Swedish logging ca 1915

Steve Tall said:
That's a whole lotta logs being moved with only one horsepower.
Click to expand...

That was a lot!! Kinda hard to tell in the video, but they looked like draft horses. Horses are unbelievably strong in general. Draft horses are almost unearthly. I've heard that a draft horse is stronger than 10 men, but I suspect that is well understated. If you've ever been to a draft horse pull, it's uncanny. Watching the work men load and unload sand bags or concrete blocks one by one is hilarious. It makes you feel like a miniature, weak little bug.

Note: There are tons of breeds of "draft horses" some are much bigger than others.

Square_peg said:
Holy crap! That first fall looked suicidal!
Click to expand...

Yeah! Anyone know why he took the three stripes out of the bark on that first tree?
 
M3mphis said:
How would that work? What am I missing? Release tension from the back side?
Click to expand...

Could be he was checking to make sure he didn't have a rot-spot on that side of the tree. Any flaw in that area could have brought that thing right down on top of him. If it were just tension release then there'd be no reason to strip the bark. Simply severing it would have done.
 
Square_peg said:
Could be he was checking to make sure he didn't have a rot-spot on that side of the tree. Any flaw in that area could have brought that thing right down on top of him. If it were just tension release then there'd be no reason to strip the bark. Simply severing it would have done.
Click to expand...

That's a good thought. Didn't think of that one.
 
M3mphis said:
That was a lot!! Kinda hard to tell in the video, but they looked like draft horses. Horses are unbelievably strong in general. Draft horses are almost unearthly. I've heard that a draft horse is stronger than 10 men, but I suspect that is well understated. If you've ever been to a draft horse pull, it's uncanny. Watching the work men load and unload sand bags or concrete blocks one by one is hilarious. It makes you feel like a miniature, weak little bug.

Note: There are tons of breeds of "draft horses" some are much bigger than others.



Yeah! Anyone know why he took the three stripes out of the bark on that first tree?
Click to expand...

Probably his personal mark it so he could get paid for his work as a logger. The amount of logs in that yard and what was brought out would indicate maybe some type of commercial operation as opposed to a family getting fire/construction wood in.--KV
 
Here's a theory to float. Cutting wood was a winter job and they might of grouped up by family and neighbor teams. The three marks are the saw man's crew marks on that tree so later the trim and bucking crew know which tree they need to go work on. If he didn't and there were multiple crews working a forest there could be conflicts for treejacking. The peeler and bucker would chop marks into each sawn log, all the logs together were piled up on the river ice and then the sawmill would sort out whose log was whose after ice out. It makes you wonder what the error rate was and how those conflicts went. You can guess who came out ahead on that. Plus the logs that sank and could still be down there waiting....wood treasure!!
 
Square_peg said:
Could be he was checking to make sure he didn't have a rot-spot on that side of the tree. Any flaw in that area could have brought that thing right down on top of him. If it were just tension release then there'd be no reason to strip the bark. Simply severing it would have done.
Click to expand...

After thinking over it a bit more, it seems like that checking for rot would not have made any difference as that was the same side he had already cut with his saw.

kvaughn said:
Probably his personal mark it so he could get paid for his work as a logger. The amount of logs in that yard and what was brought out would indicate maybe some type of commercial operation as opposed to a family getting fire/construction wood in.--KV
Click to expand...

That would make sense, however, it looked like they did a lot of peeling at the time of limbing and bucking. It does make sense, though.
 
They could be 3 points of reference so as not to saw off kilter. its easy to lose track of that.
 
What a great video. My great-grandfather homesteaded 160 acres in the U.P. Michigan in the 1890's. The family had to clear areas of timber for the cabin and later for pastures and for crop areas. I can only imagine him logging and clear cutting that way. The cabin burned in a forest fire started by lighting in 1905. They lost almost everything. The 160 acres is still in the family. I have a front wooded 40 of it. We have a nice camp set up there.

Tom
 
great video. thanks for posting. I feel weak and slow when I watch stuff like that!
 
M3mphis said:
... Horses are unbelievably strong in general. Draft horses are almost unearthly. I've heard that a draft horse is stronger than 10 men, but I suspect that is well understated. ...
Click to expand...

Well a draft horse may be ten plus times stronger than me, but I'm at least twice as smart. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top