Abstract: An edging system for sawing cants into boards includes a contour line scanner for profiling the cant and determining the combination of board widths of a specified grade which will yield the greatest economic return based on current prices. A pair of fan-like lasers positioned along a conveyor project coplanar lines of light onto the side faces of the cant to form contour lines characterizing the widthwise position and shape of the side faces. An X-Y axis TV camera is positioned above the cant for raster scanning the cant widthwise (X-axis) at close lengthwise (Y-axis) intervals along the cant to detect the contour line. The camera output signal is digitized and input to a microcomputer programed to convert the signal to pairs of digital numbers corresponding to the contour line positions at each interval. Two parallel sawlines are fit between the contour lines, one sawline touching one contour line and the second sawline touching or near the second contour line.