The Non-Electric Chair #10: Waiting for Beech To Dry
Leaving the tool chest for a moment; we go back a few years to the Domesday Book and 1086 and an interesting fact – 13 saws were recorded in the kingdom, bowsaws were common at the time so what kind of saws were these? Probably not sawmills; mills are mentioned aplenty and millponds too but they were agricultural mills. These are probably pitsaws, a gruelling job for two men; one of them in the pit and the other steering the two-handed saw and balancing on the level tree-trunk as they reduce the mass of timber to more manageable beams and boards. Royal forests were spread over the whole country and this was where trees were allowed to mature and massive timbers for roofs and nava...
