Making the Cut

Making the Cut. . Every farming community had a sawmill. The mill provided rough-sawn wood for construction, off-site employment, and extra cash brought to the farm by selling timber to the mill., 1. Felling and delivering the log , Trees are dropped by axe and crosscut saw from nearby woods. Logs are dragged to the mil by mules, oxen, and log carts. The logging large tracts of land and narrow gauge tracks were built to run small logging trams pulled by diesel or steam engines if rivers were near. Logging rafts were built to float many logs to the mill at one time., 2. Power: Steam vs. Diesel , Steam power gave sawmills versatility by operating away from running water. Many sawmills preferred steam power to internal combustion engines because slats made cheap fuel. This mill is powered by a diesel engine., 3. Rolling into position , Once the log is prepped, it must be rolled up to the carriage. It takes two men using cant hooks to maneuver it into place., 4. Lock Down , The sawyer locks the log into place using the dogs. The log must be locked down while the belt is moving., 5. Setting the board size , The set works calibrate the board thickness by setting the distance from the saw to the desired depth into the log., 6. Sawing , The diesel engine spins the main saw shaft, as well as the gears and belts that move the carriage back and forth between cuts on the track., 7. Off-bearing and stacking , With each pass of the log through he saw takes off a size slab. First, the backs, or barked slabs, come off each side, leaving a four-sided beam. Next, the logger saws off each board, turning the cant, or milled log, as it is sawed down. An off-bearer stacks the boards to be dried. Boards are stacked in a wagon and moved to building sites for homes, barns, corn cribs, school houses, churches, outhouses, and the like.