The aim of this study was to understand how cutting orientation in poplar wood biomass size reduction affects enzymatic hydrolysis sugar yield of wood particles. A metal cutting (milling) machine was used to produce poplar wood particles from three cutting orientations. Results showed that cutting orientation significantly affected enzymatic hydrolysis sugar yield of wood particles. In this study, size reduction from the optimum cutting orientation produced 50% more sugars than the other two cutting orientations. Particles from the cutting orientation with the highest sugar yield had a large enzyme accessible area (125 mg orange dye/g biomass, as evaluated by Simons' stain procedure) and low crystallinity (50% crystallinity index, as calculated by the Segal method). Furthermore, small particle size did not necessarily lead to improvement in enzymatic digestibility. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.