The Forgotten Way Every Plank Was Made!

This video looks at two methods of turning raw timber into planks, both filmed in rural Poland in the late 1970s. The first follows workers at a small engine-powered sawmill, where logs are hauled in by horse, loaded onto a saw carriage by hand, and cut using a reciprocating blade driven by an internal combustion engine and belt system. There are no measuring instruments or automated controls. Every cut depends entirely on the experience of the men running the mill. The second part documents traditional pit sawing, recorded with Franciszek Tutka in the village of Ciosny near Biłgoraj. He walks through the full process from start to finish: reading the curve of a log, leveling it on trestles, marking cut lines with a charcoal-coated chalk line and plumb bob, hewing the faces with an axe, and dressing them smooth with an adze. The log is then raised onto tall sawing trestles and cut lengthwise by two men using a long two-handled rip saw, one standing on top of the log and one working below. Tutka also recalls the working life of professional sawyers who traveled between villages before mechanized mills became common. He describes the wood species they cut, the wages paid, the physical demands of the work, and the role pit-sawn timber played in building farmhouses, laying floors, and constructing forestry lodges. This is a rare firsthand account of a craft that had largely disappeared by the time it was filmed. Original source material: 1: Tartak - udźwiękowiony film archiwalny 2: Sawmills - an archival film with sound Published by Państwowe Muzeum Etnograficzne w Warszawie © Państwowe Muzeum Etnograficzne w Warszawie