Historic Warwick Blog: Living History: Two Man Saw Activity at the Farmers Market, July 15, 9AM -2PM

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Living History: Two Man Saw Activity at the Farmers Market, July 15, 9AM -2PM

Two Man Saws

The two-man saw is not that remote from our lives; there were still many in use as late as the early 1960s when the gasoline powered chainsaw all but supplanted it for the purpose of sawing down and cutting up trees. Even as the chainsaw became an option, the two man saw continued to serve as either a cheaper or lighter piece of equipment to carry into the woods for felling trees and processing them. Chainsaws were often large and heavy in the beginning, so they were often relegated to commercial use in while the humble farmer continued to use the two man saw and bow saw.

saw vise

The two-man saw usually had composite handles that would tighten with a clockwise turn. The examples will will be using at the Farmers' Market have handles made of metal and wood. There is an eyelet that the blade fits through; the handle tightens snugly against the blade when tightened.

Two man saw blades had a number of configurations. Particular blade sets were intended for either soft woods or hardwoods. We have a selection of seasoned walnut, a cherry that was felled a month ago, and some freshly cut ash logs 5-inches in diameter for our demonstration ( Complements of New York Heartwoods of Warwick, NY). These different varieties of wood will require different levels of effort to saw.

Set tool

One of the saws we will use, depicted above, has oblong narrow teeth that have never been offset. To maintain the other saw a special tool, a set tool, was used to bend teeth so that the bite of the saw could be widened. One tooth would be bent while the next was bent out and so on. The saw was held, or clamped in place, for the purpose of maintenance by a saw vise that was mounted to a bench.

These saws have been cleaned of surface rust and oiled; this was always a part of the maintenance routine. A flat file was employed to maintain the saw teeth edges; the file was run down each tooth in one direction. The whole set of teeth would have to be periodically “tuned up’, or sharpened, with the file.

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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.