# Muley Saw (Up-and-Down Sawmill Saw) Hewn Tool Library · https://hewn.build/tools/muley-saw-up-and-down-sawmill-saw Corrected: An independent reviewer read this entry and found corrections. They have been applied to the text, and the reviewer re-checked the correction that mattered most for safety and found it done; the others have not been re-checked yet. The list at the end is the record of what changed. Cite as: "Muley Saw (Up-and-Down Sawmill Saw)." Hewn Tool Library, hewn.build/tools/muley-saw-up-and-down-sawmill-saw. Reviewed 2026-07-30. --- ## Identity **Family:** up-and-down (reciprocating) sawmill saws. **Subtypes (review fix 2):** | Subtype | What defines it | Source | |---|---|---| | **Sash / gate saw** | a comparatively thin straight blade (or blades) held and tensioned in a rigid reciprocating frame, the "sash" or "gate" | [MS-LedGloss][MS-LedTypes][MS-LedWhat] | | **Muley saw** | a heavier, stiff, straight blade **without** a sash frame, guided above and below | [MS-LedGloss][MS-LedTypes] | | **Gang saw** | multiple reciprocating blades, usually in one frame | [MS-LedGloss][22] | Historical usage of these names varies; the mechanical distinctions are what matter. The **Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill** is a **sash** saw, and its details are scoped to it below. **Other names:** *mulay* (older spelling); *oppgangssag* (Norwegian); the Dutch wind-driven sawmill whose whole body turns to the wind is a **paltrok** mill. **Blade (review fix 3):** family-level term — **straight reciprocating saw plate.** Frame-tensioned in a sash saw; heavier, stiff, unframed and end-guided in a muley. "Band saw" is reserved for the continuous welded loop running over wheels. **One line:** a sawmill in which rotary power drives one or more straight saw plates up and down while a carriage advances a secured log. --- ## ✦ How NOT to use it **NOT-FOR** - Not a present-day production or purchase choice (above). - *Removed (review fix 4):* the "not a curve-cutting saw… why the bandsaw mill took over" claim — sawmill band headrigs make straight breakdown cuts. - **Throughput and yield (review fix 10):** qualitative only — reciprocating saws cut on one stroke, circular and band headrigs cut continuously. Kerf width is not the same thing as percentage lumber recovery; the Forest Service's 2022 study shows recovery effects depend on log and target dimensions as well as kerf change [MS-FSkerf]. The earlier 10–12% vs. 21% pair and the 1,500 / 30,000 board-ft figures are removed pending a recoverable source. **DANGEROUS — review fix 1, the holding finding** *This is an observational entry. For visitors: observe only from designated areas and do not approach, assist with or touch the machine except through the host site's authorized training.* Operation is restricted to trained, authorized site staff or volunteers following the site's written procedures. The control families such procedures cover: 1. **Positive log securement** — adequate dogging so the log cannot shift or kick out [14][MS-OSHAcarr]. 2. **Carriage travel zone** — barriers or exclusion around the entire zone, and positive control against unintended carriage movement [14][MS-OSHAcarr]. 3. **Guarding** — cranks, pitmans, feed mechanisms and other reachable moving parts; OSHA 1910.265 requires cranks, pitman rods and other moving parts to be adequately guarded [14]. 4. **Start-up** — a warning and a clear-area check before starting. 5. **Stored energy** — before adjustment, cleaning, jam clearing or maintenance: isolate water or other power, dissipate flywheel and hydraulic/water-head energy, and block against movement [MS-OSHA147]. A slow-looking machine can still move after the power is assumed off. 6. **Debris, dust and noise** protection. - **Applicability:** OSHA 29 CFR 1910.265 (sawmills), the OSHA sawmill eTool and 29 CFR 1910.147 (hazardous energy) are contemporary U.S. industrial reference points; whether a clause legally governs a particular museum or single-blade muley installation depends on the machine, workplace, jurisdiction and activity. - **Historical injury record:** 19th-century sawmilling broadly produced documented amputations from unguarded machinery [17][18]; none is confirmed specific to up-and-down mechanisms. **DAMAGING** - **Blade tension, rake and sharpening errors** — Craik (1870) gives gate-saw tensioning its own chapter [12] (identified, not read). - **Pitman failure** — a serious failure to investigate, not a designed sacrificial event (review fix 9). **BEGINNER-TRAP (observational)** - **Feed looks slow; the machine is not.** Stroke rate, carriage movement and stored energy make it hazardous regardless of apparent pace. - **Stopping lag** — crank and wheel inertia do not stop instantly (mechanical inference). **LINEAGE-MISUSE** - **Treating it as a pit saw with a motor** — Ledyard warns against the simple-replacement reading [MS-LedWhat]. - **Treating muley and sash as synonyms** — scope every measurement to its subtype. - **Linking band headrigs to [[Circular Saw]]** — separate families. --- ## Correct Use (historical — the workbench holds operation; this is not an operating guide) What it did: converted a round log into boards at a fixed mill, with feed matched by an experienced sawyer to log, blade condition and available power. At Ledyard the feed is adjustable and the machine runs at about 100 strokes per minute [MS-LedHow]. --- ## ✦ Matching (review fixes 8, 12) - **Commercial / project matching:** no match for normal present-day purchasing or production planning. Obsolete for ordinary tool selection and not a realistic purchase. - **Historical matching:** restoration research, museum interpretation, early industrial woodworking, waterpower studies. - **Not extinct:** Old Sturbridge Village says its reproduced water-powered sawmill has cut lumber for the village and other historic sites [MS-OSV]; Ledyard accepts volunteers who can learn and help operate its mill [MS-LedWhat]. Hands-on participation exists only through a site's own trained volunteer program. - **Experiential access:** observe at living-history sites from designated areas. - **Successors:** circular-saw headrig → [[Circular Saw]]; band-saw headrig → band-sawmill entry (needed). --- ## Anatomy (Ledyard pages as inspected by the reviewer; scoped to the machine each describes) - **Sash / gate** — the reciprocating frame of a sash saw [MS-LedGloss]. - **Saw plate** — straight; frame-tensioned in a sash saw; heavier, stiff and end-guided in a muley [MS-LedGloss][MS-LedTypes]. - **Guide blocks** — above and below the blade on a muley [MS-LedGloss]. - **Pitman** — the connecting rod transferring crank motion to the reciprocating assembly (OSHA defines a pitman rod simply as a connecting rod) [14]. **Name (review fix 11):** the rod's reciprocal role invites comparison with the human pit sawyer, and some interpreters explain the name that way; the etymology remains uncertain. - **Crank / crankshaft** — on the wheel, turbine, windmill or engine shaft. - **Log carriage, head block, dogs** — OSHA: a carriage is "a framework mounted on wheels which runs on tracks or in grooves in a direction parallel to the face of the saw, and which contains apparatus to hold a log securely and advance it towards the saw" [16][14]. - **Feed** — at Ledyard (a sash mill): about **100 strokes per minute**, cutting on the downstroke, the carriage advancing on the upstroke, with adjustable feed [MS-LedHow]. A concrete example, not a universal muley specification. The idle return is supportable for common down-cutting arrangements and is described in period reciprocating-sawmill patents; not every arrangement had identical tooth orientation, carriage motion or withdrawal geometry. - *Removed (review fix 9):* the claim that the pitman is "deliberately the weakest link." --- ## Variations - **Sash / gate, muley, gang** — see Identity. A muley's removal of the sash frame reduced reciprocating mass, which could permit higher operating speeds; actual stroke rate, feed, kerf and output varied by mill (review fix 10). - **Prime movers:** water (wheels and turbines), wind (Dutch paltrok and other windmills), steam. - **Operating examples:** Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill, Ledyard, CT (water-powered sash mill, National Register 1972) [MS-LedWhat][6]; Old Sturbridge Village (a reproduced water-powered sawmill, built 1984 from measured drawings of the Nichols-Colby mill) [MS-OSV]; De Gekroonde Poelenburg (wind) [23]; Het Jonge Schaap (reconstructed, 2007) [24]. --- ## Trades Millwright and sawyer — one step upstream of joinery, carpentry and cabinetmaking. --- ## Lineage (review fix 7) - **Functional mechanization** of the same reciprocating cutting task done by hand and in the [[Pit-Saw]]. Ledyard notes sash sawing is often likened to a mechanized pit saw and warns against treating it as a simple replacement; the technologies coexisted for centuries [MS-LedWhat]. - **Precedents, not proven ancestors:** Roman water-powered stone saws with a crank-and-connecting-rod mechanism (the Hierapolis relief; Ephesus and Gerasa) [2]; Villard de Honnecourt's c.1225–1235 drawing of a water-powered saw (a drawing or design, not evidence the mill was built or adopted) [1]. They establish powered reciprocating sawing as old; they do not supply a transmission path to any particular muley design. - **Among the subtypes**, sash, muley and gang saws coexisted as regional and period choices rather than a strict succession. - **Successors — separate families (review fix 12):** the **circular-saw headrig** → [[Circular Saw]]; the **band-saw headrig** → *a band-sawmill entry is needed; none exists in the corpus yet.* An up-and-down saw is "an important earlier headrig family later displaced in many mills by circular and band systems." --- ## History - **c.1225–1235** — Villard de Honnecourt's sketchbook (BnF MS Fr 19093) includes a water-powered saw drawing captioned as a saw that saws itself [1]. The folio image should be linked from the BnF manuscript. - **1593** — the National Archives of the Netherlands finding aid records a patent granted on **15 December 1593** to Cornelis Corneliszoon for driving a wood sawmill by crankshaft [MS-NA]. The 1594 construction and 1597 improvement are attributed to their secondary sources [3][4], not folded into one invention date. The Zaan district became a major windmill-sawing region; De Gekroonde Poelenburg (built 1866, relocated 1963) still runs at Zaanse Schans [23]. - **1600s** — sawmill technology in the English colonies; the "first American sawmill" claim is contested and not adjudicated here. - **1777** — Ledyard's glossary notes a London drawing that appears muley-like, which complicates any simple 1826 origin [MS-LedGloss]. - **1826 (review fix 6)** — some later sawmill histories attribute an 1826 patent (X4331) to Israel Johnson Jr. The surviving patent index record inspected by the reviewer (USX4331I1) preserves only the title "For issue," its date and a missing-pages notice — no inventor, no saw specification [MS-X4331]. Held as a secondary attribution. - **Secure nineteenth-century anchors:** Isaac N. Forrester, **US 13,716** (1855/56), method of hanging muley-saws [MS-US13716]; C. D. Olmsted, **US 73,031** (1868), improvement in muley-saw hanging [MS-US73031]. Later improvement patents US 89,681 (1869) and US 190,822 (1877) were found by citation and not read [26]. - **1833 (attributed)** — Thomas Sharp is credited in trade-history sources with a muley mill near Cleveland for Leonard Case Sr.; the reported 300 strokes per minute and the 1845 direct-crank refinement need tighter primary citation and are held as attributed history [9][11]. - **The transition (review fixes 4, 5).** Circular and later band headrigs displaced up-and-down saws in most commercial production through continuous cutting and higher operating speeds; band headrigs added thin kerf and production and recovery advantages, with the size and period of the mill mattering. Large circular saws became practical through improved steel fabrication, shaft speed, power transmission and adequate power. **Water turbines as well as steam powered successful circular mills:** Ledyard's own 1880 industrial-census discussion describes a circular saw driven by a Tyler water turbine [MS-LedCirc], and Museum Wales preserves an 1892 water-powered circular sawmill [MS-Wales]. Steam broadened siting and could support larger, more portable or more continuously powered mills. --- ## Human Side - **Cornelis Corneliszoon** — the 1593 crankshaft-sawmill patent [MS-NA]; described in secondary sources as a farmer [3]. - **Israel Brown** — Ledyard mill owner; the site added a Tyler-turbine circular saw [MS-LedCirc][6]. - **Israel Johnson Jr. and Thomas Sharp** — attributed, pending primary citation (above). - **Labour history (secondary):** English hand sawyers resisted mechanized sawing; New England adopted sawmills widely, with thousands of mills by the mid-19th century [19]. The Mosquitobush, NH mills (1850–1940) show sawmilling as one thread of a mixed rural working year [20]. - **Trade literature:** Sandford E. Parsons, *The Sawyer's Companion* (1857) — title and author only [13]; David Craik, *The Practical American Millwright and Miller* (1870), ch. XXI on gate-saw tensioning and sharpening — identified, not read [12]. - **Gap:** no first-person operator's account located. --- ## ✦ Proof of Existence - **National Archives of the Netherlands**, 15 December 1593 patent grant (Cornelis Corneliszoon) [MS-NA]. - **Villard de Honnecourt**, BnF MS Fr 19093 (drawing) [1]. - **Patents:** US 13,716 (1855/56) [MS-US13716]; US 73,031 (1868) [MS-US73031]; USX4331 (1826) index record only [MS-X4331]. - **Operating mills:** Ledyard (National Register 1972) [MS-LedWhat][6]; Old Sturbridge Village [MS-OSV]; De Gekroonde Poelenburg [23]; Het Jonge Schaap [24]. - **Water-powered circular successors:** Ledyard [MS-LedCirc]; Museum Wales, 1892 [MS-Wales]. --- ## References **reviewer-named, directly inspected in his review** - **[MS-LedGloss]** Ledyard Up-Down Sawmill, "Sash Sawmill Glossary," https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/sash-sawmills/sash-sawmill-glossary - **[MS-LedTypes]** Ledyard, "Types of Sawmills," https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/sash-sawmills/types-of-sawmills - **[MS-LedWhat]** Ledyard, "What Is a Sash Sawmill?," https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/sash-sawmills/what-is-a-sash-sawmill - **[MS-LedHow]** Ledyard, "How the Ledyard Sawmill Works," https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/sash-sawmills/how-the-ledyard-sawmill-works - **[MS-LedCirc]** Ledyard, "Circular Sawmill," https://www.ledyardsawmill.org/exhibits/circular-sawmill - **[MS-OSV]** Old Sturbridge Village, "Sawmill," https://www.osv.org/building/sawmill/ - **[MS-NA]** National Archives of the Netherlands, inventories of patents and privileges, https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/3.01.04.01/download/pdf - **[MS-X4331]** Google Patents, USX4331I1, https://patents.google.com/patent/USX4331I1/en - **[MS-US13716]** Google Patents, US13716A, "Method of hanging muley-saws," https://patents.google.com/patent/US13716A/en - **[MS-US73031]** Google Patents, US73031A, "Improvement in muley-saw hanging," https://patents.google.com/patent/US73031A/en - **[14]** OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.265 — Sawmills, https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.265 - **[MS-OSHAcarr]** OSHA eTool, "Log carriages and runways," https://www.osha.gov/etools/sawmills/log-breakdown-machinery-facilities/log-carriages-runways - **[MS-OSHA147]** OSHA, 29 CFR 1910.147 — Control of hazardous energy, https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.147 - **[MS-FSkerf]** U.S. Forest Service, "Effects of saw kerf reduction on lumber recovery," https://research.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/64164 - **[MS-Wales]** Museum Wales, "The Sawmill," https://museum.wales/collections/historic-buildings/41/The-Sawmill/ **Retained from the first pass** 1. Villard de Honnecourt — Wikipedia (secondary; BnF image link to add), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villard_de_Honnecourt 2. "Relief of a water-powered stone saw mill on a sarcophagus at Hierapolis and its implications," *Journal of Roman Archaeology* — peer-reviewed; supports the Roman mechanism, not a transmission narrative. 3. Wikipedia, "Cornelis Corneliszoon van Uitgeest" — secondary (1594, 1597 dates). 4. Core77, "A Brief History of Wood-Splitting Technology, Part 3" — secondary. 6. Wikipedia, "Main Sawmill" (Ledyard) — secondary. 9. Farm Collector, "Evolution of the Early Sawmill" — trade history (Sharp, attributed). 11. WI101 (UW–Madison), "Object History: The Muley Sawmill" — public history (attributed). 12. David Craik, *The Practical American Millwright and Miller* (1870), https://archive.org/details/cu31924017529748 — not read. 13. Sandford E. Parsons, *The Sawyer's Companion* (1857) — title and author only. 16. OSHA eTool, Sawmills — Definitions, https://www.osha.gov/etools/sawmills/definitions 17. Victorian Web, "Losing one's hand to the machine," https://victorianweb.org/technology/ir/capuano.html 18. Jack Palmer, family-history account of a 1903 sawmill injury (LOW, single source). 19. Tide Mill Institute, "Sawmills and the Economy of Early New England." 20. Nelson History, "The Sawmills of Mosquitobush, 1850–1940." 22. Britannica, "Gang saw." 23. De Gekroonde Poelenburg — Zaanse Schans, https://www.zaanseschans.com/en/sawmill-de-gekroonde-poelenburg/ 24. De Zaansche Molen, "Het Jonge Schaap." 26. Google Patents, US89681A, US190822A — cited, not read. *Removed:* [5] snippet-derived Ledyard summary (replaced by the direct pages above); [7]/[8] merged into [MS-OSV]; [10], [15], [21] (unidentifiable thin-kerf item), [25] (mechanism explainer), [27], [28] (etymology used for the removed origin story). --- ## The reviewer's corrections (12) - `BLOCKER` — 1. Replace the safety section with a control-based account — Exact claim: “Modern heritage sites ... operate real examples under volunteer/staff supervision — proof the danger is manageable with modern protocol.” - `SHOULD-FIX` — 2. Separate the machine family from its subtypes — Exact claim: The title and aliases combine “Muley Saw,” “Up-and-Down Sawmill Saw,” “sash saw,” “sash mill,” and “gate saw.” - `SHOULD-FIX` — 3. Correct the blade description — Exact claim: The machine uses a “thin, tensioned steel blade” held either in a frame or free between guides; elsewhere the blade is called a “straight tensioned band.” - `SHOULD-FIX` — 4. Remove the curve-cutting explanation for band-saw adoption — Exact claim: The tool is “not a curve-cutting saw,” and “This is precisely why the bandsaw mill eventually took over the niche.” - `SHOULD-FIX` — 5. Correct the steam-versus-water transition story — Exact claim: Large circular blades were not practical until steam supplied extra power that water and wind could not economically deliver. - `SHOULD-FIX` — 6. Withdraw the 1826 patent as an established origin fact — Exact claim: Israel Johnson Jr.’s 8 February 1826 patent X4331 is presented as the origin patent for the muley saw. - `SHOULD-FIX` — 7. Soften the direct-lineage thesis — Exact claim: The machine is the “direct mechanization” of the pit saw and the “direct predecessor” of the circular saw. - `SHOULD-FIX` — 8. Replace absolute extinction and usability claims — Exact claim: “Nobody buys” one; it is “not purchasable or usable for any real project today”; access is only by watching in a museum. - `SHOULD-FIX` — 9. Remove or substantiate the sacrificial-pitman claim — Exact claim: The pitman is “deliberately the weakest link,” so when it breaks it is “doing its job.” - `SHOULD-FIX` — 10. Qualify output, stroke-rate, and kerf percentages — Exact claim: Fixed comparisons such as 60–100 versus 300+ strokes per minute, 10–12% versus 21% kerf loss, and specific daily/shift outputs are used to characterize whole machine classes. - `SHOULD-FIX` — 11. Recast the “pitman” name as an analogy, not settled etymology — Exact claim: The best-corroborated account says the rod is named for the pit sawyer it replaced. - `MINOR` — 12. Correct the matching links and confidence — Exact claim: Circular and band headrig successors are both directed to `[[Circular Saw]]`, and the entry rates itself medium-high confidence.