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http://procutportablesawmills.com/sawmilling.html
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The other way to cut once the log is on the mill, is the edged method. You slab off the top of the log, and depending on the size of the log, you could cut off another 2" plank. Then you wind down the saw the WIDTH of the lumber you need, 4" for 2x4, 6" for 2x6 etc. You cut this cant and remove from the mill and again wind down the saw to the WIDTH of lumber you want, and cut another cant and remove. You want to get as many cants out of the log as you can, as wide as possible on each cant. Sometimes this is a combination of cants and 2" lumber slabs. Once the log is finished and the bottom slab is removed, you reload a cant sitting verticle ( flat sides up ) and then you cut your 2" lumber from these cants , you will now have edged lumber coming off the mill.

The difference in the edged method is substantial and actually applies to any sawmill, as cutting wide widths all the time slows a mill down drastically, unless you have 30 hp or more. To understand these two methods take a piece of paper and draw 2 circles side by side, these are your logs. On one circle draw lines across the circle representing 2" cuts, this is the through and through method, do you see how many wide cuts there are especially in a larger log. Now do the same thing on the other circle, only this time draw only 4 lines, representing say 3 6" cants out of a 20" log. You would only have to make 4 wide cuts with this method, and cutting lumber out of these cants afterward then you are only cutting 6" wide, which is very fast. I have cut 2x4 and 2x6 at up to 30 feet a minute using this method, and it is far less frustrating.
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Note added at 9 hrs (2016-01-15 07:41:55 GMT)
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По-умному часть бревна, названная по-английски cant — это лафет.
Однако колода настолько необычное слово в международной торговле (без контекста можно только предполагать), что это могут быть и просто "бревна" большого диаметра, и лафеты, и даже плахи...

Дайте больше контекста, пожалуйста, из переводимого документа.