The mill slipway

Floating logs are hauled up this slipway into the sawmill. At the head of the slipway is the breaking-down saw. It is a sturdy vertical blade tensioned in a frame driven up and down at 60 strokes per minute. It was one of the biggest of its type in the world and could make a cut 2.2m deep. Larger logs could be cut by positioning then off-centre on the carriage. The rare log that was just too big was ‘carefully’ split by blasting.