Thanks Jim for sharing, and a look back in time, I could follow you through each step, those old stories are sure wonderful reminders of the days gone by
Large pines like the ones you are referring to usually required a soft landing to keep them from damage, we would clear a felling spot and leave the brush to cushion the fall, I expect you did the same thing
I expect there are some that wonder how they handled these large logs without hydraulics, well the old timers were pretty well versed in this category, around here the logs would be skidded to a loading area, and then rolled up on the sleighs one at a time, using long chains and one horse as motive power, it worked really well, and one could build up really large loads quickly, and I might add cheaply--most everything we did cost very little.
Maybe you had some other loading techniques that you might share
The double bitted axe you referred to was also used by my father, he kept one bit thinner and sharper for chopping, and one for brushing and using where there might be stones hiding in the snow
Thanks again for coming on board keep you stories coming
In the spring of 1945 (before the snow went) I went with my father and my uncle to the local saw mill as they drew the logs there to be sawn, the saw mill was powered by a steam engine, which ran on slab wood from the logs, I can remember going in the engine house to get warm, and listen and watch the steam engine driving the large circular saw, what great power.
As I grew older I realized how important it was for the circular blade to be held at a constant speed to keep it from wandering in the cut, the blades were hammered to cut straight at a certain RPM.
Steam engines are like diesel motors, they are driven by a sliding valve that admitted steam at each end of the power stroke I helped install a 45 hp steam engine at UCV that can drive the Grist mill there, taking over from the 45 hp water turbine for part of the time to conserve water.
The steam engine worked with 125 lbs of live steam it certainly was not a toy, and could be quite dangerous. We found that out in 1987 about 3 years after the Grist mill was opened, a very large thunder storm knocked out the water main to the whole village, and in turn it stopped our ability to feed water into the boiler as it worked, if the water level had dropped too much it could have blown with disasterous effects.
It was from this scare that we installed a back up 200 gal water tank that would feed water to the injection pump by gravity, this would give us enough time to pull the fire and lower the heat to the boiler.
Steam power is wonderful -powerful- and quiet no sound That also goes for the water turbine--powerful and quiet also.
