The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-26
CONCERNING THE BUCKSAw.
Not, Perhaps, what II Once Was, but Stlll
OF widespread Use.

AT first thought" said the town trav-
eler, at seemed odo enough to SEQ a man
walking along busy city street--it was in
Park row-carrying a buoksaw. II there
was anything that would seem to be Of no
particular use in big city it is the buck
saw.
"The sight of it brought to mind the
place where the bucksaw did belong; a
country woodshed to which the farmer
hauls load Of cordwood, to be sawed into
suitable lengths and then split and piled,
the sticks being laid for saving in stout
sawbuck, the reach of which, between the
two Ks. is SCARED with saw cuts, made
when the saw dropped down on 1t in saw
ing short lengths. But who could want u
bucksaw In the city, where many people
never use a silver Of wood for any purpose
whatever unless it be for toothpicks, burn
ing gas for fuel as well as for light, or
II they did use wood, buying it In the form
In which IL is now so commonly sold in
cities, all sawed and split?
Fancy anybody saving and splitting
wood in the city in these days! But it
seems, nevertheless, that people still do
that here, that is to some extent: and there
il here still some demand for bucksaws
and sawbucks. which can he found In any
city hardware store.
'There was a time, indeed, when people
in cities, IN well az those living In the
country, used cordwood commonly: the
city people, if they had no woodsled, hav-
ing their wood stored and sawed and split
in the cellar The city householder who
buys cordwood nowadays--and there are
still some who do commonly has it sawed
at the woodward where he buys it; into
suitable lengths II for open fireplaces, into
hIDcka ~ IL ia RI ba cy,Iit. ba vipu il split
only, at his house.
And so the bucksaws sold here now
for city use arc most likely to be used for
saving up refuse stuff, ends OF pklnks or
old boxes and so on; but there may be,
after all, some people here yet who still
buy corawood just as they used to do and
have 1t sawed and split on their own prem
ises, quite in the old-time way; and any
how, in one way and another, there's still
quite bunch Of bucksaws used in this city
And then people buy here bucksaws TO
Use In the country; Just as, for instance,
many people buy here, for use in salt and
In fresh waters, boats. You would scarcely
in city store. But there are stores here,
stores on busy, crowded city streets, in
which you can find big stocks of boats
And speaking OF boats reminds me Of
perhaps the oldest place in which you
would find bucksaws and sawbucks,
that being on the decks of ships. II the
bucksaw looks really at home only under
the farmers woodshed, certainly it looks
furthest from home on the deck of deep
water ship, loading at city wharf for Hong
Kong or Melbourne, or where not, over the
sea.
"You look aloft at the tall masts, and see
the yards crossed against the sky, and think
Of sailormen hanging on there by their
eyelids and reefing sail in a gale at sea,
with the old ship plunging and diving at
every jump enough to shake the sticks out
Of her, but who would think Of anybody
here peacefully at work with bucksaw,
saving off blocks from sticks of cordwood,
laid across, quite in the old-time way, in
the Jaws OF an old-fashoned sawbuck,
standing on the ships deck?
But that is just what you might see
here as the ship lay ut her city wharf, or
as she drifted lazily in tropic seas. the
cook saving wood on deck for the galley
fire. For they don't burn on shipboard
kindling wood tied up in little bundles
such as you buy at the city grocery store,
but solid cordwood that they buy in such
quantities as they need for the voyage,
Just as they might any necessary stores.
"And the sawbuck and bucksaw that tho
cook gets out on deck here or on the wide
ocean may have been brought aboard the
vessel down in Maine, where the ship first
took the water, or, the need for them aris-
ing here, they may have been bought right
here in New York.
"And SO, while 1t may not be quite
what it once was, and while it's true
home may still be under the country wood
shed. yet the bucksaw is OF more or
less common use everywhere, on land and
sea, and it ought not to be considered a
very strange sight TO see a man carrying
one through the city'S streets"