Historic Warwick Blog

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Living History: Saws and Axes

At the Warwick Historical Society's booth at the Warwick Farmers' Market will be presenting another living history experience to call attention to our ongoing restoration of the Shingle House (1764), the oldest house in the Village of Warwick.

his structure is truly a pioneer structure, as it was constructed when the area that is now the Village was a frontier. A hole was hand dug to create a cellar. Rock were rolled out of that hole and others were added as a small plot was cleared for faming. The fieldstone were hand stacked to form a foundation and a central chimney that exist to this day. Limestone mortar was used to construct the chimney.

After the stone work was completed, or in the process of construction, as the chimney was likely constructed in stages obtaining its eventual height only as wooden frame and flooring were put into place to reach it for that completion. Timbers were hand-hewn. Boards were sawn by dragging them over the cellar hole and pit sawing them.

Before sawmills, there was the land owner with the task of shaping timbers to build house and barns from felled trees to shelter his family, his crop, his livestock, his possessions and himself. The knowledge and skill required to hand hewn a log came by doing. Today, with a mortising axe, adze, and several broad axes, a 14 plus inch in diameter oak log will be shaped into a beam with tenons at both ends.

With a spud, bark will be peeled from the green log. Then glancing strikes with a broad axe will make round square, and a beam will begin to be formed. The log will be rolled and each side shaped accordingly. With this type of work, tools must be sharpened with a stone.

Additionally, a saw buck is being presented with lengths of white ash. The ash will be sawed using a two-man saw. Participation in this activity is encouraged, as success in sawing depends on coordination between sawyers. The saw was hand sharpened with a flat file and whetting stone. Saws were also maintained by a set tool that would serve to offset teeth in order to achieve a bite with each pass.

New York Heartwoods is a specialist in reclaiming and re-purposing dead, dying and diseased local white ash and other local woods. All wood for these presentations is courtesy of New York Heartwoods. http://www.newyorkheartwoods.com

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At our Summer History Camp this year kids will dig up crystals that fluoresce under a special black light. The crystals were actually discovered in the area as early as the 1820s and collectors from all over the United States and Europe came to the specifically places like Amity in the Town of Warwick to find these rare specimens for their museums, universities and their private collections. One of the largest off site exhibitions of these crystals is found in the Ecoles des Mines in Paris; there are over 150 samples of minerals specifically from Amity, NY in that collection which were discovered in large in the 1830s. What is interesting to imagine is that geologist and mineralogists from the greatest institutions of higher learning were traveling by horseback and carriage to the wilds of Warwick in the 1820s and 1830s to find rocks for their cabinets of curiosities.

Wawayanda Furnace ( 19th century ) the furnace that many of us remember seeing on our trips to the New Jersey State Park actually was integral to iron ore production supplied by Warwick mines. On a recent sojourn into the woods we visited some local iron ore mines that would have supplied the mid-nineteenth century Wawayanda Furnace. Of course, these operations were supplanted by the end of the nineteenth century when places with better quality ore that were closer to cheaper forms of transportation, like water and rail shut them down.

Ken Hamilton, "Woodlands Interpreter", will present the early 18th century life of Algonquin-speaking people, like the Minsi people of the Lenape tribe, of what was later named by Benjamin Aske as "Warwick." Here we see a trade camp with historially accurate artifact reproductions produced by Mr. Hamilton by hand; he an accomplished leatherworker, blacksmith and silversmith. As an "historical artifact artist", Mr. Hamilton produces props used in many living history scenarios and museums throughout the country. He will share some of his knowledge with campers at the Summer History Camp 2012. See further details.