Cutter's and Carvers:Whittling the days away(solo)

[Antar]

13th day of Summer.

Sawdust... it was everywhere. Like fine grains of sand, floating like dust in the light within the workshop. Noth had finally be able to work on making planks today. Ten by ten long ones that cried havoc and made working with the foot powered machines fine. Boards by their own definition weren't straight after they had been cut. They had to be pressed, and cured, either in the sun or steam baked and slowly run through the giant millstones to be flattened.

It was an interesting sort of job, and one they didn't usually do on the yards until the rough planking was finished, so Noth had spent a better part of the morning learning to saw logs. The labor required was intense, and he could feel the muscles of his back burning with each and every step of the process as one of the other men worked the other side of the blade.

Back and forth, back and forth.

That was how the motions went, first the measuring and the marking of ten feet and three inches length with the line of chalk. The three inches was for the give of the blade as the planks were sanded down later, but at the moment his task was the completion of the rough logs.

It truly was an amazing process.

First the rough logs were cut slightly larger then the ten foot requirements, and then they were halved through the center line. Then it was a matter of bracing, moving down an inch or two and sawing another lengthwise plank until all the wood of the section was used.

It was harder then it seemed for sure. But soon enough the time for switching off came down the line from the boss of the yard, and soon the woodsman switched to the next station after taking a few gulps of water from his flask to help refresh himself.

[Antar]

The sawyers were switched off every ten to grab their hatchets and awls and told to winnow down the excess bulges in the wood, the small imperfections and it was quite a tedious task. But it was a task he set into with a relish. Soon this would be added to the rest of the planks pile, sprinkled with water, run through the millstones and then laid with woodash before being set in the summer sun.

But first, came the trimming. And trimming he did.

With the hatchet he used the blade to make small chops , shedding bits of splinters and green woodflesh from the plankings base wherever there was a bole or knot in the wood. Edging it surface back as he worked the wood smoother, getting rid of the minor blemishes that were present there. The smell from the wood was intense in his nostrils, full of sap and seeming to tickle his senses as he worked. Each time he brought the hatchet down to skim a little more treeflesh off the plank.

Soon enought one side was done, and he flipped the board over to work on the other side humming all the while. Working in the woods, at the cutter and carving brothers had probably been one of the most productive experiences of his life. A job which he actually *created* things that were useful, instead of destroying and taking lives.

That was the past, and though the present may need to keep his old skills handy for the majority of 'odd jobs' he would do in his free time to make some more mizas. Throwing one plank he was working on into the finished pile, Antar mozied onto the next to finish that one. Soon enough, each of his set was finished and the yard boss called him over to work the planks through the millstones, first sprinkling them down with ladles of water so that the friction of their passing through the stones wouldn't make them catch fire.

[Antar]

The dousing of planks with water was a little different then one might think. Flooding them with too much water would soak into the newly cut wood, swelling it so they cracked after, but with too little water the same thing was in danger of occurring for very different reasons.

If it was pressed by the millstones when the wood was too dry, the wood, even if it was 'green cut' wood would ensure the planking had tens of hundreds of cracks as it was stressed throughout the feeding process. This possibility was especially dependant upon the size of the millstones doing the pressing, and the force the planking was fed through by. The millstones the cutters and carver brothers had were a set of manual ones set up to a pulley system that a set of mules pulled around in a circle, over and over again.

It made the stones' motion begin in starts and stops and that wasn't the best for straightening wood. For a time, he'd heard the men of the yard grumble about the ruined mill in the nearby stream and how Keith and ken were working like dogs for the money to rebuild it. It would make things easier for sure. The flow of a simple stream would cause less wear on the wood, if it could be fed at a steady pace. Not to mention that water power was better then donkey power... the former was at least ten times as efficient.

No matter the laments though, the yard workers toiled on with Antar right beside them. He spent the next few bells just feeding the planks through the millstones while the yard boss yelled commands to the donkey team to stop or go...

[Antar]

Soon, lunch was readied, and then he took a break, making sure to water his horse. She was his means of transportation after all, and he was wont to have her injured or sick. A sick horse meant expenses and a need to lose precious time caring for the animal.

Time he didn't have to spend. But he couldn't worry about that right now. For now he had to worrya bout the next bit of work for the day.

Marching back to the yard, he brought his tool bag over over the next station where the pressed planking had been run through the mill stones. There were other ways of straightening a plank then with a millstone, the stones just made it easier to make more straight planks at a time. He'd done an exercise before of making a plank the hard way, setting it on a table in a set of vise grips and pounding it straight with a hammer. But pressing was more efficient then hand power. Or at least allowed more production. But that didn't mean the process failed to leave any blemishes.

With each plank straightened it was now the time for the filing. An arduously slow, if rewarding process. Working into the wood he began by using a straight file, recently etched by an acidic mix to work through the wood's rough exterior. Bit by bit the wood began to become smooth as he filed out the bumps which dotted the sides from the pressing. This was followed by a check of the ends to see the board was level on the sides before he moved onto the next.

Piece by piece, plank by plank the piles were completed and the boards sorted to their proper places in the woodsheds and the two warehouses on the property before they called it a day near sunset.

Grateful for the days work to be done, Antar grabbed up his tool bag and placed it back in the storage shed for safe keeping before turning to get his horse saddled for the trip back to camp. At night, he'd fall asleep as per usual, resting his weary body for the next grueling day ahead.

~Fin.

[Cachet]

Antar : Antar SKILLS Bodybuilding: 3 Woodworking:2 Singing (Humming):1 Weapon (Woodcutters Ax):1 LORE Crafting: Making planks Woodworking: Basics of Millstones Conclusion:Good thread fun time milling stuff. Anything seem out of place? Any questions please feel free to contact me ASAP.