History of “Maison Charlois” #3

Once received on the Murlin site, the logs were cut into sections. This step was carried out with a two-men chainsaw. This type of chainsaw became widespread in sawmills after the Second World War: one man was placed on the engine side and the second at the other end to guide the blade.

The logs were then split into quarters. At the beginning of the 1960s, the splitting of quarters was still done with a divider (départoir) in the workshops of Maison Charlois. The divider tool is made of a long, unsharpened steel blade, so as not to cut the wood grain, and a wooden handle. This tool was driven into the wood using a round wooden mallet. At this time, sawing of stave and edging were carried out in Murlin using a table saw.

With its sharp blade, the coulter was used to cut wood. The stave worker used it in the past to “edge” his staves by removing the bark and sapwood on one side and the heart on the other. The coulter could also be used to make the opening cut; the complete breaking up of the quarter was then done with the divider tool and mallet. The coulter is distinguished from the divider tool by the curved shape of its blade.

Pictures © Jean-Louis Binder :

• Cutting logs using a two-men chainsaw, 1962
• Eugène and Denis Charlois at the stave splitting workshop: Eugène splitting the quarters with a divider tool and Denis, from behind, sawing the stave boards before edging, 1962
• Denis Charlois splitting a quarter with a divider tool and a mallet