut for cutting custom orders to length and for restocking the timber shop.
A new website for Scottish Wood
One of our biggest projects over the last year was finally unveiled this summer with the launch of our new website.
As well as showcasing our products and services, for a small business like us our website is how we communicate who we are, what we value, and the work we do. We wanted this new site to better reflect Scottish Wood today: the people behind it, the timber we work with, and the ethos that has guided us for nearly 30 years.
Like Scottish Wood itself, the website will continue to evolve. We’ll keep adding new products, new guides, and new stories from around the sawmill as the months go on.
If you’d like to learn more about the project, you can read about the development of the new website in our recent blog post.
Welcome to the new Scottish Wood website
For the last year, we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes creating a brand new website for Scottish Wood. Read on for information about the new site and for the story of our brand evolution over nearly 30 years.
Some busy Summer Saturdays
We were blown away after our June Saturday open in the timber shop made record sales, making it the busiest day in Scottish Wood’s history.
Thank you to everyone who visited, whether you’re a long-standing customer, or someone discovering Scottish Wood for the first time.
Our next Saturday open will be Saturday the 3rd of October, 9am to 2pm. We’d love to see you there.
Thank you for following what we’ve been up to this summer. We look forward to sharing more news from the sawmill in the autumn.
The Scottish Wood Team
