Sawmill training
Sawmill training is a members-only feature available to train woodcutting. It requires at least 80 Woodcutting to use, and boosts are not allowed. Sawmill training was released with the Woodcutting rebalance on the 23 September 2009, along with the new vegetation Ivy, Special mahogany log and Special teak log features. The area for this type of training is located south of the Sawmill.
It provides easy and relatively fast experience (up to 90k experience per hour at level 95+), but no material rewards such as logs, or planks, which is what the player makes.
Getting started
Getting there
- Using the Balloon transport system puts the player just south of the Sawmill.
- Walk from Varrock.
- Use your Digsite Pendant, and walk northwest.
- Take a gnome glider to the glider near the digsite and walk northwest.
- Use the Earth altar teleport from the Great Orb Project and walk northeast
- Use the Wicked hood to teleport to Earth altar
- Use a Lumber yard teleport scroll
- Walk
- NOTE: The un-official world for Sawmill is world 119.
Getting a Job
At the sawmill, the player has to enter in the door on the far right of the Sawmill operator and they will find themselves in a small room. Talk to the Overseer nearby and offer to help. The player will then be told to take one of the jobs. Inside the play area, there is a notice sheet of jobs to the left of the door (it may be hard to see at first).
When looked at, the player can choose between two jobs, a quick job, or a large job. The bulk of experience comes at the completion of the job. The amount of experience gained at the end of a job increases with each level gained.
- Quick jobs are faster, but give relatively less experience.
- Large jobs, however, are slower, but give much more experience.
The amount of planks needed is shown in a small box at the top left corner of the screen when selecting a job and after choosing one.
Doing the job
First off, the player needs to take logs from the stack of logs from the west of the job area, and place them into the conveyor belt hopper, where each log is turned into two planks. A maximum of 63 logs can be placed in the hopper at any one time, meaning that the plank tray can hold up to 126 planks at once. A full inventory can be withdrawn with one click (but takes a little time). A large task requires a minimum of 115 planks - with spoilage 126 planks are unlikely to be enough.
At the workbenches, cut the planks into the desired types of planks to fulfill your order. Note that making some plank types may be failed. The harder ones have the higher chance of failing. Your cut planks will be teleported to the cart, so your inventory is empty to cut more.
Finishing your job
Right click on the Overseer and select Finish job. Confirm that you want all your planks to be sent (you can take excess ones out of the cart next to the overseer, but it is not recommended - see Maximizing Experience below). You will earn a bonus 8,580 exp after successfully completing a large task, while quick tasks reward 4,395 exp. After the Overseer thanks you, you can select a new job and work on it.
Rewards
The rewards are purely Woodcutting Experience. None of the logs or planks can be taken out of the playing area. If a player attempts to, Jill will stop the player trying to leave, saying that they cannot leave with the sawmill wood in their inventory. The player is then asked to confirm leaving and losing all the planks in the inventory. If the player teleports out, she will confiscate them without a warning. If a random event happens you can not bank them because "A Magical spell won't let you bank this item". Progress such as planks in the plank tray, or planks already cut into specific types and put into the cart, are not lost.
Planks
There are 6 different types of planks you can make. You can, on three occasions, make two cuts out of one plank. They have different difficulty levels and different fail notices. The number of cuts of each plank varies with each task, but will always be in multiples of 5.
Short plank
- Difficulty - Simple
- Notes - A very easy cut to perform. Alongside it, a Long Cut is also performed. On average, a player (Woodcutting Level varying from 80-99) can make from 20-26 cuts successfully out of 27. Making this will yield one Short cut, and one Long cut per plank, unless it is ruined.
Fail notice - "You accidentally ruin one side of the plank" (If a Long cut has been successfully made) OR "You accidentally ruin the plank (If no cuts are successfully performed)
- Amount needed - 10-65. Always the same as the amount of Long cuts needed.
Long plank
- Difficulty - Simple
- Notes - A very easy cut to perform. Alongside it, a Short cut is also performed. On average, a player (Woodcutting Level varying from 80-99) can make from 20-26 cuts successfully out of 27. Making this will yield one Short cut, and one Long cut per plank, unless it is ruined.
- Fail notice - "You accidentally ruin one side of the plank" (If a Short cut has been successfully made) OR "You accidentally ruin the plank (If no cuts are successfully performed)
- Amount needed - 10-65. Always the same as the amount of Short cuts needed.
Diagonal-cut plank
- Difficulty - Medium
- Notes - A very quick cut to perform. On average, a player (Woodcutting level varying from 80-99) can make from 48-55 cuts successfully out of 27 planks, because two Diagonal cuts are made out of one plank.
- Fail notice - "You accidentally ruin one side of the plank" (Only one cut will be made for the ruined plank) OR "You accidentally ruin the plank (If no cuts are successfully performed)
- Amount needed - 10-80.
Tooth plank
- Difficulty - Very Hard
- Notes - The hardest cut to perform. Alongside it, a Groove cut is also performed, but a groove plank has a better success chance - so the amount of Groove planks wanted will be 5 or 10 more than the amount of Tooth planks needed. On average, a player (Woodcutting Level varying from 80-99) can make from 18-22 cuts successfully out of 27. Making this will yield one Tooth cut, and one Groove cut per plank.
- Fail notice - "You accidentally ruin one side of the plank" (If a Groove Cut has been successfully made) OR "You accidentally ruin the plank (If no cuts are successfully performed)
- Amount needed - 10-55. Almost always 5, 10, 15 or 20 less than the amount of Groove planks needed. Rarely equal.
Groove plank
- Difficulty - Very Hard
- Notes - A very hard cut to perform. Alongside it, a Tooth cut is also performed, but its success rate is lower, so there will usually be 5 or 10 more Groove cuts needed then Tooth cuts. On average, a player (Woodcutting Level varying from 80-99) can make from 19-23 cuts successfully out of 27. Making this will yield one Tooth cut, and one Groove cut per plank.
- Fail notice - "You accidentally ruin one side of the plank" (If a Tooth cut has been successfully made) OR "You accidentally ruin the plank (If no cuts are successfully performed)
- Amount needed - 10-60. Almost always 5, 10, 15 or 20 more than the amount of Tooth planks needed. Rarely equal.
Curved plank
- Difficulty - Hard
- Notes - A quite hard cut to perform. On average, a player (Woodcutting Level varying from 80-99) can make from 17-24 cuts successfully out of 27. Making this will yield one Curve cut per plank.
- Fail notice - "You accidentally ruin the plank (If no cut is successfully performed)
- Amount needed - 10-60.
Woodcutting experience
| Cut | Plank Types Produced | Difficulty | Experience gained (Saw) | Experience gained (Crystal saw) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Straight cut | 1x Short plank 1x Long plank | Simple | 15 | 30-31 |
| Diagonal cut | 2x Diagonal-cut plank | Medium | 18 | 36 |
| Tooth & groove cut | 1x Tooth-cut plank 1x Groove-cut plank | Very hard | 25 | 51-52 |
| Curve cut | 1x Curved plank | Hard | 22 | 45.1 |
Note: You will gain no experience if you fail cutting any part of the plank.
Maximizing Experience
The following tips help to maximize experience rate:
Crystal saw
The Crystal Saw is earned after The Eyes of Glouphrie quest. A Crystal saw will double the experience gained from making the types of planks, and not use up its charges. Therefore the Crystal saw and the completion of the Eyes of Glouphrie quest is highly recommended.
The experience rate of Sawmill Training with a Crystal saw is close to chopping Ivy with a Sacred Clay Hatchet at level 70 Woodcutting. However, a Crystal saw will remain permanent while a Sacred Clay hatchet will expire over time. On the other hand, chopping Ivy with a Sacred Clay Hatchet or even a Dragon Hatchet may give faster experience at higher Woodcutting levels (near level 90).
If you do a "Large Task" the crystal saw will end up giving you close to 12k exp every time you finish.
The Cart
The cart has a maximum capacity of 63 of any type of plank apart from diagonal cut planks, of which it can hold 127.
The Cart is the transport which takes away the planks you cut for your job. It is situated next to the Overseer. Before you can finish your job, you have the chance to take away all the planks you additionally made. For example: If a Diagonal Plank amount was 73/60, you could take 13 Diagonal planks away to get the minimum requirement, and you can then use those 13 Diagonal planks for the next job.
Exceeding your jobs need
If you make too much of one kind of plank (overfilling the cart) then your inventory will start filling up with them instead. This can be time wasting as you have to dispose of the extra planks in your inventory (dropping, placing them in the cart for the next job or leaving and re-entering) to carry on. Keep an eye on the amount of planks you have done before cutting more. Note no extra XP is awarded for sending the cart off over full.
Generally it is best to use the last inventory load of planks on curved planks, to empty your inventory. Then
- Inspect the cart, withdrawing surplus curved, toothed and diagonal planks, and if you have room a handful of short, long or grooved planks.
- Finish, click yes then,
- Take a large job
- Inspect the cart and replace all the planks from your inventory
- Grab an inventory full of logs and start the next cycle.
Workbenches
When you take your planks to cut at a workbench, right click on the cut you want to do and right click on it, and select "cut all." However, if you are very near your amount requirement (23/25) then it is best to select "cut 5" or "cut 10" instead, and watch over what you do to avoid filling up your inventory with unwanted planks (see above.) Take exceptional care on Diagonal Cuts.
Brawling Gloves
.png)
Woodcutting brawling gloves are obtained as a very rare drop from Revenants. These gloves will increase experience for making planks and, unlike the Crystal Saw, will also increase the experience bonus for finishing a job. Because brawling gloves have a limited number of uses, it is highly recommended that a player only wears the brawling gloves when turning in the job.
Wearing brawling gloves multiplies any woodcutting experience gained from sawmill tasks and job completion by 1.5.
Tips
- Number of plank types that need to be made, and the number already made can be seen by looking in the top-left corner of the screen.
- Completed orders can then by given to Jill by right-clicking on her and selecting 'Finish job'.
- There are no penalties for having excess planks of one type in the cart. It is optional to withdraw them and use them for the next order.
- Using the Crystal saw in this activity does not use any "charges". For the increased experience, it is worth completing the The Eyes of Glouphrie quest (the requirements are 46 Magic, 5 Construction, and completion of The Grand Tree) to obtain this item.
- Lumberjack clothing does increase your experience you gain from cutting planks but does not increase the experience reward for completing a job.
- It is best to fill the conveyer belt to its Maximum capacity to make it easier to do jobs.
- Clan rings will grant bonus experience at the sawmill for both making planks and finishing a job.
Trivia
- When the player stops cutting planks or runs out of planks to cut, their character "breaks" the plank they're cutting in two and discards both the parts.
- You are not allowed to bring Gnomeballs into the sawmill, trying results in a humorous conversation.
- If a player has a bad connection and the game crashes, sometimes the player will be transported to the entrance of the sawmill with all the planks or wood in his/her inventory confiscated. Sometimes a bad connection can also allow the player to teleport out and still keep his/her planks.
- There is a glitch when a player cuts multiple planks at a time the plank does not align with the vise. This is yet to be fixed.
- When a player first loads the coveyor belt hopper- after logging in- a single log can be seen going into the hopper. The same log will produce two planks which can be seen dropping into the plank storage bin. After this first log the player will load logs which cannot be seen nor will the planks be seen to drop into the bin even though they are stored . Logging out and in again will reveal the single visible log and planks again.
- If you use the Home teleport while having planks in your inventory sometimes you keep the planks but you are unable to bank them.
- Sometimes after leaving the Sawmill the job list will still be there, there is no known way to fix this other than logging out then back in.