Lost Art Press

Sawing Lumber in Europe

Posted on by fitz
scieurs_long_17th_century_anonymous
Sketch of two sawyers – 17th century – artist unknown
Besançon; Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology

This entry is a continuation of the previous series on sawing lumber. (See also China, India, Japan) These images from Italy, Spain & France depict a once common method of sawing timber that was inherited from the ancient Romans. These images span the years 1180 A.D.- 1829 A.D. The final image shows the Roman version of this technique.
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The Wierix Square, or ‘Die Fledermaus’

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wierix1_IMG_8746

One of the variants on the Melencolia I square has its blade stretched out in width until it looks almost like a bat’s wing.

This square shows up in the late 16th-century Wierix plates shown from my first entry on this topic. A nearly identical square shows up in the title page to the book “The Childhood of Jesus,” by Hieronymous Wierix. (By the way, that plate is a treasure trove of rabbit holes for investigation.)

wierix_title_page

The Wierix square looks a lot like a modern SpeedSquare, with a wide and triangular blade and a small stock. The curves on the blade have a gothic look to them.

wierix_detailWhile it is easy to start thinking of uses for these curves, I think they primarily serve two purposes:

1. To make it efficient to cut two blades from one rectangular blank. After cutting out about a dozen of these early-style blades this week, I’m struck by how often the waste can be used to make an identical blade. This, I think, is more important than the decorative shapes on the blades.

2. The decoration exposes more end grain along the length of the blade, making the tool more responsive to changes in humidity.

These squares are even easier to make than the Melencolia I square. The stock in this example is 3/4” thick, 1-3/4” wide and about 12” long. The blade is 1/4” thick, 12” wide and about 20” long.

The stock of these squares isn’t always moulded – sometimes it’s just a rectangular stick. I planed two moulded edges on mine using a 1/2” square ovolo plane. Then I plowed a 1/4”-wide x 1/2”-deep groove along one edge.

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The shape of the blade was the most difficult part. I mucked around in SketchUp for a while, but then found the correct arches by drawing them out on paper with a set of French curves. A saw and a rasp finished the blades.

Then I glued up the two parts, trued up the blade and added a coat of finish.

These are handy for layout because the blade rests on the work and won’t let the stock totter. This makes it easy to mark square lines across a board. As a result of the large blade, however, these squares are no good for checking an assembly for square on the outside of the assembly.

But for two scraps of wood, they are pretty handy.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Sawing Lumber in Japan

Posted on by fitz
in_the_mountains_of_totomi
‘In the Totomi Mountains’ by Katsushika Hokusai (1830-1833)
From the series – Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji

I gave a series of experiments one day in my lecture-room before the governors of the province and a large number of people who came in from mere curiosity. I wanted to show the officials my model saw-mill, having a small circular saw run by a diminutive steam-engine.

I told them it was a pity to see dozens of men and boys with long hand-saws sweltering and working the whole day in sawing boards from a single log, as I had seen them do in building my house, when a modern saw-mill could perform ten times the amount of work in half the time.

They watched my little machine as it cut rapidly through small sticks of wood, and then said it was very wonderful; but, if they were to establish such a saw-mill in Shidzuoka, it would be mobbed or raise a riot among the workmen.

Edward Warren Clark
Life and Adventure in Japan – 1878
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Sawing Lumber in India

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Image from ‘Ackerbau der Morgenländer’ (Agriculture of the Orientals) – 1772

“ The Indian carpenter knows no other tools than the plane, chisel, wimble, a hammer, and a kind of hatchet. The earth serves him for a shop-board, and his foot for a hold-fast; but he is a month in performing what one workman will do in three days.”

“ The sawyer places his wood between two joists fixed in the ground ; and, sitting carefully on a little bench, employs three days, with one saw, to make a plank which would cost our people an hour’s work.”

Robert Mudie
The Picture of India: Geographical, Historical & Descriptive, Volume 2 – 1830
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Sawing Lumber in China

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china_sawing

In China, the sawyer’s, the carpenter’s, the joiner’s, and the sashmaker’s trade are all exercised by the same person. There are no saw-mills, planing machines, or sash factories, and in sauntering about the streets of the cities, at the door of a shop, or new building, may be seen one or two men sawing boards from the logs, and inside other workmen manufacturing them into the different forms for constructing or finishing a house.
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