In a wood processing plant, planks are typically split into strips and then passed through an automated cross-cutting saw station to remove defects such as knots, cracks or flash. One defect which also occurs is the hit and miss defect caused by a planer and/or a sander. In order to improve the performance of the cross-cutting saw station, color is applied to the wood prior to being planed and sanded. The cross-cutting saw station is then modified to optically inspect the wood for the presence of color, indicating a hit and miss defect, and to remove the portions of the wood containing color.