Dundrum Sawmills - Interview

Most readers will probably be familiar with Coillte's Sawmill in Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, the main focus for native hardwood timber in Ireland. In this issue of Irish Timber & Forestry magazine we interview TJ O'Sullivan, who is Sales Manager at this historic sawmill.

First for a small piece of  history: The Dundrum area was part of a 65,000 acre hintherland controlled by the O'Dwyers’ (the main employer for the village today is O’Dwyer Steel). The lands were confiscated in 1651 and part granted to the Maude family. It was sometime prior to 1750 that the Maude family built Dundrum House on its 2,400 acre lands; about one third of this land was planted. As improving landlords, the Maudes’ brought the Great Southern Railway to Dundrum, and even built quarters in the station for their own private use. The sawmill quickly followed in the late 1870’s, beside the rail station and has continued to function since.

The Estate sold out to the Land Commission in 1908,  who granted the mill to the fledgling  Forest Service.  The following snippet from Parliamentary Debates in Dáil Éireann - Volume 115 - 27 April, 1949 gives some insight into the central role of the mill in the mid 1900s
"Committee on Finance. - Vote 53—Forestry. Minister for Lands (Mr. Blowick):
Sub-head C (3)—Timber Conversion— £6,940. Under this heading provision is made for the working of the Department's sawmills, especially those at Dundrum, County Tipperary, and Cong, County Mayo. These mills do a steady local trade in rough boards, cart material, fencing stakes, etc. The mill at Dundrum has been entirely reorganised for more efficient working. The old tarred wooden buildings, which were in constant danger from fire have been replaced during the past year by concrete and galvanised iron structures. The drying kilns, to which reference was made last year, have not been quite finished. The buildings are practically ready, but supply of the equipment has been held up by the contractors who have promised delivery at an early date. As soon as the machinery is installed, the Department will be in a position to season native timber for its own use and for sale."
Today, the sawmill concentrates its activities on native hardwoods and exterior cladding timbers. In terms of scale, the operation is dwarfed compared to the typical softwood mills. None-the-less, the staff of 16 has patiently developed an expertise and recognition within the woodworking and building sector. Uniquely it is the country’s main supplier of native hardwoods to the joinery, kitchen and flooring sector. Examples of the woods are in the Dail, Castlehyde, Talbot hotel, Ballinter house,  Copella hotel,  Prince of Wales hotel, Jurys’ Limerick, Flying Boat Museum, etc. Individual sawmillers and members of Coillte staff are quiet owners of Irish hardwood floors from Dundrum.

The site carries the largest stocks of Douglas fir in the country and is a significant importer of Canadian Cedar. Everything on site is FSC / PEFC/ CSA certified. This assures the customer that the wood has sourced from responsibly managed forests. The mill also produces its traditional range of  outdoor signage, gates and furniture for forest parks, golf clubs and councils (the promenade at Salthill is lined with Cong seats for the footsore perambulator).   
 
Raw Material
The quantity and quality of hardwood stock in Ireland is lamentably low by comparison with France or England. Furthermore they need to be managed. If hardwoods are not properly tended they will only realize firewood value. TJ said Dundrum’s supply is almost entirely from Coillte. "We are  5 years into a 12 year plan,  which has identified stands where hardwood supplies are going to come from and that is reviewed each year in advance. The mix of woods is dominated by oak and beech, followed by ash, sycamore, chestnut and elm.
“Small but attractive lots sometimes come from private estates", he added, “and we also buy undried stock from other hardwood millers in Ireland. We receive quite an amount of smaller queries from tree owners.  Many such queries are unviable or may be overvalued. Sadly then, many individual good logs are lost from what is already a very low national level of hardwood  stock. A user-friendly, nationwide system to facilitate sale of hardwood logs may be devised some time in the future.”
TJ explained that over the past six to ten years Coillte has adopted a more proactive management policy for its hardwood stands. As part of its FSC compliance the company is required to go further than assuring the chain of custody for the timbers. It must also endevour to seek out the best markets, i.e.,  minimise downgrading to firewood and maximize sales to woodworkers.
This approach contrasts with the management of hardwoods in our national parks, where hardwoods are valued almost entirely for their amenity use, with little or no active stand regeneration / improvement. TJ  argues that to do nothing is not good long-term management. For the moment many of our best hardwood stands reside with the national parks.

Imports
“We take in a regular amount of dried 2” French oak to help our own stock. We only barely have enough critical mass to meet demand for one inch timber", explained TJ.  "For heavier and longer boards we have two supply sources in France. Each of those French mills process more than 10 times the volume of Dundrum.  We could take in American oak but then we would be the same as everybody else, selling commodity timber.  We think there is a need to do something different and to promote the European oak, it's closer to our own."

Ancillary Products
"Councils and community groups receive funding for various amenity and woodland projects. During the summer months the local committees, etc., have to organise their pathways and now they want to get the gates, seats, picnic tables, map-boards, etc. in place. This is usually a busy time of year for signs and furniture."

Conversion of Logs to Timber
TJ explained that conversion percentages from our native hardwood trees are low in terms of high quality, high value commercial timber. "When I came here first, I think we harvested 17,000 tons of hardwood, that yielded 6,000 tons of trunk, and from that we got about 2,000 cubic metres of saleable timber of which about 60% would be common grade or less. The market norm is for knot free, clean timber.
"Over the past six years, processing volumes have gone up and down. Our air drying stocks are presently down a little on what they would normally be (2 years of sales volume).  But that's no harm because if your stocks are too long here, they will degrade."
Planting to Processing
The hardwood timber is usually identified in the wood, perhaps dispersed through a spruce stand. At that stage the forester will decide whether to fell it with the current softwood crop or the next.  He said oak is usually felled at between 130 to 160 years. That means that many of these trees were planted just after the Famine time. "If they do fell it when they are taking out the softwoods, it will be left as log in the wood for a few months until they get a lorry to pick up enough logs to make a full load. It's then brought to a log yard and it will sit there for a year, or maybe longer.
"This is a necessary requirement as it allows minerals to run through the timber as it dries: they add extra colour to the timber.  If you didn't want that to happen you'd cut it straight away. With sycamore, for example, you would fell it, transport it straight to the saw, and then  into the kiln, without  delay. This is because sycamore must be completely white.  If you leave it too long, it will go a metallic grey colour which nobody wants.  
"Logs are usually stored in the log yard for about a year, at which point they are sliced through ‘n through and carefully stacked with laths at 1 ft centers.  The laths are either of the same species or dried Douglas fir.  The center of the trunk, containing the pith,  is usually downgraded to yield a beam eg 7” x 3 ”.
"You will have gathered by now that the hardwood business remains firmly rooted in Imperial measurements.  One inch usually means 27mm and 2 inch means 54mm so trunks are sawn 2mm over those sizes.  Dried dimensions greater than 2.5” thickness, and lengths over 16’ are rare in hardwoods.
  "Sawn bales are then serialized for identification and stacked in the drying yard for at least one year to season and colour the wood. The target for air drying is 20% mc (moisture content).  As the older bales approach this moisture level they are placed in the kilns for 10 days to 6 weeks.  The ramping of temperatures is very gradual to minimize cracking, with a short spike to 70ºC to kill any fungi or woodworms. Our target is 10.4%mc, which is very close to the average ambient household level. The wood components (doors, skirting, architrave, stairs etc.) of most homes are c. 11%mc.  The dried wood is left in the kiln for a further week to condition.
"At that point it is brought to the grading shed where it is resawn, trimmed, graded and packed for various customers. For example, one customer regularly buys coffin ash, which has a particular grain pattern.  When we accumulate enough of this type of ash, the bale is sent to France and made into caskets for the US market."
 
Most Valuable Products
"We have the remains of a yew trunk which is at least 700 years old.  Furniture makers will book this months in advance from when required. A particularly large London plane tree from the Duke of Devonshire's estate in Lismore has yielded a few bales of ‘Lacewood‘. Unfortunately we missed those  London planes which had been felled  in O' Connell Street.  Some grades of black walnut (from France) sell at over € 3550 / m³.  Realistically however, the more expensive timbers sell in small, select quantities,  eg to make a table / chairs.

Current Planting
TJ said he is a little concerned with regard to current planting. "The Forest Service grant scheme requires the planting of only native Irish species, which is fine, and I hope this policy continues and develops. However, the narrow focus of the policy seems to ignore commercial reality. For instance everybody is aware of the special offer Alder kitchen from Cash ‘n Carry Kitchens. This implies a great market for red alder. Red alder is known as ‘poor man's cherry’, especially used in hotels as a substitute for expensive cherry. It grows very fast and sells at the same price as oak or beech. Another example is black walnut, … again a fast growing and valuable crop. Tulipwood is extremely popular at the moment.
"It's laudable to promote indigenous hardwoods. We certainly don’t have enough of them but care must be taken not to lose sight of the end goal if forests are to be sustainable. Growers will invariably follow the requirements of the planting grants, and by now farmers have planted a lot of common alder, with no market in sight. This smacks of tokenism.  Forest service experts claim that perhaps in 50 or 100 years time there will be a market for it. This is very uncertain, whilst there is a real market today for red alder, black walnut, tulipwood and American cherry.   
“The experience of the hardwood project has been a huge learning curve for everyone concerned. We would be the first to admit that mistakes have been made along the way, both in our dealings with the timber and in our dealings with the customers.  The key to success has been the perfection of the drying process and the simple act of listening to our customers.
“For the future I would like to see this little part of Coillte developed further to avail of technological advances which will reduce the cost base and ensure the potential to scale up in the future.”
Before concluding, I should add that TJ was very complementary of the experienced team of staff at Dundrum Sawmills.  He  said that customers often tell him privately, how informative, helpful and friendly the staff are.  He said this is very much appreciated.