HAMDEN, Ohio – The reins of Caudill Chipping have been passed onto a new family member. The company, a leading supplier of chips in south-central Ohio, uses Bevel Buddy supplies to help maintain production and chip quality.
The family’s patriarch, Virgil Caudill, was a lifelong logger, first working in eastern Kentucky, then continuing when he moved to Ohio in 1949. His son, Corbett, along with Corbett’s brothers continued in their father’s shoes, and now so has Cory, Corbett’s son.
As Corbett, who goes by ‘Corb,’ said in a previous article for TimberLine, “We love the fact that we are one big family when we come to work. Every person we have working with us has helped get us where we are today.”
Cory, 37, a third-generation logger, is now the company president, but Caudill Chipping definitely continues to be a family enterprise. Corb, 81, still goes into the woods every workday and operates a loader. “He’s as healthy as everybody,” said Cory. “He really does a good job.” In addition, father and son look at timber on the weekends.
Corey Caudill (left) and his father, Corbett (‘Corb’), at right. Corb is 81 and still works every day, operating a loader.
The company has 31 employees. They include some of Cory’s uncles and cousins on his father’s side. For example, two cousins, Larry and Kevin Caudill, supervise operations in the woods when Cory and his father are not around. “And they have a pretty big leadership role, too,” added Cory. The logging and chipping crew usually consists of 10-12 men. The rest of the employees are truck drivers and mechanics.
Caudill Chipping is one of the larger chip suppliers in the south-central Ohio region, producing about 100,000 tons of chips annually. It is based in Hamden, almost 80 miles south of Columbus. Caudill Chipping owns a shop with an office on X acres and also has a wood yard.
Caudill Chipping produces two types of chips: one for paper production and one for steel production. Chips for steel production, which do not require debarking, are used to add carbon to make a silicon alloy steel.
The company currently is mainly supplying one paper mill and two steel mills. Hauls to those mills generally range from 40-80 miles, hauls to sawmills, about 40 miles.
The company averages about 100 loads per week – 40 loads of chips for paper, 40 loads of chips for steel, and 20 loads of saw logs. “We try to get 20 loads a day,” said Cory, who began working as a skidder operator.
About 75 percent of the company’s logs come from company-owned timber or timberland, and the remaining 25 percent is tree-length, chip-grade wood from other logging contractors that is delivered to the wood yard.
Caudill Chipping buys timber and timberland; the company owns 13,000 acres of timberland. “Me and dad buy 100 percent of our own timber and timberland,” said Cory. “Normally, we don’t cut for anyone else. We just cut for ourselves.”
The company performs chipping operations in the woods on logging jobs and also at its wood yard. Chipping is done with four Trelan whole-tree disc-style chippers. (Bandit acquired Trelan at the end of 2021.) The newest model is a Trelan 686, a model number derived from the 68-inch by 6-inch-thick chipper disc. Three or four knife disc options are available with chip sizes ranging from 3/4-inch, 7/8-inch, or 1-inch. Wireless remote control is standard.
The transition from Trelan to Bandit has gone well, according to Cory. “We do most of our own service. Bandit has been good to deal with on the phone,” he added, when they need technical assistance.
The four Trelan whole-tree chippers are rotated in and out of service; one will work in the woods and one in the wood yard. “We rotate them every couple of weeks,” said Cory, servicing and maintaining the machines when they are idle while the other two are working. “It’s easier to switch chippers.” The Trelan chippers, mounted on trailers, are readily moved in the woods with a skidder.
Debarking for paper chips is done with two Peterson (now Astec) 4810F chain flail debarkers, which are self-propelled on tracks. A Peterson flail is set up directly inline in front of a Trelan chipper, and the trees feed directly into the chipper as they exit the flail.
Logs are merchandised on the job. The company does sorts for saw logs, veneer, and staves, and walnut. Logs for chips are sorted and chipped on-site.
“We’re in hardwood country,” noted Cory. There are a “few patches of pine here and there,” and some paper companies have pine plantations. The dominant hardwood species are white oak, red oak, poplar, and hickory.
Caudill Chipping uses the Bevel Buddy tool and replacement abrasive to keep chipper knives sharp. Servicing and maintaining the chipper knives is essential to production as well as chip quality.
Servicing and maintaining the chipper knives is essential to production as well as chip quality. Caudill Chipping uses the Bevel Buddy tool and replacement abrasive to keep the knives sharp. “We use it every day,” said Cory. “We actually do.”
“It takes about five minutes to bevel them,” he added. “You usually can bevel knives by the time they’re switching trucks.”
The knives are beveled after about four or five loads of hardwood chips. “As long as you don’t hit any foreign objects, you can get about 15 loads with beveling the knives about four or five loads,” said Cory. “We bevel them about three times, then change them. With the Bevel Buddy, keeping sharp knives keeps chip quality at its peak.” After 15 loads the knives need to be switched out and serviced.
The Bevel Buddy from Precision Sharpening Devices is a hand-held tool designed to sharpen knives on disc and drum style chippers and conventional pocket style, face-mounted and reversible/disposable knife systems, as well as recyclers with chipping knives. Bevel Buddy sharpeners are used on brush chippers, whole tree chippers, and in sawmills, chip mills and pulp mills.
The company offers several models of the Bevel Buddy, including a 12-volt model that uses rechargeable batteries, a 12-volt model that can be powered by a motor vehicle battery, and a model that is powered by a pneumatic drive motor. They are sold in kits with safety glasses, abrasives, and carrying case; the pneumatic model comes with additional accessories.
In the company wood yard, a John Deere 2156 swing machine with a grapple attachment is used to feed the flail and chipper. The wood yard is used for storing and chipping tree-length chip wood the company buys from other logging contractors.
Precision Sharpening Devices, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, has been manufacturing counter grinding/back beveling equipment since 1988 for the industries that use knives to process wood – mostly for the pulp and paper, sawmill, plywood, and whole tree chipping markets. Thousands of its sharpeners are used on several continents by companies in the forest products industry, helping those businesses increase production while reducing costs associated with servicing and replacing knives as well as overall costs.
The counter grinding/back beveling process is very simple. A knife is re-sharpened while it remains in the chipper two to three times. The counter ground/back beveled edge is a more effective chipping edge while under normal as well as adverse conditions.
Sharp knives produce high quality chips. They also provide a number of other benefits: less wear and tear on equipment and easier maintenance, reduced fuel consumption and knife purchases, extended life of chipper parts, and a safer operator environment. Those benefits reduce overall operating costs. In addition, fewer knife changes mean less downtime and increased production.
(For more information, visit www.precisionsharpeningdevices.com, call (814) 899-0796, or email info@precisionsharpeningdevices.com.)
The Simonds International chipper knives are sharpened at the shop. Years ago, one of the paper mills the company supplies with chips used to sharpen chipper knives for loggers. When they stopped doing it, Caudill Chipping bought the grinder from the mill. The knives can be sharpened with the grinder about eight times before the metal is too thin and the knives need to be discarded, according to Cory.
“We used to have two crews in the woods,” noted Cory. “It just seemed better to stay with one larger crew. Around here, the terrain is a little more steep and hilly, rolling hills and some steep slopes,” particularly close to the Ohio River “It’s harder to get to, so it’s easier to put one crew in the woods.”
At the time Cory talked with TimberLine, the crew was working on a tract of about 200 acres – all hardwoods, mixed white oak. The site was rolling hills with some steep ground. Board mats had been laid down to enable the trucks to access the landing. “In spring it gets a little muddy,” noted Cory.
“The jobs we typically are cutting are on 50-to-100 acre tracts,” said Cory. Wood that is harvested is merchandised on the job and hauled directly to the appropriate mill.
For felling the company has two Komatsu 465L feller bunchers, which are self-leveling track machines, paired with Quadco 28-inch hot saws.
Skidding is done with a pair of John Deere 768L bogie grapple skidders, two John Deere 948L grapple skidders, and a new Tigercat 625H bogie grapple skidder. The company keeps Pewag bogie tracks on the skidders year-round so they can work well on muddy ground.
At the landing, the company has two Weiler trailer-mounted loaders with delimbers and ground saws. A pair of John Deere 750 and 850 bulldozers are used for building roads and landing areas.
Slash, including the debris generated by debarking, is distributed by the skidders and other equipment over the skid trails. It provides a good base for the skidders and also helps prevent soil erosion.
The Bevel Buddy is sold by Precision Sharpening Devices, which has been manufacturing counter grinding/back beveling equipment since 1988 for the industries that use knives to process wood.
At the wood yard, a John Deere 2156 swing machine with a grapple attachment is used to feed the flail and chipper. A new Hitachi 180 wheel loader unloads log trucks and is used to sort and stack logs.
The company does all its own trucking and has a substantial fleet of tractor-trailers: 25 chip vans and 15 log trucks. The chip vans include one Keith and six Halco moving floor trailers. In recent years Cory has been adding a moving floor trailer every other year. “We have a few mixed in,” he explained, in case the truck dumping equipment at a mill is not working. If the dump is down, they can still haul and unload chips with the moving floor trailers.
Caudill Chipping is pretty self-sufficient when it comes to keeping trucks and equipment in good working order. “We do most of our own maintenance,” said Cory, for both trucks and the logging and chipping equipment. “We try to do most repairs in-house.”
Caudill Chipping, which sponsors a local 4-H club, has a group health insurance plan for employees. They also receive paid time off. “We usually try to do a production bonus at the end of the year,” said Cory.
Markets have been “really tight,” said Cory. Markets for chips and saw logs are about the same, “steadily slow,” although he added, “I feel like they’re picking up.” Prices have been down since the COVID-19 pandemic, demand is “decent,” he said. “We’re keeping everybody working.”
Demand for white oak – for saw logs, veneer, and staves – has been a bright spot. “White oak is doing really good,” said Cory. “We try to find patches of white oak.”
