Create Something Special with Local Trees

So you’ve decided to roll up your sleeves, dust off the tools, and tackle that backyard chicken coop, garden bed, or your child’s heirloom toy box by yourself.  Of course, you know not to use pressure treated pine, but what if this project requires something more memorable than the perfectly milled red cedar boards at the local lumber store? What if you want a little bark and saw marks on your lumber, or maybe even know the history of the trees that went into your project?

Ken Hagans sawmill in Kings Mtn. can help.  While four wheel drive isn’t essential on the dirt road that winds through thick tree canopy up to the sawmill, it sure might come in handy on wet days. The mill has been in Ken’s family for three generations, sawing locally felled trees into timber for builders, craftsmen, and woodworkers.

Sawdust collects in heaps like snow drifts alongside the giant diesel truck engine that powers the enormous saw blade.  While Ken does have stacks of commonly used board sizes ready for sale, like the 1”x4” eastern red cedar pieces we used for the Secrests’ potting bench, much of his business is special orders.

“Now remember, when you get a 2”x4” from me, it’s really two inches by four inches,” he explains, leaning against pile of yellow pine boards. He makes this distinction between lumber from his sawmill, and boards from a lumber store, where the actual measurements are smaller than the nominal measurements. A 2”x4” at a big box store, for example, really only measures about 1.5”x3.5”

So what kind of wood can you get at Ken Hagans Sawmill? A little bit of everything. “It just depends on what got cut down that week,” Ken continues. “ I work with a lot of tree companies, so we’ve always got a variety of new logs coming in…eastern red cedar, yellow pine, all sorts of varieties of hardwood.”

Want a raised garden bed with a unique look and a special story? Want a cool garden table or potting bench that doesn’t look like it came out of a cardboard box? Is it important to you to buy local?

Check out Ken Hagans sawmill, and maybe take the 4WD if it’s raining.

Ken Hagans Sawmill
158 Zanes Ln.
Kings Mtn.,  NC 28086

704.862.8259

kenhaganssawmill@gmail.com