How to Get Sawn Logs in Skyrim?

If you’ve started building your homestead, you’ll be needing more sawn logs. They are a vital resource that is used exclusively for building purposes. While the game generously gives you 60 sawn logs to get you started, you’ll know that it is not enough to furnish your manor fully.

Furthermore, sawn logs are not a physical resource that you can loot from your enemies’ corpses or gather from the wilderness. You can only get the sawn logs from the sawmill.

In the mill, You can either buy the logs from the mill owners or convince them to cut the timber yourself for free. We’ll explain the detail below:

Buy the Logs From a Mill

The easiest way to get sawn logs is by purchasing them directly from the Mill owners. Every 20 sawn logs will cost you 200 gold coins.

You can find mill owners working on their respective mills during the day. There‘s a total of 8 working mills in Skyrim, but for convenience, we chose the mill in Riverwood.

Fast travel to Riverwood.
Head inside the gate and take a left.
Talk to Hod and choose ‘I’d like to buy some lumber.’
You can buy 20 logs with gold coins from him.

Cut the Lumber Yourself

While buying sawn logs from the mill owner sure is convenient, it can progressively add up, costing you thousands of gold coins in the long run.

A better alternative to getting sawn log is cutting the timber yourself. Head to a mill and talk with the owner about letting you saw logs yourself. They will be reluctant at first.

But with a bit of running around completing wood-chopping mini-games or side-quests for the mill owners, you can get their permission and get sawn logs completely free.

However, there is one exception mill near Morthal. To access this mill, you’ll need to complete the ‘Laid to Rest’ questline.

For now, head to Riverwood mill and talk with Hod again.

Choose ‘Can I Just cut the lumber myself?’. He will deny giving you access to the mill.
Head to the back of the mill.
Grab the Woodcuter’s axe.
Chop some Firewood on the Wood Chopping block.
Talk with Hod again and sell the firewood that you’ve just chopped.
Speak with him again about letting you cut the lumber yourself. This time, he’ll comply.
Interact with the lumber pile.
Pull the lever beside the lumber pile. You’ll get ten sawn logs after the log sawing animation.

Note: If you put the lumber through the sawing machine without completing the side quest for the mill owners, you won’t get any sawn logs.

Order Your Steward

After building a basic manor, you can assign your followers to become a steward for your homestead and you can order your steward to get building materials for you.

Talk to your steward and choose, ‘I’d like you to buy me some building materials for me.’
Pick the lumbar. It will cost you 200 gold, adding 20 sawn logs to the log pile beside your homestead.

Use the Console Command

PC players can use the console command tool to add the sawn logs to their log pile directly.

Press the tilde key ~ on the keyboard.
Type in player.additem 0300300E XX, put the number of sawn logs you need instead of XX.
Press the Enter key and exit the console command.

Where Are My Sawn Logs?

Although you have collected the sawn logs by buying or sawing them yourself, you might’ve noticed that they do not show up in your inventory.

This is because the game adds the sawn logs directly to your homestead. You can check the number of sawn logs from the log pile next to your homestead.