Wednesday 13 January 2021

Zaagbok, or Sawbuck in English


Today's completed necessity for the wooden shoe workshop is this rustic sawbuck. It is the first step in the wooden shoe manufacturing process. The log will be cut into a number of identical pieces, each sized for a particular wooden shoe size. Once the log is cut, with a two-man saw (which I still have to make), the sections will be quartered. Each of the quarter sections is the raw material for a single wooden shoe.

The Dutch word translates, literally, as saw billy goat;  this may be because the shaped end pieces of the wooden supports look sort of like a pair of goat horns. I just love the origins of words in various languages, kind of a puzzle to sort out.

That's all I managed to put together during my electronic mini meeting today; I am still working with bits from my scrap pile. However, the log is a branch from one of the trees that had to be cut in our garden two years ago; we have lived here nearly 30 years, and the trees had grown in to make to garden very shady.



 

4 comments:

  1. The zaagbok looks great Marijke. And a lot of shoes can be made out of that log too! Good luck with making the rest of the equipment.

    Huibrecht

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    1. Making all those specialised tools will be a real challenge, Huibrecht! Good for the development of aging brain cells....

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  2. I love coming to your blog. I always feel so educated afterwards. Awesome work!

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  3. Thank you, Sheila. My family encouraged learning, and I enjoy sharing interesting stuff I come across. Language is especially interesting to me. My adult children regularly pass interesting info back my way now!

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