^YOODCUTTER,S IMPLEMENTS. 205 



Saws used for cutting-up poles from thinnings or coppice 

 resemble the well-known joiner's frame-saw [one used in the 

 N.W. Himalayas being shown in fig. 86. The blade is of thin 

 rolled steel, the teeth slightly set. In using this saw, the wood- 

 cutter improvises a sawing-blo''k, on which he cuts up the poles 

 into billets. — Tr.]. This mode of sawing firewood is greatly 

 preferable to cutting poles into lengths with the axe, as it is 

 more economical of the wood, and, after a little experience, is 

 more labour-saving than the latter method. 



iii. Machine-san's. 

 Attempts have often been made to fell trees by machine- 

 saws, driven by steam or hand power. Ransome's steam-saw, 



Fig. 87. 



as shown in fig. 87, is the best known in Germany. The 

 use of these saws has not hitherto proved effective in European 

 forests. In North America, where trees are either felled in 

 the open, or wholesale in forests, without any care of the 

 undergrowth, they may be serviceable : but even there the axe 

 is the chief implement used by the wood-cutter. 



(d) Mode of Using Forest Saws. 



This depends on the material of which the saw is composed, 

 its shape, dimensions, curvature, weight, shape of teeth, amount 

 of set or extent to which the teeth are bent to either side of 

 the plane of the blade, their degree of sharpness, and, finally, 

 on the kind of wood to be cut and the use to be made of the 

 wood. The strength of the workman and his degree of skill in 

 using saws are also important factors in the question, although 

 it is difficult to estimate them. 



The material of which the saw is made is so far important, as 

 it determines its temper and how long it will remain sufficiently 



