A practical guide for landowners, hobby sawyers, and anyone with logs on the ground
You’ve cleared some land, taken down some trees, or had storm damage — and now you’re looking at a pile of logs wondering: what is this wood actually worth? How much lumber could I get out of it? Is it worth hiring a portable sawmill to come cut it?
These are good questions, and the answers depend on a few things you can actually measure. This guide walks through the basics, and shows you how to get real numbers from your logs without any forestry experience.
What determines how much lumber is in a log?
Three things drive the lumber yield from any log:
- Diameter — the single biggest factor. A 12-inch log produces dramatically more lumber than an 8-inch one, because usable area scales with the square of the diameter. Below about 8 inches, most logs aren’t worth milling.
- Length — longer logs yield longer boards, but length matters less than diameter. A short, fat log beats a long, skinny one every time.
- Shape — taper (how much the log narrows from butt to top), sweep (side-to-side curve), and defects (knots, rot, crook) all reduce what you can cut from it.
The standard unit for measuring lumber is the board foot — a piece of wood 12 inches long, 12 inches wide, and 1 inch thick. When someone says a log contains “80 board feet,” they mean you could theoretically cut 80 of those pieces from it (in practice, less — sawdust, slabs, and defects eat into the total).
The old way: tape, tables, and guesswork
Traditionally, estimating board feet from a log means measuring the diameter at each end with a tape, looking up the length in a log scale table (Doyle, Scribner, or International 1/4”), and reading off a number. It works, but it has real drawbacks:
- You need to know which log scale to use (they give different answers)
- Measuring diameter on an irregular end face with a tape is imprecise
- The tables don’t account for taper, sweep, or the actual shape of your log
- For a pile of 20 logs, it’s tedious enough that most people just eyeball it
The easier way: scan it with your phone
If you have an iPhone with LiDAR (iPhone 12 Pro or later), you can point it at a log and get the full picture in about a minute. LogScanner uses the phone’s depth sensor to build a 3D model of the log and compute:
- Length — measured from end to end, accurate to within 1% of a tape
- Diameter — at both ends and along the barrel, no tape needed
- Taper and sweep — measured from the actual 3D shape, not estimated
- Volume — in cubic feet, from the real geometry
- Board feet — calculated using the International 1/4” rule
For a batch of logs, you can scan each end face in rapid succession — about 20 seconds per log — and the app generates a project report totaling up the board footage for the whole pile.
What can you do with the numbers?
Once you know the board footage in your logs, you can make informed decisions:
- Get a fair price from a sawyer. Most portable sawmill operators charge by the hour or by the board foot. If you know you have 800 board feet on the ground, you can compare quotes and know whether the price is reasonable. Typical custom sawing rates run $0.25–$0.50 per board foot, depending on your region.
- Decide if it’s worth milling at all. If your logs are mostly small-diameter (under 10”), the yield may not justify the cost of a sawyer. If they’re 14”+ Douglas Fir, you could be sitting on serious value.
- Sell the logs. If milling isn’t your thing, knowing the board footage lets you price logs for sale to a local mill or woodworker. Raw logs typically sell for $0.10–$0.30 per board foot depending on species, quality, and local market.
- Plan your project. Building a barn? A deck? Furniture? Knowing exactly what you have lets you figure out whether your logs cover the project or if you need to supplement with purchased lumber.
What species matters most?
Not all wood is created equal. The species of your trees significantly affects value:
- High value: Black walnut, white oak, cherry, hard maple — these can be worth $2–$8+ per board foot as rough-sawn lumber
- Good value: Red oak, ash, hickory, Douglas fir, Western red cedar — solid demand, $1–$3 per board foot
- Moderate value: Poplar, soft maple, pine, spruce — useful but lower-priced, $0.50–$1.50 per board foot
- Low value for lumber: Cottonwood, willow, box elder — generally not worth milling unless you have a specific use
These are rough ranges for rough-sawn lumber sold locally. Kiln-dried, planed, or specialty cuts (live edge slabs, figured wood) can be worth significantly more.
A real example
We recently field-tested LogScanner by scanning nine logs ten times each and comparing against tape measurements. The results: length accuracy within 0.5% of tape, diameter repeatability under 1%, and volume consistency of 1.5% scan-to-scan. These aren’t cherry-picked numbers — every scan is published in our full field test report.
You can also watch what a scan looks like in practice:
- Full log scan walkthrough — about 2 minutes per log
- Rapid end scaling — scanning a batch of logs in minutes
Getting started
- Check your phone. You need an iPhone 12 Pro, 13 Pro, 14 Pro, 15 Pro, or 16 Pro (any model with LiDAR).
- Download LogScanner from the App Store. The free tier lets you try a scan to see how it works.
- Subscribe to Pro for one month when you’re ready to scan your batch. You get unlimited scans, project reports, and exports.
- Scan your logs. Full barrel scans for detailed measurements, or rapid end scans if you just need board-foot totals.
- Export your report and use the numbers to get quotes, plan your project, or price your wood.
- Cancel anytime if you don’t need ongoing access. Your scan data stays on your device.