Sawing with a crosscut: a lost art?

[BRCCArborist]

I was cleaning out one of the barns over at the farm yesterday, and I found my grandfather's old crosscut saw up against a wall. I want to clean it up and hang it up in the new shop. The old barn doors are made out of yellow pine that he sawed up himself. That was in the late 50's early 60's so I'm sure he had a chainsaw by then but still. Makes you appreciate the stuff we got now.

 

[yotehowler]

I just returned from an elk hunting trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness in western Montana. No machinery of any sort is allowed anywhere in that one-million plus acre preserve. I watched the outfitter and the guides and wranglers using a 6' crosscut clearing downed logs from the trails, etc. in the several days before the hunting season opened. (I didn't volunteer to help, but I have one that I inherited in my barn - never used by me.)

I spent a summer working for an outfitter in the Bob Marshal. We cut all the firewood with a crosscut, it was a hard work but honestly I was surprised at how well it worked. The outfitter kept the saws sharp, and we could make a lot of firewood in a day.

 

[Rookie1]

Looks like where they got the saying" That thing takes six men and a boy t use" Cool pic.

 

[Justsaws]

Finding someone who can sharpen a misery whip is what is hard to do.

Finding a misery whip owner willing to pay enough to have their saw sharpened is the real trick. Just like hedge trimmers and reel mowers it can and is done often but hardly ever at the price the customer wants.

I do not miss hand saws and I was pretty sure when I was using them that I would not. Cross cut bow saw is the only saw I ever cut myself with and it happened so fast I felt the dripping not the cut.