Mary Jane, I had never given it a thought that buzz saws were not common knowledge. Of course, now I realize that many younger people never saw one. you said, they were sort of a big table saw made for sawing , primarily, limb wood. Usually it worked best if you had gathered up a big pile of limbs and then got together a crew of three or more men to buzz it up in a short time. One man would do the sawing, that is roll the table with the limb/limbs into the blade letting the short length fall to the ground. In avoiding that, one man would take hold of the cut pieces and throw them away ten or fifteen feet away from the saw, creating a big pile that didn't interfere with more sawing. As the sawyer moved the limbs forward several other men would be carrying more limbs, as many as could be handled readily, put them on the table to keep the sawyer busy with a continuous flow of wood to saw. A whole winter's supply of wood could be cut in one day. One farmer usually owned the saw and neighbors would all come to help when they had accumulated their own buzz piles, then switch around from farm to farm. I will have more to say about my personal experience with them in a later note. Chas

We didn't have a buzz saw. Ours was a "cross cut" saw! Gosh I feel old. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Page" <[email protected]> To: "Mary Jane Clark" <[email protected]> Cc: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 2:09 PM Subject: [NYMADISO] Buzz saws > Mary Jane, > I had never given it a thought that buzz saws were not common knowledge. > Of course, now I realize that many younger people never saw one. > you said, they were sort of a big table saw made for sawing , > primarily, limb wood. Usually it worked best if you had gathered up a big > pile of limbs and then got together a crew of three or more men to buzz it > up in a short time. One man would do the sawing, that is roll the table > with the limb/limbs into the blade letting the short length fall to the > ground. In avoiding that, one man would take hold of the cut pieces and > throw them away ten or fifteen feet away from the saw, creating a big pile > that didn't interfere with more sawing. As the sawyer moved the limbs > forward several other men would be carrying more limbs, as many as could > be handled readily, put them on the table to keep the sawyer busy with a > continuous flow of wood to saw. A whole winter's supply of wood could be > cut in one day. One farmer usually owned the saw and neighbors would all > come to help when they had accumulated their own buzz piles, then switch > around from farm to farm. > I will have more to say about my personal experience with them in a > later note. Chas > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

At 02:09 PM 4/21/2008, you wrote: >Mary Jane, > I had never given it a thought that buzz saws were not common > knowledge. Of course, now I realize that many younger people never saw one. > you said, they were sort of a big table saw made for sawing , > primarily, limb wood. Usually it worked best if you had gathered up > a big pile of limbs and then got together a crew of three or more > men to buzz it up in a short time. One man would do the sawing, > that is roll the table with the limb/limbs into the blade letting > the short length fall to the ground. In avoiding that, one man > would take hold of the cut pieces and throw them away ten or > fifteen feet away from the saw, creating a big pile that didn't > interfere with more sawing. As the sawyer moved the limbs forward > several other men would be carrying more limbs, as many as could be > handled readily, put them on the table to keep the sawyer busy with > a continuous flow of wood to saw. A whole winter's supply of wood > could be cut in one day. One farmer usually owned the saw and > neighbors would all come to help when they had accumulated their > own buzz piles, then switch around from farm to farm. > I will have more to say about my personal experience with them > in a later note. Chas Chas, Your note reminded me of two things - - first the big circular 4 foot diameter saw blade in my back yard. I believe it was from my grandfather's saw mill. There were old tracks with what one would think was a carriage of some sort that logs would sit on as they were wheeled up to the saw. I don't believe any of the track survived except for a 4 foot rail, which is heavy with a capital H. There are some of the old wheels / axles in the woods across from my parents house but way too heavy without a tractor to move. - secondly, things that youngins would not know about, including my spell checker and that was be - a run of buhrs. Tim