Continuing with the series on pit sawing; this is my translation of André Roubo’s description of the process from L’Art du menuisier (1769-82). Roubo offers us a unique view of pit sawing not yet covered in the other passages, that is, the pit sawing of seasoned wood into dimensions more suitable for joiners work, which differs from the process of converting green timber into salable lumber.
The long sawyers were used by the joiners as a kind of jobbing sub-contractor. It was not uncommon to have a shop owner buy thousands of feet of seasoned wood from a timber merchant and then pay the long sawyers to rip and resaw the wood to set dimensions, rather than pay skilled joiners to do the same, when the specialists would produce better results in the same time, and the joiners could be more profitably used elsewhere.
Like my previous translations, this is not polished work, though I have endeavored to make the passages easy to understand. Many of the sentences are left in their original format, and can be understood even though they read awkwardly, whereas others have been rewritten to better communicate their meaning in English. If you want a better translation, you will have to wait for the professionals.
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