Firewood 70+ Years Ago

rusty6 · Nov 29, 2022

A photo from the old family album showing a bunch of the neighbours working together cutting firewood. Right around 1950. Not sure what size Farmall is on the saw but guessing maybe an H or A. Just a few years before my time.

warbaby · Nov 29, 2022

If two guys can block all but that low-sitting muffler, its an ''A'', ''BN'', or maybe even a Cub!

Thats a cold day's worth of Poplar...

onefarmer · Nov 29, 2022

Here's a pic of my ancestors doing the same. About three generation before me. Looks like a Fordson but you can correct me if its not.

rusty6 · Nov 29, 2022

(quoted from post at 16:19:14 11/29/22) Here's a pic of my ancestors doing the same. About three generation before me. Looks like a Fordson but you can correct me if its not.

Nice vintage shot. I'm no expert but that tractor does look like one of the early Fordsons.

caterpillar guy · Nov 29, 2022

That bigger stuff in the bottom picture of Onefarmers is pretty slow going on a buzz saw.

Bob N.Y. · Nov 29, 2022

It is a Fordson.

warbaby · Nov 29, 2022

It also looks like theyre saving all the saw dust for the ice house!

cdmn · Nov 29, 2022

My grandfather used poplar firwood for all his heat. He spent many hours splitting it by hand and stacking
it. Then he'd use a small wheelbarrow to carry some to the woodbox in the entry porch. My dad would get a
permit to take firewood off state forest land. He burned poplar in the kitchen stove, but pine in the parlor
stoves. Chimney fires were pretty common until we almost lost the house Replaced the loose brick chimney
with an insulated metal one. He was much too busy to split and pile the wood, and us kids were still too
young, but we did haul some up to the house using our pony and a sled. The bottom photo here appears to have
ash firewood. It looks like they sawed off the trees along a fence line. I wonder how they got up to the top
and cut off that tall one. Why not just drop it complete??

redforlife · Nov 29, 2022

Back in the day, the church burnt wood for
heat. And also in the cookstoves in the
kitchen. They'd usually have a couple of
work days for the men to cut wood for the
church. If somebody skipped out on the work
days, they were kind of expected to donate
a chord of wood to the church in place of
them not helping.

Might of done the same thing for the one
room country grade school. That was before
my day though. They might of burnt coal
there. I don't know. They would of had some
tax dollars to spend there.

sms · Nov 30, 2022

My Dad's sawmill had a cutoff saw with
rolling carriage that also had rollers
for the wood. All slabs and edgings were
cut to firewood length, they dropped down
onto a chain conveyor, then up into the
back of a large dump truck. If you were
taleing, stacking lumber, cutting slabs
ect he would keep you running most of the
day. We found that we could cut slabs
faster by standing them on edge and
flopping them into the saw, then stand
and flop again repeat. Everything in the
mill was run by belts from the UD18 power
unit so power and inertia was not a
concern at the saw.

Two0aks · Nov 30, 2022

You guys have all the fond memories. In N.W. Oregon farm house we only heated with oil. Dad born 1913 and was millwright in logging camp. I don't recall ever using wood heat.
I on the other hand wanted to recapture the machinery effect and have three cordwood saws (not restored) and recently bought a belt pulley for the TO30. One these days might get to work on the dearborn 3Pt saw.
Got some babbit too and would like to learn how to recast cordwood saw bearings.

el6147 · Nov 30, 2022

this photo is an example of change , like in the photo I burn limb wood so much as when I am finished
cutting the remainder can be chopped with the brush chopper . It kills me that today I see most people in
my area cut a tree, use the timber that is really suitable for lumber for fire wood and pile the limb wood
and torch it ?

GordoSD · Nov 30, 2022

Birch and alder? Would these be the post civil war Generation whose parents moved
and were born in the North?

Brian G. NY · Nov 30, 2022

Here's a picture of some local farmers buzzing wood using a "horsepower". This was long before I was born but I do remember Mr. Lott in the picture. His daughter is still alive and about my age.

J.Wondergem · Nov 30, 2022

When I was a kid the school house was heated with coal until it burnt down in 53. We burnt wood though. Many cold days standing out there throwing away off the buzz rig on the front of dads John Deere A. My feet would got cold in Mickie mouse boots.

Two0aks · Dec 1, 2022

(quoted from post at 18:04:09 11/30/22)
When I was a kid the school house was heated with coal until it burnt down in 53. We burnt wood though. Many cold days standing out there throwing away off the buzz rig on the front of dads John Deere A. My feet would got cold in Mickie mouse boots.

Mickey Mouse indeed!

Never heard of them until my service in Korea 1969-70. They didn't offer much protection in the freezing cold.

While they looked like Mickey's feet, hence the name, in my generation the name now means everything that doesn't work properly. And sadly Mickey and his owner are dead to me now.

Texasmark · Dec 2, 2022

Yeah welcome to the Good Old Days..............pffffffffffft. I'll take my present day modern conveniences. I guess in times past a
person didn't know that there was a better way to do what you did. Thank you but no thanks!

On the Horse (Mule) powered saw, how does it work? I see them standing in a tilted trailer but to rotate the blade something needs
to rotate the belt. How does that work as depicted in the picture?

JWinIndiana · Dec 3, 2022

(quoted from post at 09:07:33 12/02/22) Yeah welcome to the Good Old Days..............pffffffffffft. I'll take my present day modern conveniences. I guess in times past a
person didn't know that there was a better way to do what you did. Thank you but no thanks!

On the Horse (Mule) powered saw, how does it work? I see them standing in a tilted trailer but to rotate the blade something needs
to rotate the belt. How does that work as depicted in the picture?

It is a treadmill, the higher you set the incline, the faster they will walk increasing the rpm. They still make and use treadmills, now they convert it into hydraulic power that doesn't rise and fall with the horse's speed.

Texasmark · Dec 5, 2022

Thanks

Brian G. NY · Dec 5, 2022

It is a treadmill, the higher you set the incline, the faster they will walk increasing the rpm. They still make and use treadmills, now they convert it into hydraulic power that doesn't rise and fall with the horse's speed.

They also made smaller versions for goats or dogs. When My Dad was a kid in the early 1900s, they had one they used a dog on to power a cream separator.

Firewood 70+ Years Ago

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads