The Evolution of Modern Band Saw Mills for Sawing Logs
It is not the purpose to begin this narrative with a history of the crude methods employed by our ancestors to obtain lumber for building purposes; it is enough to know that they were able to obtain the necessary material with which to provide homes for themselves, as well as establishments in which to carry on business, to say nothing of schools and houses of worship; and some lumber for these purposes they certainly did have, and it was not cut by anything like a modern saw mill, either.
It is sufficient to state that we have advanced from the early Hand Whip Saw to machines in order about as follows: The Sash Saw, the Mulay Saw, the Round or Live Gang, the Slabbing Gang and its partner the Flat or Stock Gang; then the Circular or Rotary Mill, and lastly the Band Saw Mill, and one generation of men, some of whom are now alive, has seen all of these machines at regular work in saw mills sawing logs.
In passing it may be of interest to state that the old Sash Saw was usually run by undershot water wheels, and a man would start a cut in the morning and then, go to plowing out in his field. By noon, that cut being finished, he would set over the log for another board, go home to dinner, after which he would resume his plowing, and by evening the second cut would be completed; so that by close attention to business a man could get two boards a day.
A sawyer on one of these mills once told the writer that he could sit on a log that was being sawed and go to sleep. When the log had moved up far enough the saw would scratch him when it came down and he then had plenty of time when the saw went up to wake up and get off the log before the saw came down again. But since then times have changed and we have progressed far away from the Stub Shot to the Circular Mill and to the Band Mill for sawing logs, the Stock Gang being still in use in some instances for sawing cants prepared by both of them.
The use of the Band Mill in place of Circulars and Gangs became very desirable for two important reasons; one of them was that the saw kerf of a band saw is so much less than that of a circular saw that the saving in sawdust yielded a greater quantity of lumber from the logs, thus accomplishing a clear saving of valuable material. The other reason was that while Gangs made perfectly sawed lumber, they produced a great deal of cullen stock from rough or unsound logs, for as the saws are hung in the sash so must the lumber come out, and there is no way of varying the thicknesses to accommodate the quality of the stock. While a Band Mill will not cut so much lumber in a day as a Gang, it is a machine with which a log can be sawed to the best advantage, and that with a saw as thin as a gang saw. So that if the lumber coming from a Gang and often rated as cull, could have been sawed into piece or thick stuff, it would make it valuable and marketable.
This made the Band Mill attractive, and lumbermen began to take an interest in it and to investigate the operations of those known to exist. The result of their inspections, however, was far from being satisfactory, because none of them were doing good work or anywhere near enough of it, and with exceedingly few exceptions the mill men rejected them and regarded them as an impracticable machine for sawing logs, and few dealers would buy lumber that was cut with a band saw.
Mr. L. L. Hotchkiss who operated a mill in West Bay City, Mich., and was very desirous of saving as much of his logs as he could, told the writer that the men to whom he sold his lumber had refused to buy any of it if he cut it with a Band Mill.
A prominent lumberman of Minneapolis also told the writer that he would not take a Band Mill as a gift and be obliged to put it in and use it. And that was the prevailing view among mill men of the northwest generally in 1886.