New England Sawmillers in Scotland - Sawmill Unit No 3 – One of the felling teams
The Images are courtesy of https://www.actonhistoricalsociety.org/ww1-sawmill-unit.html Also check out Records No 4778 – 4789 or under ‘Groups’ the ‘American sawmillers in Scotland 1917’.
This image reveals the quality, quantity and size of the trees on the felling site above the sawmill in Strathcarron, Rosshire. The men have been named from left as Wilfred Biron, W LeDoux and Leo Bosse, the first two with the saw being termed as Choppers and Leo with the axe possibly as the Swamper who sned out the trees and cleared the brash to make a road way for sledging the timber out. These three men would have been one of four or five felling teams for each mill unit. Unusually for extraction by horse the trees appear to have been converted into sawmill lengths in the wood at some point and extracted on small sledges.
The saw looks like a typical American lance tooth with rakers of Disston type manufacture. The axe is perhaps surprisingly like the Scotch wedge axe commonly used all over in Scotland.
The PDF below is a view of a cleared roadway down to the mill through the felled timber.
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Groups: American sawmillers in Scotland 1917, Forestry Areas, Forestry in Action, Groups of people, Tools, equipment and clothing