help please, with my scribblings

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Muddypaws

Full Member
Jan 23, 2009
1,094
313
Southampton
The coppicing article seems to cover all the salient points of coppicing in a clear informative style. The pitsaw article is also informative, but I don't know enough about pit saws to know if there is anything important missing. A small typo in the third paragraph (I friend has made, instead of A friend has made), but that is just me being picky (sorry)

BTW Nice website, and stunning bowls too!
 

mark

Forager
Dec 26, 2007
125
3
57
Stirlingshire
I found the Pit Saw more interesting than the Coppicing - maybe needs expanding.

Another typo on the Pit Saw page - theVictory (space missing).

Good stuff.
 

reedx

Tenderfoot
Apr 12, 2012
87
0
Durham
www.REEDX.net
That's what I was told..... but I can check with it's owner

If it was 9 horsepower that would be a beast. Perhaps it's a 90cc engine? 2 stroke chainsaws are generally about 1hp for every 15cc of engine capacity.

Wasn't there something on one of the Victorian/Edwardian Farm programs about pit saws?

Interesting articles anyway.

Colin
 

grey-array

Full Member
Feb 14, 2012
1,067
4
The Netherlands
Hey Mark, Just a small thought of something to add to the article of coppiced firewood, allot of people think that wood burning is poluting and that cutting down trees is harmfull,
Most people also think that the bigger the tree the more CO2 it turns into O2 a common misconception, way to common if you ask me (about 90% of the people I ask)
So for what its worth perhaps adding a tad of information why wood is such a renewable energy source, and adding some information of how the process of growth and why a tree take CO2 out of the atmosphere,
I would be happy to write along with you might you be interested in putting something like that up as I did some research on that particular topic.
Yours sincerely Ruud
 
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Baggy

Settler
Oct 22, 2009
573
0
Essex, UK
www.markbaigent.co.uk
Hey Mark, Just a small thought of something to add to the article of coppiced firewood, allot of people think that wood burning is poluting and that cutting down trees is harmfull,
Most people also think that the bigger the tree the more CO2 it turns into O2 a common misconception, way to common if you ask me (about 90% of the people I ask)
So for what its worth perhaps adding a tad of information why wood is such a renewable energy source, and adding some information of how the process of growth and why a tree take CO2 out of the atmosphere,
I would be happy to write along with you might you be interested in putting something like that up as I did some research on that particular topic.
Yours sincerely Ruud
Hiya, I would be happy to consider that as a guest article credited to yourself
 

Baggy

Settler
Oct 22, 2009
573
0
Essex, UK
www.markbaigent.co.uk
The coppicing article seems to cover all the salient points of coppicing in a clear informative style. The pitsaw article is also informative, but I don't know enough about pit saws to know if there is anything important missing. A small typo in the third paragraph (I friend has made, instead of A friend has made), but that is just me being picky (sorry)

BTW Nice website, and stunning bowls too!
Thanks muddypaws
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
There are quite a few typos in the pit saw article that detract from the great content!.

The one thing I expected to find (the origin of the phrase "top dog" wasn't there though :) (a top dog is the guy on top - the "bottom dog" got wet feet and a face full of sawdust - hence the desire to be "top dog").

Red
 

grey-array

Full Member
Feb 14, 2012
1,067
4
The Netherlands
There are quite a few typos in the pit saw article that detract from the great content!.

The one thing I expected to find (the origin of the phrase "top dog" wasn't there though :) (a top dog is the guy on top - the "bottom dog" got wet feet and a face full of sawdust - hence the desire to be "top dog").

Red

Nice piece of knowledge there Red,m I always love to hear such originations of phrases or expressions.
Cool stuff
Yours sincerely Ruud
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
We should start a thread on them grey array.....I find such expressions fascinating too....I know a good few that are naval in origin ("letting the cat out of the bag" for example) and a few shooting ones (" just a flash in the pan") and a few country ones too....but many are mystifying to me as well - be fun to share!
 

Baggy

Settler
Oct 22, 2009
573
0
Essex, UK
www.markbaigent.co.uk
There are quite a few typos in the pit saw article that detract from the great content!.
Ta, I must not be lazy with the spell chucker

The one thing I expected to find (the origin of the phrase "top dog" wasn't there though :) (a top dog is the guy on top - the "bottom dog" got wet feet and a face full of sawdust - hence the desire to be "top dog").Red
Ah, the origin of "top dog" is much quoted as you say above. But the earliest references to the phrase "top dog" are associated with dog fighting, so I played safe. (see below)

I think that the articles will be updated and added to, these were an attempt to see if a could write a bit.


Quote from an etemology book re the sawyer/top dog phrase....
The problem with it as an explanation is that no one has found evidence to back it up. There are printed references to saw-pits and to this form of work going back to the early 15th century in England and the 19th century in America. None of these makes any mention of 'top dog' or 'under dog'. It is hardly likely that everyone, including Shakespeare, who referred to saw-pits in The Merry Wives of Windsor, would have ignored these colourful phrases had they been in use at the time. For example, this extract from the 1876 Yale Review describes saw-pits in some detail makes no mention of 'top dog':

"The saw-pit was a rude structure about seven feet high, made of strong posts set in the ground wide enough apart to hold one or two pieces of heavy pine timber, and the sawyers, one above and one beneath, sawed out one hundred feet per day."

In fact, there are no known references to 'top dog' or 'under dog' in the context of wood sawing until well after the practise was superseded by mechanical sawing.

What citations there are to these terms that date from the days that the pits were still in use all refer to fights of some sort, particularly dog fights.
 
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