New find Old Saw 4' maybe a bit more

[Bob10]

the guy that had it before was 95 and not available for information.  I bet this might this is younger than him by a few years

Edit looks to be 1940-1947 era  I had hoped for older and now have a better idea of what to look for



This next pic isn't great I will need to take some more so I can blow up the image and hopefully read what is there
Philadelphia is pretty clear

[Bill_Houghton]

From the handle and the size you cite, sounds like a timber saw?

[bandit571]

Does it look like this one ( that I used to have..)
 
[attachment=12528]

[Bob10]

Does it look like this one ( that I used to have..)
 

Just like it.  What happened to yours?

[TraditionalToolworks]

Yep, it's a crosscut saw for timber. Those are a one person crosscut saw, opposed to a two person with handles on each end.

Very convenient for breaking down a log, IMO, if you don't have a chainsaw. This is how it was done before power.

Go crosscut a 36" log and you'll have a much better appreciation for dimensioning timber by hand.
  And the crosscut is the easy one, think about using a pit saw to rip timber? You would crosscut into sections but still, 12' lengths of timber are not so each to rip through and you need 2 people, one on top and one on the bottom...

Alan

[Bill_Houghton]

And the one on the bottom will be covered in sawdust.  The pit man had a special hat with a big brim to keep the sawdust off.

[TraditionalToolworks]

And the one on the bottom will be covered in sawdust.  The pit man had a special hat with a big brim to keep the sawdust off.

Bill,

And of course he would have been sweating like a pig so the sawdust would stick to your arms, so you would opt to wear a shirt and sweat even more...and you get down with a 12' or <gasp> 20' log and you've got one board. You only comfortably get about 1/3rd quality material, possibly a bit more, but there's a LOT of waste...

Even using a sawmill, it's a lot of work to lift, move and turn the logs for each cut.

Sometimes we come on these hand tool forums and some guy is proudly beating his chest about how they ONLY use hand tools...and then the next words out of their mouth is, "I start out with this beautiful quarter sawn piece of curly maple that was processed for me, and then...". And I know, I like working wood by hand as much as the next guy, but we all need to realize that in our modern society there is a limit to what can be done by hand, unless it's making a chair from a tree. Sure, anyone can only use hand tools if the project is small enough, but it takes quite a bit of wood to create something like a bedroom set. Food for thought...

And for those who have never driving through the redwoods, California is one of the only places they exist...these are just the babies along the road...think about even processing one of these puppies without having to get it out of the woods to begin with! Even if you have one sitting on the highway, completely limb'd and debarked...think about processing some boards for a project.

[attachment=12529]

This is a wordy way of saying...it takes a lot of work to get from here:

[attachment=12530]

To this point:

[attachment=12531]

Just sayin'...
 

Alan

[Bob10]

Bill,

And of course he would have been sweating like a pig so the sawdust would stick to your arms, so you would opt to wear a shirt and sweat even more...and you get down with a 12' or <gasp> 20' log and you've got one board. You only comfortably get about 1/3rd quality material, possibly a bit more, but there's a LOT of waste...

Even using a sawmill, it's a lot of work to lift, move and turn the logs for each cut.

Sometimes we come on these hand tool forums and some guy is proudly beating his chest about how they ONLY use hand tools...and then the next words out of their mouth is, "I start out with this beautiful quarter sawn piece of curly maple that was processed for me, and then...". And I know, I like working wood by hand as much as the next guy, but we all need to realize that in our modern society there is a limit to what can be done by hand, unless it's making a chair from a tree. Sure, anyone can only use hand tools if the project is small enough, but it takes quite a bit of wood to create something like a bedroom set. Food for thought...

And for those who have never driving through the redwoods, California is one of the only places they exist...these are just the babies along the road...think about even processing one of these puppies without having to get it out of the woods to begin with! Even if you have one sitting on the highway, completely limb'd and debarked...think about processing some boards for a project.



This is a wordy way of saying...it takes a lot of work to get from here:



To this point:



Just sayin'...
 

Alan

In the late 1800's possibly early 1900's there was a company that rented out a round cut from one of those trees as a dance floor.  It traveled by train, the town I live in has a record of it being in the park across from my house with pictures.  I think they fit just over 30 people dancing on it

[EatenByLimestone]

I'd rive out whatever I could if I had to process everything.

Waddle and daub, shingle sided houses... heck, plaster and lathe covers a lot of apologies!

[TraditionalToolworks]

In the late 1800's possibly early 1900's there was a company that rented out a round cut from one of those trees as a dance floor.  It traveled by train, the town I live in has a record of it being in the park across from my house with pictures.  I think they fit just over 30 people dancing on it

I would say easy to find a bigger one. There are a few "One Log Homes" long highway 1 up around the Richardson Grove in southern Humbolt...where they just cut the inside out for a home. There are 2 or 3 trees that had opening cut large enough to drive a car through. The one in Yosemite (Wawona Grove) fell down years ago, but I got to drive through it as a kid.

I'd rive out whatever I could if I had to process everything.

Waddle and daub, shingle sided houses... heck, plaster and lathe covers a lot of apologies!

Indeed, even use it for a structure, build a barn, shop, shed, workshop, etc...you certainly could rive all of it for your work, once you can get it into a size that you could rive...and therein is where we need to have appreciation for our forefathers. When you need to process everything you use and manage the process from tree to product, you will grow a huge appreciation for what had to be done in a previous lifetime. I would only do that if I didn't have ways to process the materials with power. While I enjoy doing it, I know how much work is involved to take a tree and turn it into a cabinet, or a toolbox, or even a bench. Having that appreciation doesn't make me a better person than the next guy, but I would use a bandmill, tablesaw, bandsaw, jointer, planer to get me that S4S I would prefer to work with, but I could do as you suggest and in fact have done and I do appreciate building with timber in all forms.

Once I got that S4S I would work much of it by hand. I would still get my cut list ready with power tools most likely, then complete and assemble it by hand. All of us are different.

Alan