NEAR 6,000 SEE EXHIBIT ON LOGGING TECHNOLOGY

About 6,000 logging industry members wound their way through piles of sawdust Friday and Saturday as the Show Me Center hosted its fourth Midwest Forest Industry Show.

Even weekend dampness didn't deter most visitors.

Ken Christgen, executive director of the Missouri Forests Production Association, noted the registration desk was busy both days.

Visitors from surrounding states and even other countries came to see 120 exhibitors demonstrate their machinery and services.

The show, sponsored by the Jefferson City-based forestry association, is conducted every two years and has been in Cape Girardeau since 1988.

Murray Kane, a Merritt, British Columbia, resident, was the show's sole foreign exhibitor.

He flew to Missouri with only two boxes for Western Woodlot Equipment Ltd.'s display, set up in the Show Me Center parking lot.

The company produces grinders for band saws and chain saws, and Kane was representing Woodlot for the first time in Cape Girardeau.

A Timberking representative had told him about the show, and Kane wasn't disappointed.

"I am quite sure we will be back," he said, adding that he had ~picked up three or four dealers for the grinders.

That was more than he expected.

"If all the shows I went to were like this," he said, "I wouldn't have to do so many."

Kane added that his trip to Missouri was educational, too.

Here, mostly hardwood is harvested, whereas in Canada, softwood dominates the forestry industry. As a result, blades sold in the northern country are different.

Dan Owens, a sales representative for Wood-mizer Products of Indianapolis has exhibited at the show each time since it opened in Cape Girardeau.

He sells portable band saw mills, and customers who come to him are varied. The two mills used in Saturday's demonstrations were already sold.~

Wood-mizer customers include retirees looking for custom wood cutting work to stay busy, couples who want to build their own homes from the ground up and large mills who use the portable, wood-saving mills for premium lumber like cherry or walnut.

~"At a fair, you get mom, pop and the kids," Owens said. "A logging show will produce the qualified prospects we're looking for."

He explained a trend in the logging industry that makes the market for small, portable mills better.

Small and medium-sized sawmills must get big or get out. If they get out, their small customers are left without a mill.

Big mills won't take small orders. Thus, many purchase their own portable mills or rely on custom cutters to do the work.

Hugh Smalley, a visitor from Bolivar, Tenn., owns a portable mill.

While his main business is private-home inspections, he has a large tree farm on 700 acres in Tennessee.

His family uses the wood for their own homes or sells it to smaller lumber companies.

Smalley drove three hours in the rain for the show but felt it was worthwhile.

"I want to learn more about the products that have come out and changes that relate to the mill," he said.

One new discovery was a device that sets the teeth on band saw blades, once a manual procedure.

If the teeth aren't set at proper angles to each other, blades will break or the lumber will be wavy.

Because of the Show Me Center's layout and good location, future shows likely will be conducted there. The next one is scheduled for 1996.