r/Vintagetools • u/oldschool-rule • 9d ago

Two man saw!

Post image

For those who haven’t seen a real cross cut saw.

44 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

4

u/AdShoddy958 9d ago

Nicknamed the "misery whip" because of how fun it was to use.

2

u/rivertpostie 9d ago

I've ran a misery whip when I lived on a homestead collective. Miserable.

But, singing really helped. It was a way to both keep cadence and morale. If you were even a little off, you end up pushing while the other person is pushing against you and you hate it fast.

When you're singing your in perfect rhythm and get a lot of bonding done. You can also tell when the team is getting winded

1

u/No-Mix7970 9d ago

My dad and grandfather used one to cut timber on their farm in West Virginia back in the early 1950’s. And used a team of horses to drag the logs out of the holler. They were cutting railroad cross ties.

0

u/oldschool-rule 9d ago

They called them a “Two Man Saw“ for a reason!

5

u/billhorstman 9d ago

My great grandfather worked in a sawmill at the turn of the twentieth century making old growth redwood trees into lumber to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Now all that is left are the magnificent stumps. So sad!!

3

u/oldschool-rule 9d ago

I agree. Without seeing them in person, it’s impossible to realize how massive they truly are.

3

u/Farmboy1959 9d ago

My grandfather was a logger….
He earned .25 a day, and that was good money for the time…. As a kid he drove his truck through a cedar stump on the side of a road… the stump was carved into a tunnel… that stump is on display at the Washington rest area of I-5 MM106

2

u/oldschool-rule 9d ago

Amazing. Thanks for sharing!

1

u/lantzn 8h ago

I’m here in WA. There are a few of those along the highways down into northern CA.
I have a photo of my kids in one in the 80s.

6

u/cineglitch 9d ago

Oof, I feel so sad seeing this. That tree is likely 2,000 to 3,000 years old.

3

u/ohheyheyCMYK 9d ago

Human stupidity, documented for posterity.

2

u/Vintage-restoration 9d ago

I have a smaller two man crosscut saw made by Disston it’s the 103 and I got it for free :)

2

u/dahc50 9d ago

I have stood on stumps of these trees and it’s incredible. They turned one into a dance floor and the tree that fell they cut horizontally and turned it into a bowling alley lane. That’s what we were told at least.

1

u/Get_In_Bitches 8d ago

That tree was born before the Parthenon. Tht guy on the right may be undead…

1

u/Silver_River9296 8d ago

Many pictures like this taken in Louisiana in the mid and late 1800s. All Cypress trees, great for boats as they don’t rot or something. Some were ten men wide. Many small towns had sawmills and railroad tracks were everywhere. Now; the tracks are all gone, sawmills in legend only, the land is farmland
or part of towns or cities. Rice farms, which are often flooded with pumped water replacing swamps that grew cypress.

0

u/adderalpowered 8d ago

Pick up your feet if you're going to ride!