The old sawmill

Close to a century ago, my grandfather built a belt-driven sawmill where the logs and lumber for the cabins were cut.

Dragging the large logs around with horses (later tractors) and chains had to be a chore. I picture the strong men, mostly Finnish, toiling in the woods from sun up to sun down.

Grandpa’s sawmill was powered by a tractor or other combustion engine, which ran the flat belt. It had large circular blades. Operating the sawmill was a two-man job minimum, and worked better with three.

The first cut off any side of the log was called a 'slab'. This was essentially waste.

This sawmill had no powered means of rotating the logs on the carriage. Instead, a canthook had to be used to flip the log by 90 or 180 degrees.

Boards were cut from a log by running it past the blade and back. The log was moved closer to the blade in increments by pushing and pulling the lever attached to the ratchet on the carriage. Lots of sawdust was produced!

The round logs used for cabin construction were hand-hewn with a drawknife like the one pictured.

Back then you used what was available to you to make a living and make a life. The Depression-era slogan comes to mind:

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.

The sawmill was run regularly in the 1930s and 40s. My father continued to use it in the 80s and 90s before disassembling and selling the blades as he neared retirement.

Many large trees have been harvested from the property. Me circa 1978.