Years ago, I attended two grading workshop, put on by a sawmill magazine and the lumber association for my area, NeLMA. They told us at the first meeting of the day that they wouldn't allow a portable sawmill company to have a graders license, as they wanted to know every minute of every day where the license was.

Also, to get a license you have to be in the association and the dues was something like $2500 per month. And you had to be voted in by the other members (a way to control your competition).

So, what most of us did was learn what grade #2 is as most timber frames have to be grade #2 or better. And that is grade #2 of the two sections: post and timbers, beams and stringers.

If you learn this rule, which you can do by reading a rule book and then applying the rule to your timber, and you're producing timbers that meet this rule or surpass this rule by being "better" then you can sleep at night knowing that you've done the best you can do.

If you need your timbers to pass by having a licensed grader inspect them, (something you might have to do to comply with a building inspector's wishes) then you'll have to produce the timbers and hire a licensed grader of the association to travel to your site/sawmill and inspect your timbers.

I've done this before....

You have all the timbers laid out in your yard, and be prepared to move them out of the way, usually with a fork lift, when he rejects one.

Then you'll have to replace the ones he's rejected. So, you may want to have a few extras on hand in case he does.

After the inspector looked at all four sides of the timbers and both ends he stamped the end grain of each timber with a mallet that has a grade stamp profile on the head. Sort of like a brand but not burn in, stamped in.

And afterwards, he produced a letter stating that he had inspected the timbers and that they passed. This letter was shown to the building inspector of the town where the barn was to be assembled. And this complied with his wishes, so he granted them (the clients) a building permit.

You can expect to pay the grader's one full day fee for having him travel to your site and inspect your timbers.

Jim Rogers