Wood

The use of wood had not been limited to slash-and-burn and the making of "tarred" chips. Wood from forests was utilised for construction and fuelwood and a wide variety of goods in and around the house. Wood was used for household equipment, different kinds of utilities for everyday use, vehicles, fences and poles, traps, chips for producing light in houses and shingles for roofs. For example wagonloads of logs pulled by horses were consumed for making lighting chips during the dark winter season.

Not until the industrial processing of logs begun in Finland, the value of forests as a source of raw material started to increase rapidly. The first saws were water-powered, and they were built alongside the rapids of the rivers. First water-driven saws were built in 1530's in Halikko. Gradually more saws were established.

The use of steam power in sawing started to revolutionise the sawmilling industry in the 1800's. Sawing required permission, and first applications for starting steam saws were turned down by the government, which feared that forest resources would "dry up". Permissions for establishing the first two steam-saw mills at the mouth of the Ii-river were granted in 1855. A few years later the Senate passed a law permitting steam driven sawmills everywhere in Finland, but they were still subject to licence. The establishment of steam saws took place at mouths of the rivers, where logs could be floated even from long distances.

In Finland the first sawblades were used as water-driven saws. Handsaws, which were used for cutting boards from logs, became widely used as the technical knowledge allowed to manufacture thin, straight sawblades. Not until the 1700's blades were sophisticated enough that handsawing became possible. The reason for introduction of saws in cutting was increased value of wood both in quality and quantity: when trees were felled with the axe, the stump was long, and consumed wood higher than while sawing. After the Second World War (in the late 1940's) chainsaws started to develop rapidly. In Finland "internal combustion engine"-powered saws were taken into permanent use in forests in beginning of the year 1949.

System used to transport logs from one lake to another if the distance was not too long.