How to tally a load of logs
- Set the log length. Logs on one truck are usually cut to one length; tally loads of different lengths separately.
- Measure the small end of every log inside the bark. In inches, round down to the whole inch. In centimetres, use 2-cm classes and round down to the even centimetre (15 cm counts as 14).
- Tap the diameter tile for every log. The tally is saved in your browser, so you can close the page and come back.
Which volume to trust
In the US and Canada logs are bought and sold in board feet by a log rule: Doyle in the South and Midwest, Scribner in the West, International ¼ where the scale should be closest to real lumber. The calculator shows all three; see the log scale calculator for how they differ.
In metric mode the load is measured in cubic metres by Huber’s formula — cross-section at mid-length times length, the rule used for roundwood across Europe. The mid-diameter is taken from the top diameter with a standard taper of 1 cm per metre; the volume of the small-end cylinder is shown too.
How the lumber estimate works
For every diameter in the tally the calculator runs the same cutting optimizer as the log cutting calculator: the “max yield” pattern for a straight log of that small-end diameter, with your kerf and your board sizes, boards running the full length of the log. The patterns are then multiplied by the number of logs of each diameter and added up.
Real logs have crook, rot and taper that the pattern does not see, so treat the result as the best case: a well-run band mill usually saws a little less. Add your own sizes — for example, an order for 50×175 or 2×7 — and see how many pieces the load gives.