Introduction

These web sites have been selected on the basis of useful content for students of Wood Products Manufacturing. Sites that are only company ads for services, University course listings, or similar "presence" sites have been left out. The aim has been to provide a set of sites that offer content that will be of use throughout the curriculum. Each site has been visited and examined and an annotation provided so that users have a feel for the information available. Sites will be updated on a quarterly basis so there will inevitably be some sites that have moved, disappeared entirely, or changed their content significantly. This is the nature of the net but we have tried to select sites that have a better than average staying power.

The categories found in the table of contents basically fit the kinds of sites available. However you will find some sites in places where you might not expect. This is especially true with the crossover between "Directories" and "Journals". There are a number of sites that are directories of forestry and manufacturing companies but which include a magazine or access to an on-line journal. In most cases those have been placed under the "Directories" since that is their primary function but keep in mind that some of them have valuable on-line articles available.

Advice and Caution

This is only a fraction of the forest product sites on the web. You could loose yourself for a month, 8 hours a day, and not cover them all so don't try to. Using search engines like Yahoo, Lycos and Altavista results in thousands of  citations to follow up, a daunting task at the best of times. The best wide area search strategy (to find the largest number of good sites) is to pick a site that is good and use its links to move outward. It does not seem so "scientific" as a complex search at a search engine but at least you can hope that someone has looked at the sites in the link list.

If you have a favorite site or find an excellent wood products site that is not included in this listing please send the URL and a brief comment to the editor using the email function.

Ainsworth Lumber Company Ltd.
http://www.ainsworth.ca/index.html
A well done company site that provides good data on forest management and on their value added wood products.  They provide good information on the planning process as well as details on various plants.  Their "What's New?" section includes journal articles on equipment in a value-added plant and their OSB plant in Grand Praire, Alberta.   Located in the Interior of B.C. the company has expanded into veneers, panels and OSB.

American Kilns Inc.
http://www.americankilns.com/
This site advertises "Fourth generation Radio Frequency Vacuum" kiln drying technology.  It is basically a sales site but it does have some well presented  information on RFV technology and various applications.

Andersen Windows
http://www.andersenwindows.com/
A very professional web site with excellent design. It provides good information on their windows including images, specifications, and tips for installation. Free literature is available by mail but requester must have email address. Provides a set of good links to other manufacturers.

Avenor
www.avenor.com
One of the largest companies of recycled pulp and newsprint in North America, this is a professional site that is a pleasure to visit.  They provide several resources like "What is a tree" and their environmental report that is of use to forestry students.

Biesse Ltd.
http://www.biesse.it/english/index.htm
Manufacturers of automated router systems, Computer Numerical Controlled systems. Very high tech woodworking machines. Good industrial site with information about their products and the town they live in. Most information limited to the company's direct products. Currently most product reviews include no visuals but the ones provided are excellent with an optional larger view.

Boise Cascade
http://www.bc.com/index.html
A company site primarily designed to communicate with stockholders and potential customers. A well designed site with access to Boise's paper, office and building products. Sections on Industry Quick Facts, Future of Our Forests, and Environmental Commitment all provide some good content for secondary students.

British Columbia Wood Design
http://www.wooddesign.bc.ca/index.htm
The site opens with its new on-line journal "Value Created Review" (VCR) which has excellent if primarily B.C. content.  All back issues of VCR are available and it contains lots of good material.    Other sections on B.C Furniture, Design, Furniture History and wood issues all provide good content and links to further excellent sites.  This is a must see and must use site.  

CraftMark
http://www.craftmark.com/
This is a huge site supplying a large range of supplies and products for just about every conceiveable craft.  There are lots of good ideas here for student projects and possibly a source of supplies.   Items like "Bob Woodcrafts" (range of wood pet supplies), "GrandPa' Toy Shop" (wood toys), and "Concepts in Wood" (wood furniture) supply ideas and often plans.

Crestbrook Forest Industries
http://www.crestbrook.com
This is a quality wood products industry site providing lots of information about the company.  Crestbrook has been in operation almost a century (1898) in the East Kootenay region of B.C.  It is now a pulp and lumber producer with sales worldwide.  A good company site with detailed information on their products.

Custom Dry Kiln
www.customdrykiln.com
Fairly standard company site with good information on their kilns, energy systems and air conditioning products. Well designed site with good visuals, worth looking at for kiln information but not much supporting material.

Delta International
http://www.deltawoodworking.com/delta/
One of the big equipment manufacturers for the wood shop, Delta has provided a very professional and useful site. The plant tour is a quite interesting look at a major manufacturer.  Some good material online in the Library (articles on using different Delta machines)  and good data on Delta machinery. A whole series of projects (about a dozen) with good details and often printable plans, very nicely put together. The plan I downloaded for a classic tool chest was 120K so it takes about a minute, quite good quality but dimensions are not included. The catalog provides several pictures of each machine and about 2 pages of specifications and descriptions. Well done site.

Details Survival: The Computerized Office
http://www.scdetails.com/
This is a site that looks at the ergonomics of office equipment and computer work stations. Within this category there are many small details that a designer can add that make desks and workstations more user friendly and safer for long term use. Products for this sector will be one of the major demands of the next decade and students should be aware of the issue.

Domtar
http://www.domtar.com/english/domhome.htm
A comprehensive commercial site with lots of information about the company. It covers company policy and initiatives on topics like: environment, effluent and aboriginal issues.  It contains an educational "tree world" section that is best suited for upper elementary students but it is well done and follows tree growth and physiology.There is also brief information on the Mckinnon centre an 80 acre heritage site and museum.

The Enchanted Forest
http://hornet.mmg.uci.edu/~hjm/Dunphy.html
A site to display the woodturning work of Gordon Dunphy in New Brunswick. These bowls are sheer art,  many of them made out of burls,, they are absolutely amazing and wonderful. A good place to go for inspiration.

Enertia Building Systems
http://www.enertia.com/
Every wood products or construction student (teacher for that matter too) should visit this site at least once.  Their design philosophy is to use solid wood building technology to create a house that has and "air flow and access channel, or Envelope" that completely surrounds the inner living area.  This Envelope is used to harness solar energy to heat and cool the house.  The site provides very detailed plans, information and science.  Take a look at several "building journals" including one animated version.

Ex-Factory
http://hornet.mmg.uci.edu/~hjm/Dunphy.html
A used factory machinery source. Lots of neat stuff including pictures and data. It provides a data base search facility to get at both type of machinery and location. The data base search is a little tricky but you can get good results. Worth looking at for ideas and for machinery for that matter.

The Forest Shop
http://www.forestshop.com/
A book company that specializes in forestry and outdoor books. Not that focused on wood products but a wide range of books on forestry, harvesting, ecology, and sawmilling. Web orders get a 10% discount.  As of Sept. 98 there is an interesting example of "keyword spamming" on the home page (for those interested in web design).  If you move to the very bottom of the page and highlight you will see the words: "forests", "trees", "logging" etc. repeated for 8 or nine lines, the idea being that search engines will give them a higher rating when someone searches on that keyword.

Greenwood Forest Products
www.gfp.bc.ca
A basic information site about the company and its products (mainly pine wall covering and laminated pine boards for work projects).  Good information on the company and its products with interesting and possibly useful images but not that much detail.

Hahn Machinery
http://www.forestnet.com/hahn/index.html
An advertising site for their range of tree processing machinery. Good information and images  on each of the models, a useful site if you want to research processing equipment.

HeatWave Technologies Inc.
http://www.heatwave.com
Radio frequency vacuum wood kilns are one of the high tech approaches to wood drying. This site has lots of information on the company and the process. Several examples of current installations including a research version at UBC and another used part time for forage drying.

International Productivity Center
http://www.woodvideo.com/
This site is a source for commercial videos, booklets and courses on various wood products tools and processes. The site itself is basically a catalog but the material does look well done and it might be a good source for information. The order form is available on-line but must be mailed or faxed. It would be nice to have a sample of some of the material.

Irving Forest Discovery Network
http://www.ifdn.com/
This site is developed by the Irving Forestry company and the New Brunswick department of education. Primarily focused on middle school (grades 5 to 8) it has a lot of forestry information, good photos and lots of text material available on a wide range of topics. It include a "Forest discovery box" that shows amongst other things a range of forest products and a whole series of photos of boards of various species.

Kalesnikoff Lumber Company
http://www.kalesnikoff.com/home.htm
Located in Castlegar B.C. this small company, employing a total of 200 people has produced a top quality web site for students.  Along with the normal company information there is a picture rich mill tour and bush tour.  In addition there is information on tree species and their current product line.  This is an excellent site for introducting students to a small mill.

Korsnas
http://www.korsnas.se/eng/init.html
This is one of the larger Swedish forestry firms.  The site provides a lot of information about the company and its operations.  It also features a demonstration of the "world's strongest paper" lifting a car.  Students need to get a feel for the world class competition.

Lignum Ltd.
http://www.lignum.com/
A good solid, professionally developed company site.  Useful for information on the company, its history and a look at how they are responding to environmental concerns and issues.  Lignum is located in Williams Lake, B.C. and also has an extensive relationship with First Nations peoples.  Several of their reports can be downloaded in pdf format.

MacMillan Blodel
http://www.mbltd.com/
This is an excellent commercial site, designed to provide company information and products but delivering as well a great deal of educational information.  There are tours of  several of their mills which include a good look at the processes along with many images.  The products section has good information and visuals as well as  a section on garden structure "design ideas".  A very useful site.

MacMillan Blodel Packaging Inc.
www.mbpi.com
This site is very professional and covers MacBlo packaging operations.  It has a very nicely done site map that shows all the good stuff right up front.  They have some very good documents on tree genetics and paper production.  Naturally there is fairly detailed information on the company itself including its history.  Well worth looking at.

Miller Timber Services
http://www.forestnet.com/miller/index.html
This site provides a very good description of the ecological logging of small logs on steeper slopes using a monocable system. Good detail and good information. It is a commercial site, selling forestry services, but it provides information as well. A nice site to send a student for research on logging.

Nova Silva
http://www.forestnet.com/novasylva/index.html
A silivicultural company, this site displays their equipment, services and suggestions. Basically a sales site but useful if you want students to investigate this kind of company.  They have some interesting small scale logging equipment like a 16' log trailer for an ATV and a skidder attachment for a tractor (both include lots of text, and pitures.

One Good Turn
http://www.vh.net/goodturn/
This is an sales site for a small scale woodturner who sells, among other things, wooden pens, letter openers and darts.  It is a fine example of a small scale business with a global marketing approach.  Good pictures of his products provide a wealth of ideas for small scale student projects.

Park's Mill's Virtual Sawmill
http://www.nidlink.com/~dmpark/virtual_mill/
This site could almost be placed in the "directories" section since it does provide a lot of links to wood products manufacturers and equipment suppliers.  Its strength for students is in the "Tips and Tricks"section where they have excellent documentation on such topics as:  "Sawing a log", "Six rules of bandsaw maintenance", and "Definitions of sawmill terminology".

Pope & Talbot, Inc
http://www.poptal.com/
A multinational company focusing on lumber, pulp and tissue they have several operations around Castlegar B.C.  The site includes a very good history of the company (which started in 1849 in California) and provides an interesting look at over a century of logging and its challenges.

The Professional Crafter
http://www.procrafter.com/
Another craft mall site with lots of information and lots of contacts.  Worth looking through if students want some ideas.  It does include some "feature articles" and "craft tips" but few have to do with wood working.  Still it is a good site to look at Internet marketting.

Renaldo’s Supply, The Woodworkers Friend
www.tummy.com/Renaldos/
This site provides wood over the internet.  It is a good example of the kind of small commercial sites that make use of the ease of web pages to provide a very good catalog of material.  They have a listing of all their available woods ("Wood from Alder to Ziracote") which can include a thumbnail image of many of the woods.  A good place to collect up a sample of red oak for your own page development.

Shertam Industries Ltd.
www.monashee.com/shertam/
A good commercial site showing the services provided by a remanufacturing company, including trucking.  Probably the cutest thing is being able to link to Lumby’s "Monashee monster" who has been lurking in the area for centuries (as proved by early photos).

Tembec
http://www.onlink.net/cybermall/tembec/maineng.htm
This site explains the pulp and paper company, Tembec, whose operations are basically focused in Northern Quebec and Ontario.  As an international company with sites in France Tembec is quite impressive.  Their site provides good information about their products and operation.  Reports available are all focused on company performance and investor information rather than on technology.

Western Forest Products Ltd.
http://www.wfp-ltd.com/
Operating on the coast of B.C. this company provides an attractive and well designed web site.  Their site image map is really effective and allows quick access to all information.  They provide several good sources of information on the timber management cycle, their tree orchard and First Nations involvement.

West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.
http://www.WestFraserTimber.ca/
West Fraser operates in B.C. and Alberta with plants in Quesnel, and Prince Rupert B.C. among others.  This is a quite detailed company information site with good data on many of their  operations.

Weyerhaeuser Ltd.
http://www.weyerhaeuser.com/
A well designed and easy to use company web site. There is lots of information worth sending people after especially if one of their mills is in your local area. They provide a large set of speaches given by various executives covering most current industry topics that are worth reading. The site also provides the NWWDA Veneer guide, primarily written for architects this provides a lot of good information on veneer and doors.  There is an interesting example of "value-added" use of their company experience in the "On-Line Businesses" they present, including "Disaster Recovery"