Find your true cost per board foot and set a profitable charge for custom sawing jobs.
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If you run a portable sawmill and charge by the board foot, it's surprisingly easy to underprice your work. This tool helps you discover your true break-even rate per board foot — the minimum you must charge just to cover all costs and pay yourself your target wage. It then suggests a profitable rate with a reasonable margin built in.
Unlike generic pricing guides that give vague ranges, this calculator uses your specific numbers: your blade costs and life, your fuel consumption, your travel distance, your fixed overhead, and your expected production speed.
Board-foot pricing is the most common method in the industry. It rewards production efficiency — the faster and cleaner you cut, the higher your effective hourly rate. The risk is that difficult logs (knotty, short, dirty) eat your time without proportional pay.
Hourly pricing transfers all production risk to the customer and works well for complex jobs (quarter-sawing, oversized logs, on-site log prep). Many experienced sawyers use a hybrid: board-foot base rate with an hourly fallback clause for unusual conditions.
A third option — lumber shares — involves taking a percentage of the finished boards instead of cash. This can yield higher returns if you can sell the lumber, but requires drying and storage infrastructure.
Blade cost is often the most underestimated variable in sawmill pricing. A standard carbon-steel band blade typically lasts 800–1,500 BF before needing service, with hardwoods reducing life toward the lower end. However, blades can typically be resharpened 3–5 times before replacement — this tool accounts for that, spreading the blade purchase price across its total lifetime output.
For example: a $55 blade sharpened 3 times, each cycle covering 800 BF, has a total life of 3,200 BF. Add $10 × 3 = $30 in sharpening. Total blade cost = $85 ÷ 3,200 BF = ~$0.027/BF. Overlooking resharpening cycles roughly doubles your perceived blade cost.
In 2026, typical rates for portable band-mill custom sawing run $0.35–$0.75 per board foot at the customer's site for standard plain-sawn softwood and mid-grade hardwood. Specialty cuts (quarter-sawn, live-edge slabs) and very dense species can push rates above $1.00/BF. Hourly alternatives range from $65–$105/hr. Most operators charge a separate travel fee ($1.00–$1.50/mile round trip) and a minimum job fee of $100–$200 to cover mobilization costs.
Add up all variable costs per job (blade prorated cost, fuel used during cutting, travel costs) and a share of fixed monthly overhead (insurance, loan payment, maintenance reserve). Divide the total by estimated board footage. Add your desired labor rate (wage × total hours on job ÷ board footage). The result is your break-even rate per BF — the tool above does this calculation automatically and also shows you what a healthy margin would look like.
Output depends strongly on mill size, log quality, log diameter, species, and operator experience. A solo operator on a manual mid-range mill (14–25 HP) can realistically expect 100–250 BF/hr on clean medium-diameter logs. Hydraulic mills with experienced operators reach 300–500+ BF/hr. Small logs, short lengths, dirty logs, quarter-sawing, and working alone all reduce effective output. The production rate input in this calculator directly affects your labor cost per BF, so entering a conservative estimate gives you a safer floor price.
A standard carbon-steel band blade typically processes 800–1,500 BF per sharpening cycle — hardwoods (hickory, dense oak) toward 400–800 BF, clean softwood toward 1,200–1,500+ BF. Blades can usually be resharpened 3–5 times before they're worn out, which dramatically lowers effective per-BF cost. Premium bi-metal or high-alloy blades last considerably longer but cost more upfront. Hitting metal (nails, fence staples) in a log can destroy a blade in a single pass — many operators charge a separate blade-damage fee for this.
Yes. Hardwoods — especially dense species like hickory, Osage orange, and black locust — wear blades faster, require slower feed rates, and put more strain on the engine. A surcharge of $0.05–$0.20/BF over your softwood rate is common practice. Premium "character" species (walnut, cherry) that customers specifically want milled for their value also justify a premium. The species surcharge selector in this calculator lets you apply the appropriate premium to your break-even calculation.
A minimum fee ensures that small or low-volume jobs still cover your mobilization cost (travel time, loading/unloading, setup). Many operators set minimums of $150–$250 regardless of volume, or equivalently a minimum of 500–1,000 BF. This calculator shows you if the computed job quote falls below your minimum, and flags when the minimum fee should apply instead.