Salary and Outlook

According to the US Department of Labor, there are 4,500 people employed as log graders and scalers in the United States. The median annual salary is $37,820. Entry level employees earn approximately $28,830 per year and senior employees earn approximately $59,240 per year.

Estimates do not include other potential benefits such as health insurance, overtime pay, or retirement benefits that may be offered by employers.

Job Duties

• Drive to sawmills, wharfs, or skids to inspect logs or pulpwood.
• Saw felled trees into lengths.
• Tend conveyor chains that move logs to and from scaling stations.
• Evaluate log characteristics and determine grades, using established criteria.
• Record data about individual trees or load volumes into tally books or hand-held collection terminals.
• Measure felled logs or loads of pulpwood to calculate volume, weight, dimensions, and marketable value, using measuring devices and conversion tables.
• Paint identification marks of specified colors on logs to identify grades or species, using spray cans, or call out grades to log markers.
• Jab logs with metal ends of scale sticks, and inspect logs to ascertain characteristics or defects such as water damage, splits, knots, broken ends, rotten areas, twists, and curves.
• Identify logs of substandard or special grade so that they can be returned to shippers, regraded, recut, or transferred for other processing.
• Arrange for hauling of logs to appropriate mill sites.
• Weigh log trucks before and after unloading, and record load weights and supplier identities.
• Measure log lengths and mark boles for bucking into logs, according to specifications.
• Communicate with coworkers by using signals to direct log movement.

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