From Londoner To Lord

Chapter 375 - 369. The Sawmill - II

The carpenter waited while his apprentices and the other workers settled the log into place. Once they were done, he checked it quickly and nodded. "You can do the honors now, milord."

Kivamus stepped forward and pulled the first lever down. The teeth of the sawblade gears found each other, and the circular blade spun up with a rising whir. He pulled the second lever. The long axle shuddered once as its gear bit into the one linked to the rollers, and the fedarus log began to creep forward.

Everyone watched in anticipation as the log crept toward the sawblade. The moment it touched the teeth, there was a crackling sound and a heavy spray of sawdust burst into the air. The log kept moving, the blade cutting straight through the middle. Before anyone could react, the full length of the trunk had passed the blade. Two halves of the log rolled on along the cylindrical rollers until they slid off the end and dropped onto the ground.

There was a brief silence, before the workers and guards broke into a loud cheer.

"It really works!" Duvas exclaimed.

Kivamus grinned at the successful project. The first sawmill worked indeed, and how! It was a really good decision to make circular sawblades—which needed a lot of iron—instead of simpler crank-slider blades which worked in a reciprocating motion, just like a hand-operated saw, and would need much less iron. The simple reason was that circular sawblades were much more efficient and faster, and they could operate in groups far more easily compared to a straight saw which went back-and-forth.

This sawmill could evidently cut thick logs along their length with ease, but it was not limited to that. If they needed smaller pieces of a long trunk, a log could be placed on the bottom rollers at a right angle to the sawblade—without activating the rollers—so the long trunk could be cut into shorter logs easily. It could also strip bark if the log was positioned in such a way that the sawblade would only remove a thin layer from the surface—repeated for all sides of the log. Some wood would certainly be wasted this way—since there was no way yet to turn the logs in place precisely without losing material—but this would have to do for now. It's not like they had a shortage of timber these days.

Taniok quickly pushed the two levers up to stop the sawmill—the sawblade and the rollers. He began calling out orders to clear the split log from the front and drag it around to the back of the sawblade so it could be cut into thinner beams. The sawfiler stepped in at once to check the teeth of the blade. Once Taniok was finished with his instructions and the workers had fastened the halves to a pair of horses and started hauling them away, the carpenter walked back to Kivamus.

Taniok's mouth pulled into a wide smile, showing a missing tooth. "It works just like it did in the trial. We'll be using the same log again to show you how it can cut the split logs further. But after this trial, some workers will keep feeding logs from the back while the ones at the front will stack the split pieces nearby. That way we won't waste time dragging logs from the front to the back every time, while stopping the mill."

Kivamus nodded. "That's a good idea, but it's only needed for a short time, until you build the next two sawmills. It was a good idea to make the waterwheel so big so it would have enough power to run all three sawmills. That's why we built the axle so long. So how long will it take to build them?"

Taniok looked towards the far end of the long axle where a gear was already fixed around it. "Only a few more days. The blacksmith has already given us some spare sawblades, and he's promised more in the coming days." He pointed to a spot some distance away, where a group of carpenters was busy at work. "My apprentices are making more wooden cylinders for the rollers, and the Y-shaped supports are also being made right beside them. Now that this first sawmill is working properly, I'll start on the next sawmill in the afternoon—the one with two blades."

Kivamus nodded. "Just remember: this first sawmill has a single sawblade. The second one will have two circular blades, and the last one will have six."

"Of course," Taniok said. "I have kept the blueprint nearby, though I remember your design well enough. The first sawmill with a single blade is for cutting the thick fedarus trunks into more manageable timber. The second, with two rotating blades in parallel, will cut that timber into beams and posts for construction work. We'll keep using mortise and tenon joints, so we won't need iron connectors at the joints. That will save iron. The last sawmill will have six blades set in parallel—which you called a gangsaw. That one will cut timber directly into planks ready to use in construction work."

"That's accurate," Kivamus said. "Making so many sawblades is certainly a big expenditure of our precious iron, but it will be worth it. So how long to complete all of it?"

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"My apprentices will start setting the supports and the rollers for the second mill in a few hours," Taniok replied. "The long axle is already set up properly with all its gears, so if there are no problems, I think we should finish the second sawmill by tomorrow. The third one is a little more complex, but Cedoron will come here himself to help with attaching the parallel blades. I think it will take another two days to finish that one. So give me three or four more days, and I'll be done with all three sawmills."

"Good. Then you'll have to finish the triphammer on the other bank of the stream," Kivamus said. "Cedoron has been waiting for that for quite a while."

"I know," Taniok said. "But that one is quite easy compared to this. That design also has a long axle for the triphammers, just like on this side. But you only want a single triphammer at the beginning, so it won't take long, especially since it doesn't even have any rotating parts and it doesn't need so many rollers and levers like here."

"That's true," Kivamus said. "That long axle has the option to attach four triphammers working in parallel, but it will only be useful later when we're processing raw iron ore and forging steel on a larger scale. One triphammer will be enough for our current needs."

Taniok nodded. "Yes, but the problem is that we also need a second waterwheel for that. That will stretch out the time needed to build it. But once this sawmill is fully running it will be easier to cut the logs into thinner pieces so my apprentices can easily carve them into the rims and spokes for the new wheel. By the time I'm done with the second long axle and the first triphammer, they should have the waterwheel parts ready, and we can assemble it quickly. With the help of the sawmill, I think it will take another week after I'm done with the sawmill project to get the first triphammer working."

"Hmm... it's longer than I thought but that will have to do," Kivamus said. "While you're getting the triphammer ready, tell your apprentices to start stocking up on building parts. When you're done with the triphammer, you can start on the third longhouse block immediately."

"Of course," Taniok said. "I've planned for that in advance. One of my apprentices is pretty smart and has experience in longhouse construction. He can oversee the work there while I handle things like the triphammer. I'll still visit the new longhouse site every morning and evening to make sure it's going properly."

The bald carpenter shook his head in wonder as he looked at the sawmill. "When you showed me the blueprint of this sawmill, I didn't really believe you when you said it could do the work of a dozen carpenters at once. But now I can freely accept that when all three sawmills are fully working in a few days, it can do even more work than you estimated. Probably the same as what two dozen carpenters would do in a day—and even more if we can feed the sawmill with fresh logs continuously." He glanced at the log-mover which was making the final turn to start trundling towards the village. "But everything depends on us getting enough logs here, and then taking the lumber back to the village. A single log mover simply won't be enough for this."

"I was already thinking about that after seeing the sawblade working so well," Kivamus said. He turned to the majordomo. "Duvas, the forest clearing will continue to the south of the farms, but tell the workers to just stack the logs there for now. Send the second log mover here as well."

Once Duvas nodded, noting it down in a pocket ledger he carried everywhere, Kivamus looked back at the carpenter. "A single log mover can carry two medium trunks or a single large one at a time. I've been told that each crew can reach the dam from the village in around two hours and return back faster in another hour without the load. Let's allow one more hour for loading the logs at the village and unloading it here. That means each log-mover can make at least three round trips in a day. So each one can bring six medium sized logs to the sawmill every day. With both log-movers working here, you'll get more than a dozen full-sized fedarus logs each day."

Taniok nodded. "That's true, but the first sawblade will barely need any time to split the long transported logs into two or three shorter ones, depending on the length my apprentices need, and to debark them. When the second sawmill is ready, it will also cut those shorter logs into construction lumber very quickly. The apprentices will choose the length and width they need—whether for beams, columns, joists, or other building parts. And the third sawmill will make planks at a rate that's hard to even imagine right now. What I'm saying is that I don't think even two log movers will be enough to feed all three sawmills."

"I know," Kivamus said. "My estimate is that we'll need at least four or five log movers bringing trunks here from sunrise till sunset just to feed the first sawmill properly. The other two sawmills will only use what comes out of the first one anyway, but we can't make any more log movers yet. We don't have the iron axles and bearings for them. We either have to buy those from Cinran—which will cost a lot—or hope a wheelwright moves here and builds them for us. I'm working on that problem on the side, but we can't know when one of them will agree to come. Hopefully Feroy will succeed in bringing one of 'em here."

He added, "Once we can make the bearings and axles ourselves, we'll build double the number of log movers we need, so they can work in pairs. That way the logs will be lifted from both ends, which will completely remove drag from the ground and make the log-movers travel much faster. With a wheelwright here, we can even build bigger log-movers that carry more trunks at once, using thicker iron link chains and larger wheels. But that's for later. I believe that those will still be inefficient, but until we have even better transportation methods, we have to accept it. For now, our two log movers will have to be enough."

Duvas looked at him. "What about taking the lumber and planks back to the village? We can't spare any more horses other than the four that will be pulling the log-movers. Shouldn't we find a way to send the lumber back with them?"