In the days before chainsaws...

[tonelover]

Maybe you guys have seen these before, but I think they make pretty much all of us look like lightweights.

 

[Ralphie Boy]

Ain't too many left like that.... trees, saws, men, women

 

[schlot]

Seen them but still amazing.

 

[willyswagon]

There are stories of the original Acadians settling PEI(1740's), where it took a full year for a father and his 4 sons to process 7 trees in order to be able to seed an area out. All the while his wife and daughters gathered berries, hunted small animals, and fished to feed the family.
What a miserable existance!

 

[Woody Stover]

Pretty sure that tree would be a lifetime supply of wood for me.
What's going on in that second pic? Did it hang up, or did it take so long to fall that they had time to hop up on the stump and pose for a picture?

 

[NH_Wood]

Absolutely amazing! Cheers!

 

[Paulywalnut]

Its pine though! Good shoulder wood.. for a lifetime lol.

 

[Mr A]

Its pine though! Good shoulder wood.. for a lifetime lol.

Probably Sequoia(Giant Redwood), I've never seen a pine that big.

 

[Paulywalnut]

Probably Sequoia(Giant Redwood), I've never seen a pine that big.

Yea I always thought it was in the pine family.

 

[Mr A]

Wikipedia says they are related to cypress, which I don't know if related to pine. Probably not, these trees are very unique. They are huge! You can drive through them!
http://redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=2464
A lot of old buildings in California are built from these trees. The wood is rot and decay resistant.
In Yosemite, Wawona tree was 26 ft in diameter! http://www.nps.gov/seki/faqtunnel.htm
I bet that tree could provide enough lumber to build a whole house, with plenty left over to keep it warm. here is is a link to more awesome pics- http://www.logcabindirectory.com/blog/before-chainsaws-logging-industry The logging industry no longer cuts these old growth trees, I doubt there is any machinery that can do it. They did it because they could, and wanted to prove it. What a sin to cut a tree that sprouted before Christ. In California, Redwood is very available. It just took over 100 years to figure out it grows fast enough to harvest lumber every 20 years. General Sherman Tree, in Sequoia National Park is is thought to be over 2200 years old.
They got it down, but how did they mill it?

 

[BobUrban]

Woddy Stover - isn't it obvious!! OSHA and the wood cutters union required them to take a 15minute break after every 2hrs work. They are just taking their morning break after cutting the notch. They will finish the back cut before lunch.

I love these old pics of logging and hunting camps. When traveling in northeren Michigan and the UP the dinners always have really cool "old time" photos on the walls. Good stuff here - if others have pics like this please share!!

 

[Jags]

Hmmm...still trying to figure out the logic of such a large notch. There HAS to be a reason, or they would not spend the time to do it...but I can't figure it out.

Cool pics.

Edit: I think I got it. The notch is basically the same height as the first cut is long. This will allow the tree to hit flat, versus a barber chair bounce that could break the tree up. That is my bet anyhow.

 

[AJS56]

Maybe you guys have seen these before, but I think they make pretty much all of us look like lightweights.

I had not seen these, but they are amazing indeed. The "good old days" when men were men...

 

[AJS56]

This will allow the tree to hit flat, versus a barber chair bounce that could break the tree up. That is my bet anyhow.​

That seems right to me also Jags. Can you imagine this thing barberchairing? It could wipe out a small village!

 

[Jags]

That seems right to me also Jags. Can you imagine this thing barberchairing? It could wipe out a small village!

The amount of energy that thing would have would probably register on seismographs for miles around.

 

[Paulywalnut]

How many redwood Adirondack chairs could you make from that giant?

 

[BEConklin]

Even if I were able - I don't know if I could bring myself to kill a tree that old.

 

[Shane N]

It is amazing how little decay is in those trunks. I know redwoods don't rot easily, but it still seems really impressive that it is essentially solid throughout.

 

[Gasifier]

Too bad so many were cut. If you ever get a chance, watch the series National Parks, America's Best Idea. They show how money can drive us to do things we should not necessarily do. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Some is necessary, but in many areas if people had not stopped it, some people would have cut down every last tree. And then said, "Oh, aaaa, maybe we should not have done that." In many areas they did just that.

 

[BEConklin]

Too bad so many were cut. If you ever get a chance, watch the series National Parks, America's Best Idea. They show how money can drive us to do things we should not necessarily do. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Some is necessary, but in many areas if people had not stopped it, some people would have cut down every last tree. And then said, "Oh, aaaa, maybe we should not have done that." In many areas they did just that.

Yeah - I'm thinking a redwood that big probably took thousands of years to grow.

 

[xman23]

When I was a kid (not to long ago) dad had a few of those 2 man saws. We didn't have a chain saw. He took down and bucked up a few 2 ft trees. I was on the other side. Amazing how fast you could cut thru a log. Just a huge workout. In those pictures there must be some power device pulling the saw thru trees like that.

 

[ScotO]

(broken image removed)

Imagine this skid of logs going DOWNHILL.....wouldn't be much left of 'dem horses, eh?

back when the men were men, no doubt about it......
Note the horses on TOP of the log in the last picture......

 

[Thistle]

I still have two 6ft 2-man,two 4ft 2 man,two 3 ft 1 man & one 4ft 1 man (that one is 1930's NOS Disston with original factory grind from rural old hardware store in upper NYS).I used the shorter ones once in a while when in early-mid 20's,along with 5lb Plumb double bit axe to drop several trees.Those days are over,I'm not near that ambitious anymore....

If you're looking for more vintage PNW logging photos- Ralph Andrews published a series of 5 books from 1954 to 1963 with text & hundreds of B & W pics taken from the 1880's to the early 1930's of the region,including Northern California.

They are all still being printed today,I have all 5 with 3 of them being first editions.Easy to find,Amazon & others routinely have them in stock.
http://www.amazon.com/Timber-Toil-T...&qid=1359571855&sr=1-4&keywords=ralph+andrews Here's 1 of them.

 

[WoodpileOCD]

Nothing remotely resembling this but I spent many, many hours on one end of a two man crosscut saw when I was young. My dad supplemented our heat with wood and some coal and I, being the eldest, was his primary helper. Crosscut saws, sledges, wedges and mauls. That's what we had.

SOB bought a chainsaw AFTER I moved out.

Looking back though, I wouldn't trade all the time we spent together and the work ethic he gave me for anything in the world.

 

[billb3]

Brother and I cut firewood with a two man saw on a saw horse when we were kids.
Chopped down cedar trees for a fence by hand, too. Walked 'em home on our shoulders.