Saw Mill of 1727

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Hi Creekers,

a few days ago I had the chance to visit a historically saw mill of 1727 in Reutlingen, a town near Stuttgart. Pedder and I got the invention from a fellow woodworker, Timo, who works from time to time in the mill. Sadly Pedder had to cancel the visit one day before because of some health issues.

The history of this mill is interesting. In 1727 there was a big fire disaster in Reutlingen, that destroyed about 75% of the buildings there. The inhabitants were smart enough to decide to build a saw mill in the center of the town since they needed to have a lot of wood to build new houses. The mill was built within 4 months. It's water driven by a quick flowing creek named "Echaz".

Here a pic of the mill... yes, it's in the center of a 70,000 inhabitants town.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jb9QD0SvYkc/TohPkMFuJaI/AAAAAAAABkk/JiNWN0q9ayQ/s1600/P1030191.jpg

A pic of the undershot water wheel.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ws4qdEzcnqE/TohLwyO9JEI/AAAAAAAABhE/Fm7LwVVQGos/s1600/P1030138.jpg

Inside you'll find a saw of 1727, in the foreground you can see the proud owner and current caretaker Karl.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qNdU4t05oh0/TohLxcGx6DI/AAAAAAAABhc/w0ap8tAoo4E/s1600/P1030147.jpg

As you probably will see, the frame of the historical saw is impacted by fire. In 1978 there was an malicious arson, which destroyed much of the historical substance. The shown saw survived it however. The building itself and the 2nd saw were destroyed and had to be refurbished.

Here a pic of the 2nd saw, which is of the 1950's.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3aqZPNDJ9B8/TohN-UwU6EI/AAAAAAAABjs/ZXda7mm2SPk/s1600/P1030173.jpg

When we were there, a larch log was resawn on the old saw http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowcool.gif

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EER7LNWspNA/TohMDhrc1sI/AAAAAAAABhs/qRKmLsJfPSY/s1600/P1030149.jpg

The adjusting of the board width

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-52y9vaScLdM/TohMD445ciI/AAAAAAAABh0/L0rRS8zflCE/s1600/P1030151.jpg

Here a pic showing from the left Gerd Fritsche, the plane maker, Timo and Michael, a relative of Karl.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SncwU2aa1O0/TohNJyrFevI/AAAAAAAABjc/YU26BeHJ0wc/s1600/P1030171.jpg

Timo takes away the freshly resawn board which is sawn very accurately by the nearly 300 years old machine.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2zqALxs7ce4/TohN-cgrC0I/AAAAAAAABjk/S2o0UZqXYCE/s1600/P1030172.jpg

Then we watched the basement of the mill with the power transmission as it was built in 1727.

Karl standing on saw dust.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zS-Hp103Lsk/TohMbYWazCI/AAAAAAAABiU/rS__56rDbCY/s1600/P1030158.jpg

Here some pics of the power transmission. The big wheel in the background has the same axis as the water wheel. The transmission is done with wide leather belts.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GdxRuKdAzWs/TohMbZMdYvI/AAAAAAAABic/ywAbQaj6PBI/s1600/P1030160.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LRgyYWbKcYI/TohMbj31ASI/AAAAAAAABik/xOVRmUIQ6wI/s1600/P1030161.jpg

There's a sharpening room. Here a pic of the sharpening machine.



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UIN4dpbOJWQ/TohN-3FfPxI/AAAAAAAABkE/ISC6h0eDSgY/s1600/P1030183.jpg

And the setting machine.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KbYYnUexgwY/TohN-hBdT9I/AAAAAAAABj0/_xsqIcCl09I/s1600/P1030179.jpg

Karl took much time not only to show us the mill but to tell us the historical background and many interesting aspects concerning the mill's history and technique. His grandfather purchased the mill in the 1920's. It has been used commercially until 1984. Now Karl gives some interested woodworkers a chance to resaw their logs in a truly historical surrounding at a little charge. At last a pic showing from the right Gerd, Michael, Karl, Timo and me.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5-JJOcRDbCo/TohPjqIFENI/AAAAAAAABkU/SI8xjucC-co/s1600/P1030186.jpg

I hope you enjoyed the pics. Thanks for looking.

Klaus

[Maurice Ungaro]

Klaus, thank you for the wonderful pictorial! What a treasure that mill is.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Thanks for posting the tour Klaus. What amazes me is the size of the cast iron gears from that time. That was incredibly serious work given the state of machine tools in that day and age. I would bet that much of the work was done with files and metal scrapers. I'm always glad to see that sometimes people have the foresight to preserve rather than destroy and "modernize".

[Jeff Wittrock]

Really fun to read Klaus. Thanks for posting.
Just curious... at about what rate would that Larch log you show be cut?

-Jeff

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Wow, that is very cool. Thanks for sharing. I love seeing old machinery like that.

Googled Gerd Fritsche, he has some very nice stuff too!

[Allan Ferguson]

Thanks for the photo tour. Really enjoyed.

[Rich Greinert]

Thank you for posting this. It is a great tour and fascinating technology.

[Peter Pedisich]

Thanks very much Klaus! What a wonderful thing to see this preserved and shared.
-Pete

[Tony Zaffuto]

Many thanks Klaus! Very interesting to see the mill, particularly some of those details as the power transmission & sharpening that many times are ignored by typical photographers!

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Thank you all for your feedback. I've forwarded it to Timo who will show it to the proud owner.

Due to my poor memory I've made a big mistake which has to be corrected. The owner's name is Kurt, not Karl as I wrote http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif Sometimes I think I should take care not to forget my own name ... Sorry, Kurt!

Klaus

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Really fun to read Klaus. Thanks for posting.
Just curious... at about what rate would that Larch log you show be cut?

-Jeff

Jeff, I'm not sure if I understand you the right way. If your question is concerning the charge one has to pay the answer is that the mill isn't used commercially any longer. The owner allows some woodworker friends he knows the resawing for free. Others who might come the first time have to give a little charge just to cover the cost he has to keep the mill running. A little log like the shown larch one will be resawn at about 30 EUR what's about $40.

Maybe you're asking the speed of the old saw. It is cutting rather slow but very straight. The water driven power feed can be adjusted on it's speed. When the larch log was sawn, it was adjusted quite slow. So the resawing of one larch board took about half an hour. In former times the people seem to have had more time.

The other saw is a multi blade saw that allows to cut one log in up to 17 boards in one run. That takes also about 1/2 hour.

Cheers
Klaus

[Jim Paulson]

Thanks Klaus. Pretty cool pictures and awesome machinery. What a treat to see it. The sharpening equipment using belt driven technology is interesting as well.

Jim

[Pedro Reyes]

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed it a lot.


/p

[george wilson]

Actually,people had much LESS time in the 18th.C.. They worked much longer hours,6 days a week. Sundays were spent in church. Their technology wasn't as fast as ours,and the wood no doubt cost much more proportionately than it does now.

Even as far back as the 1300's,if I recall correctly,they had multiple gang saws in Switzerland,similar to the mill you have shown. Saw maintenance must have been terrible since they had only poor metals for saws back then. In England,progress was slowed down greatly,because the workers would riot and burn new innovations that they perceived would take their work away.

[Andrae Covington]

Many thanks Klaus! Very interesting to see the mill, particularly some of those details as the power transmission & sharpening that many times are ignored by typical photographers!

I second that. I always enjoy seeing photos of these old mills, but usually a lot is left to the imagination.

[Jeff Wittrock]

Maybe you're asking the speed of the old saw. ...
Klaus


Thanks Klaus

Yes, sorry for not being clear. I was curious about how fast it would cut. I'm sure it depends on the state of the creek as well and much water is available.


-Jeff

[David Weaver]

There are a few videos on youtube of these mills in active service.

Here's one. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbEXfwW0PNo)

I always thought they were interesting, and probably a lot easier to power than a circular mill, and therefore suitable for a lot more places with less flow.

[David Weaver]

Well, and actually invented by 1727 as the one discussed here was.

George, they didn't have circular mills with tensioned blades back then, did they?