Old saw mill

JOB

Member
I was at a museum last week and this saw mill and a couple of others were there. One mill was closed for the area was under construction. This mill was the oldest.
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Must not have had a lot of steel back then, lot of stuff made out of wood.

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The power unit was not shown so I assume this mill was water powered before it was moved to the museum in maybe 1929. And never ran since.

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Nice old mill, Don't see that type using a rip
blade. Much older then the round blade type. Good
thing our fore fathers and mother could come up with
ways to make life better for them and us. Smart
bunch for sure. Thanks for sharing the pictures!
 

I believe that's called a "sash saw" because the blade is held in a frame that goes up and down like a window sash. One step up from a pit saw!
 
the sash gang saw had 3 or more blades that did the sawing. Required more water power than the single saw. The early models were the "Up today and down tomorrow" mills that made 2 strokes per minute.
 
My grandfather told me about 2 brothers in our area(Middle Tn.) that had a sawmill similar to that. It was so slow that they sawed in shifts to accomplish much. They claimed you could sit on the log being sawed and have time to eat your dinner. One cold night the brother doing the night shift wore a long overcoat. It was his habit to sit on the log being sawed. Dont ask me why but he did. On this particular night he fell asleep while sitting on the log! He was awakened by his coat being pulled. The combination of the log and the ovedcoat actually stopped the saw. He wasnt harmed but I always thought he was much more careful in the future. I was always thankful that my grandfather shared many of his early 1900s logging memories with me.
 

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