What
kinds of tools and equipment will Uncle Cyrus need to be a bolt-cutter?
Bolt Cutters used
these tools:
Wedge:
It was hammered into the dead cedar tree stump, splitting it into large chunks
called bolts.
Wooden maul: It was used to
hammer the wedge into the cedar stump.
Cross-cut saw: A 7-foot cross-cut saw was used to cut down
standing cedar trees that had died from fire, or for cutting through a cedar
stump or log.
Stone boat: a large heavy sled, pulled by 4 horses. It
was used to haul the cedar bolts from the stump site out to the railroad.
Team:
A team of four horses was used to pull the stone boat down to the railroad.
Another team was needed for pulling the tramcars down the railroad to the
shingle mill. Sometimes a bolt-cutter owned his own team. If he didn’t own a
team, the shingle mill provided a team.
Other Shingle
Mill Workers used these tools:
Shingle Mill Sawyers
used a single shingle block and a noisy, screaming horizontal
saw, to split the cedar bolts into thin shingles.
A
steam donkey was used for producing the energy for the
saws.
Frow: a special axe used in shake splitting. One end of its blade is fastened at right angles to a short handle, used
to split wood along the grain to make shingles or barrel staves.
Image Credit: The clipart
on this page is from the Microsoft Clip Art Gallery.
The photo of the crosscut saw, shingle block
and steam donkey linked to this page was taken at the Lynden Pioneer Museum
The photo of the steam donkey linked to this
page was taken at the Lynden “Steam Engine Fair”.
The photo of the team of horses linked
to this page is the copyright of Galen Biery Collection, and may not be copied
without express written permission. Written permission to publish these photos
on our museum page was granted by the Whatcom
Museum of History and Art.