WOW....these guys had a lot of work in the day

[Winchester356]

You didn't see any fat guys in that video.

It would be kind of hard to maintain weight doing work like that.

I doubt you would want to unknowingly start a fight with any of them as well if you ran into them in a bar.

They burned a lot of calories and didnt eat fast food, tater chips or candy bars.

 

[spacemule]

That is a piece of steel cable wrapped with manilla cord.

Well, that makes it less scary. ;-)

 

[pioneerguy600]

Well, that makes it less scary. ;-)

I know its not that much safer, just wanted everyone to know it was just not a rope. That topper knew his axe better than most that worked the woods, one of my close relatives was a real axe man and my dad was no slouch with an axe either. When the first chainsaws came out both of them raced against chainsaws and could cut off a tree faster with their double bitters but the saw could just keep on cutting away for hours on end and the choppers would tire after a tree or two chopping at full tilt.The saws won out. I picked up the axe and from watching Roscoe and dad chop all those years til I was old enough to give it a try I at least had a clue to how it was done. I often to this day grab my double Blenkhorn Chief and drop a 36 incher off the stump, just for old times sake. At 60 years of age I am a little rusty but I bet I can still make good headway wielding an axe, just not as fast as I was in my forties.

Now do you really think that topper was scared up there, ...no not at all, he knew exactly what he was doing and only something going absolutely wrong against all that he knew would have injured or killed him. That tree was out in the open, no others for it to tangle up in and cause it to jump back off the stump, he would know the wind direction that day and work with it, he would know the loading of limbs on the canopy or top, he would have studied that and the lean from the ground before climbing up and take all those things into consideration before placing his face cut. Notice how he just stuck his axe and did not try scrambling off down the tree, he knew just where that tree top was headed. You did not get to be a topper for long if you did not know what you were doing. An accident could and did happen occasionally but these guys tried their best to keep on living and working, shure their job was dangerous but it was just the way of making a living back then and only the smartest, toughest and luckiest made it.

 

[SS396driver]

They burned a lot of calories and didnt eat fast food, tater chips or candy bars.

Really? McDonalds was founded in 1940 in San Bernardino as BBQ stand and later turned to burgers in 48. Fast food as we know it today wasn't readily available but the food wasn't all that good for you back then either. My wifes grandparents fried everything in either lard or bacon fat as did mine . No candy bars ? Everyone had Hershey candy bars and sugary sodas and such.

They did burn the calories like you say but they didn't have a great diet either.

 

[jrider]

From watching Modern Marvels on logging, I learned a lot about the loggers themselves back then. Most guys were very unassuming in size, 5-7 and maybe 145 pounds but would eat around 10,000 calories a day because of the intense work. Logging camps were hardly desirable places and the term skid row actually came from the run down homes/tents in the camps.

 

[slowp]

I believe Skid Row originated in Seattle. They had a skid trail or road down to the docks. The skids were greased so there was less friction dragging logs on them. Then the shanties and tents rose up and they became known as skid row.

Another gruesome story. I had to ask him to tone it down as I turned pale during his telling of the details. A young hooktender lost fingers and parts of fingers a few years ago. He was up on the tower (the metal spar on the yarder) feeding moving lines through the blocks. He looked down and saw his crew doing something unsafe, and while he was yelling at them, his fingers got sucked into the block. He will repeat, "I only took my eyes off the block for a second."

The loader was working on another landing and they needed it to get him down. He was standing on the carriage, and they couldn't lower that in a gentle way. He had to stand up there, hand caught for 45 minutes.
The loader arrived, and they got him down.

He took a month off, then went back to work against his doctor's orders. He said he just couldn't stand sitting around at home. The hand now bothers in the cold. He is in his 30s now and still working as a hooktender.

Here he is, cutting down a tree to use as a tailhold.

View attachment 226971

 

[logger 12345]

ohh boy,that story sent the shivers down my spine slowp,those poor workers did have it hard!
in any case and any era it's always good to have a job too though, +'s & -'s in any job

 

[logger 12345]

They burned a lot of calories and didnt eat fast food, tater chips or candy bars.

i think some hadn't the money to eat enough at the time....the world was a differnt place that time and timber jobs like
those weren't so high paying....

 

[cheeves]

We could never do this today.

Too many regulations, EPA, OSHA,Enviromentalists, the list goes on and on.
Where would you find the workers, laborers, they're all on their i phones or
playing video games....

It's enough to make you sick. We were once a powerful country. Look at us now.....

Those workers would throw up if they could see this country now !:msp_thumbdn:

You got it Kap!!

 

[logger 12345]

i felt this thread was deservant of a 'bump'
it still amazes me how these lumber men used to work,just unreal....

the videos are just brilliant and shows amazing footage of the giants.
i myself would love to see them in person.... :msp_wink:

 

[Uncle John]

:msp_thumbsup:

 

[slowp]

Those of you who live in good places can always volunteer to do trail work in the wilderness. No motorized equipment is allowed in officially designated wilderness on our National Forests. You'll have to do some training, and work with more experienced folks but you too, can work with axes and misery whips clearing trails. Everything has to be done by people or animal power.

I'm terrible. During my little time on the end of a crosscut, all I can think of is how I'd have it cut by now if I was running The Barbie Saw.

Here's a couple of guys working on opening up the Pacific Crest Trail. It is an area that used to be called Mosquito Basin--for good reason and is now the William O. Douglas Wilderness.

View attachment 265949

 

[wilsonishere]

My wife is getting a copy of this the next time I hear her complain about doing the landry!!!!!

Better off? That's easy to say now. I believe I'd be dead from ear infections, there were no antibiotics. Polio? And so on. Take doing laundry. Just one simple task today. This was sent to me the other day.

"Warshing Clothes Recipe" -- imagine having a recipe for this ! ! !
Years ago an Alabama grandmother gave the new bride the following recipe:
this is an exact copy as written and found in an old scrapbook -
with spelling errors and all.
WARSHING CLOTHES
Build fire in backyard to heat kettle of rain water. Set tubs so smoke wont blow in eyes if wind is pert. Shave one hole cake of lie soap in boilin water.
Sort things, make 3 piles
1 pile white,
1 pile colored,
1 pile work britches and rags.
To make starch, stir flour in cool water to smooth, then thin down with boiling water.
Take white things, rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, and boil, then rub colored don't boil just wrench and starch.
Take things out of kettle with broom stick handle, then wrench, and starch.
Hang old rags on fence.
Spread tea towels on grass.
Pore wrench water in flower bed. Scrub porch with hot soapy water.
Turn tubs upside down.
Go put on clean dress, smooth hair with hair combs.. Brew cup of tea, sit and rock a spell and count your blessings.
================================================
Paste this over your washer and dryer Next time when you think things are bleak, read it again, kiss that washing machine and dryer, and give thanks.. First thing each morning you should run and hug your washer and dryer, also your toilet---those two-holers used to get mighty cold!
For you non-southerners - wrench means, rinse
AND WE THINK WE HAVE IT ROUGH!

I like living in the present times. You can always go live off the grid and do things the old way. Me, I'll take the now.

 

[AT sawyer]

Those old saws are addictive. The more I use a crosscut for trail work, the less inclined I am to carry a chainsaw, whether I'm in a wilderness area or not. Having a sharp saw makes all the difference.

 

[zogger]

My wife is getting a copy of this the next time I hear her complain about doing the landry!!!!!

I lived totally off grid old style for many years. Home made candles for light, the whole nine yards. The number one modern convenience is hands down clean running water from a tap. That makes everything else so much easier, starting with freeing up your time to do all the other stuff. Get your water in buckets from a dug well or spring, etc, then boil it is the option open, which means carrying that to where you need it. Being able to just twist a tap open, man! I'd take that over electricity, easy descision, too.

Hand cutting and just using an axe, etc, doesn't take too long at all to get pretty good at it. Once you develop the specific muscles and have that "muscle memory" thing going, it's doable. You certainly learn how important sharp is over dull, you really feel it more hand sawing. It's really not all that bad getting up personal firewood for heating and cooking.

You also learn not to waste wood. This is a pet peeve of mine now..... Chainsawing it is really really easy to start wasting wood and to consider perfectly good wood "slash" only suitable for piling it up and burning it in a bonfire, or just leaving it there in a heap. Cutting by hand, and doing all your heating/cooking/water heating with wood, you don't waste nuthin'. Not a stick, down to pencil size. Bust up a few handfulls of that size wood, that'll cook your breakast. All That smaller stuff is what you cook with, and you don't need to split smalls if you already have the small size sticks right there off the tree. Can't tell ya how many discarded "slash" piles I have seen that could easily be a family's entire heating and cooking fuel supply for a year.



I honestly can't even remember the last when I "split kindling", not for myself anyway. done it working for firewood sellers when they had an order for cookwood, that's it,and people won't buy small rounds for some reason, even though it works.. But for myself, no. I'll split big rounds for firewood heating chunks, but no need to split for "kindling". I don't recall doing that. Just grab the smaller stuff, it comes ..err..pre split! It's already kindling sized for starting a fire, getting it going again fast over some coals, or for cooking.

Learned that cutting by hand and dragging all the wood out by hand. You *work* for every larger round, and every tree felled, so you don't add on and do double the work for small pieces when you can just look down and around and see you are surrounded by branches.

 

[Woodcutteranon]

Those men should be wearing hard hats in case one of those redwoods were to drop on their heads.

 

[ford832]

No video is capable of capturing all the glory and hardships endured back in those times. I grew up in rural NS and all the men worked at hard physical labor type jobs, there was no Welfare back then so you worked wether hurt or not, just bandaged yourself and kept on plugging away unless totally disabled. A broken bone or deep cut was hardly noticed, scalds from steam, fingers, toes lost and the like were not enough reason to stop working. Colds , flue and sickness were just part of a way of life, no sick days off back then. Most had to work til they dropped or died, just the way it was and I experienced and seen it all myself. Glory days,...hardly.

Do you remember the poor house in Digby?Times have certainly changed.

In my Grandfather's day,they limbed with a double bitted axe(one side sharp,one dull for splitting)As described by him,they wore soft shoes for grip and feel and "backed" up the tree swinging the axe left,then right,then left-you get the idea.
One day my Grandfathers brother mis hit and buried the axe between his big toe and next one and split it halfway up his foot.
Maybe not a big deal these days but back then when a Doc was hours away or more by horse and buggy,injuries could be pretty desperate.He survived but apparently,it was close.That type of thing wasn't unusual.