Size reduction is one of the major pre-processing operations in using biomass as a source of energy or raw materials for forest products industry. The grinding characteristics of dried yellow poplar wood chips were investigated using laboratory knife mill with three different screen aperture diameters to provide the basic information for the optimizing of size reduction processes in biomass industry. Average specific energy consumptions were 0.157, 0.137, and 0.093 Wh/g for the screen aperture diameters of 5.0, 7.5, and 9.0 mm, respectively. According to the results of size distribution analysis of ground particles, the sizes of the most of ground particles were much smaller than the aperture diameters of the screens installed on knife mill used in this study.