Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions working the wood?

Hi everyone tonight:

That picture that you posted is a sight for sore eyes.

By all means that is a purebred Canadian horse I am quite familiar with then at UCV. They helped erect quite a few of our timber frames by way of a gin pole apparatus.

In the picture that is a horse powered drag saw, the canadian horse walks in circles and through a gearing ring on the sweep power it creates shaft rotating motion that is also geared to the drag saw which in turn has gearing and a fly wheel, that pulls a large stiff saw blade back and forth across the surface of large logs to cut off blocks of wood for in most cases to be split up for the cook stove.

The large blade has teeth very much like its smaller cousin the two man cross cut saw with rakers at set spacings to rake out the saw dust. The man operating the drag saw can when the cut is finished advance the log ahead for the next cut.

The sweep power can be used for many purposes other than the one shown in the photo, we also ran a shingle mill but needed three or preferrably 4 horses to produce enough steady power to work with. You could also fasten teams of horses instead of singles which in turn would up the power dramatically say if you needed the power for operating a threshing machine, although the two horse tread mill was a better and faster means to produce fast rotating power for that particular purpose.

once again thanks for posting that picture it sure brings back old memories, and I hope the explanation is enjoyed by all.

Just before I leave this thread, off to right of the picture stands a three bay barn which you cannot see, it was visited by a good group from the TTRAG a few years back when they held their easern conference in Morrisburg.

I was delighted to have been asked by the TFG mangement team and chosen to lead the group for a complete tour of the UCV historic site at that outing, we had a great time!!.

NH