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My Visit to A Briar Sawmill: Difference between revisions
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(New page: '''Originally published in Pipe Smoker, Winter 1987, and used by permission'' '''My Visit To A Briar Sawmill, by R.D. Field'''[http://www.rdfield.com] [[Image:me at sawmill.gif|thumb|R.D...) |
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It's 3:30 now and Bill looks a bit worn as he hasn't the capacity to sleep on trains. And we begin. There is briar everywhere. Both inside and outside the barns; in every condition from soaking wet to bone dry; whole burls, halves, huge pieces, ebauchons; in sacks and out; being sprayed, being boiled, being dried. Everywhere. This is Segherie In Maremma the largest in Italy. Farris Cresci has control of 70% of his country's briar- and most of it seems to be surrounding me at this very moment. | It's 3:30 now and Bill looks a bit worn as he hasn't the capacity to sleep on trains. And we begin. There is briar everywhere. Both inside and outside the barns; in every condition from soaking wet to bone dry; whole burls, halves, huge pieces, ebauchons; in sacks and out; being sprayed, being boiled, being dried. Everywhere. This is Segherie In Maremma the largest in Italy. Farris Cresci has control of 70% of his country's briar- and most of it seems to be surrounding me at this very moment. | ||
[[Image:bill at sawmill.jpg| | [[Image:bill at sawmill.jpg|thumb|]]We look at the wood in its varying states for a long time. Bill is, in fact, studying it whereas I am looking. Then Fanis and Data lead us toward an earsplitting rasping noise into a room where six cutters are at work, each seated before a great circular saw. Here is where the burls are cut and graded. I picked out one cutter and watched him carefully. He picks up a burl and studies where to make the first cut; this seems to be crucial. And so it is, because time after time I could see straight grain in the halves that resulted. Then other cuts were made - some resulting in large pieces and some in small, and I don't know the reason for either. I also noticed that in the center of many burls when cut there was a deep red color- rot or "rust" as it is termed, and at the very center a sort of cavity. All this is cut out as being unusable. | ||
Back outside I had a chance to again look at the burls being sprayed or wetted down in a huge storage shed. They were huge much, much bigger than I was previously led to believe were being pulled from the earth today. I could find only one small burl about the size of my two fists held together - which was described as being about 20 years of age. The others, all the others, were huge in comparison and were at least 100 years old. And they were still growing. Most had green shoots running out toward the light; they were alive. | Back outside I had a chance to again look at the burls being sprayed or wetted down in a huge storage shed. They were huge much, much bigger than I was previously led to believe were being pulled from the earth today. I could find only one small burl about the size of my two fists held together - which was described as being about 20 years of age. The others, all the others, were huge in comparison and were at least 100 years old. And they were still growing. Most had green shoots running out toward the light; they were alive. | ||