Do you have an old-fashioned sawbuck? Do you have ANY sawbuck? How'd you make it? Let us see it!

I found myself needing a sawbuck the day before yesterday... Had to improvise with F clamps on my saw-horses.

All this talk about sawbucks using 2 or 3 sets of upright poles in a V plus a horizontal piece for a level platform - why not use the most basic triangle shaped form? A single strong V and a semi-long 6 - 8 foot leg (just a straight pole at about 2" diameter) at 90 degrees from the V to which ever side you want it (left or right). Yes this is not level, but it is still easy to cut pieces. Uses less wood and is stable, and works.  Why make things more complex!

Here's an example made from dimensional lumber which is very sturdy, with the intent of cutting a lot of smaller pieces at once. If the width is a bit less than the length you use in your stove, then you can place pieces which are 4 times that length on it, cut off a length from either end at once, then cut up through the middle and the pieces will have minimal if any pinch on the bar.



I'm hoping an eventual coppice wood lot will develop with my help, and then smaller poles will be harvested that would about 64" long and brought back to the wood shed where they would then be bucked down to 15-16" lengths to dry, with the thickest ends maybe needing a single split to fit a RMH wood feed. If I kept this by the wood shed, it could be positioned next to a wall so that I could toss logs on it and press against the wall, and have that 16" length marked out so I could eyeball the outer cuts easily enough. I'll find out this year when I build the wood shed!

I have a sawbuck, it's made of tuba fors...    It has 3 "X"s.  At 1' and 4'.  I use it for cutting up Bowl blanks for turning or carving.

Lots of great information in this thread for me!  Thanks everyone.  Years ago after I got a crosscut hand saw I cobbled together this sawbuck thinking it would be great for holding the log while I sawed at a better height.  I knew basically nothing about sawbucks.  At this point it's about to fall over and probably shatter into sawdust and compost!  There was a second "x" shape at the other end but that rotted and fell off this last season.  Anyway, to be frank I found this to be just about useless when I was using the hand saw.  It was like the whole thing wasn't heavy or stable enough to counter the push pull of the saw and would want to tip over.  Since I wasn't really cutting firewood at the time, it was more a curiosity, I just set it aside and forgot about it.

I have since gotten an electric chainsaw and have been cutting my own wood for my RMH from a small stand of mostly borer killed Ash I have on my property.  So I've been using this.  In my photo you'll see a short section of wood sitting on the cross bars of the buck.  This something I've been using to essentially do the job of a 3rd "x" for supporting short sections of wood in the final cuts.  Reading about a buck with a 3rd "X" was a light bulb moment!

I'm also often sawing small thin poles since those are great for rocket mass heaters, needing little if any splitting.  So I love the idea of building a sawbuck where I can pile in a bunch, perhaps ratchet them together so they don't roll, and cut a lot at once.  I'll definitely be needing to make a new sawbuck before I begin in on next years wood cutting and will take many of the considerations and things I've learned from this thread in mind as I do it.  I'll probably try making it from round wood too.  Hopefully I'll remember to share images here once I've made the new one!

Here is how "The Boss of the Swamp" uses his sawbuck. He starts using it at 7:20 into the video.


It took me an hour of searching to find the video to confirm I understood how to use it. Yup! I'm sure there is an easier way to find it than I traversed.

I found all this fascinating.  My memories of a sawbuck are quite different from what I read above.  My father would take a couple of locust fence posts and drive them at opposite angles, drive a spike through the junction of the posts and that was the sawbuck.  My major 10th Christmas present was a buck saw.  Since the sawbuck was just two posts with a spike through the junction, a log could be picked up and slid through the V with little effort.  It held the wood quite still for hand bucking. Of course, we also had ice tongs that were used with larger logs.    Simple and easy to use, no need to lift the log over the top of the posts, just slide the log in and cut.  Throwing the cut firewood to the side was done right after bucking to let you catch your breath.  I did not read about anyone sliding wood through the V and down the sawbucks shown, although that may have been both possible and much easier than lifting over the higher V.

We had a buzz saw that we ran off the belt drive we mounted to the PTO off the back of an old JD 40.  That tractor would buzz wood all day long on less than 5 gallons of gas and we would end up with 15 to 20 cord (face cord, not full cord) of firewood.  We used the ice tongs to lift logs that a man would not want to handle.  There was a roller on the buzz slide table where we would pull each log up and over onto the table.  The table had rollers that ran on iron runners mounted on 4x4 frames.  Once on the table, my father would slide the log over to a measuring spot past the spinning blade (I used to love to hear it sing as it got to buzzing speed.).  He would then push the table holding the log to feed it into the saw blade while generally my mother would hold the end of the piece being cut.  Once fully cut, the piece would fall on a table where the flywheel spun.  She would take the piece (we cut logs up to 18 inches diameter) and throw it off the saw.  Most pieces would allow throwing farther away, so we could saw for a couple of hours before having to reset the system to continue.  We ran a woods cart made from the frame and axle of an old dump truck with round pole mounts welded to the frame.  That cart could be filled to 6 to 8 feet high before we chained it across the load and used a chain binder to tighten the load.  The logs we loaded could be 25 to 30 feet long.  We could get to the saw site and pull the posts along one side and roll the load by using the chains then head back to the woodlot to load another pile of timber for buzzing.  Yes, a buzz saw could be dangerous, but no one in their right mind ever stood in line with the spinning blade. A 48" blade that was singing at working speed was sufficient warning for anyone not wanting to join the Darwin Club.

Until recently, I tended to use a log tong off the bucket of my loader to hold logs while I bucked from each end until I got down to the last cut, whereupon I'd pull the log tongs apart and roll the last chunk over two previously cut logs to use them as a temporary sawbuck to finish the log off. Too many decades of hard labor and equipment operation have now forced me to reduce my wood cutting, as has the fact my wife has asthma and cannot take wood smoke.  

So, anyone care to chance a summary of dimensions they think will work for various tasks with the sawbuck?

Mainly what is a good height? I'm thinking the crotch of the top 'V's should be about mid-upper thigh, maybe 32-36" for guys? Lower for chainsaw cutting, higher if hand saw or other working is to be done? Short upper V if doing various timber frame prep stuff on it, longer V if processing firewood with a chainsaw is the main task?

Also, what is a good overall length? I'm guessing around 4' to be portable, closer to 6' if it is stationary? Place the third 'X' about 1/3 of the way along it?

Is it better to not put something like this into precise numbers? Or not to ask so many questions in a string...?

I think that each person should determine any dimensions since each of us has both physical and preferential sweet spots.  I would use a sawbuck for hand cutting of wood since otherwise it can be a pain to chase the log around and increases the chance for injury.  I know of what I speak.  One time, I tried to use just my knee and the blade stuck in the log and then jumped out and even though I tried very hard, that blade proved how sharp it was as it slid along the back of the hand I was holding the wood with.  I had to take off a few hours to drive to the ER and then wait until they could stitch it up.  Only fun part was when the intern attempted to use this HUGE! needle.  When asked, he held that I would need it for the pain.  Just for spite, I engaged my best Mr. Spock impression and cut off all pain from that site regardless of his snipping the skin to pull it back together.  Thirteen stitches later, as he was cleaning up, I calmly looked over at him and asked "if that was quiet enough for him".  While seeing an intern as white as his clothing was fun, I would not suggest anyone else attempt the Mr. Spock impression unless they have been practicing significant meditation - in other words, try not to put your flesh in the path of a sharp blade of any sort.

Using the two stick V can be useful since it is possible to use rope as a temporary height test, and gather your own dimensions.  Once you get the best height for your purpose, use a more permanent method to fix the V in place.  Placing a horizontal stick between the front and any rear V's allows any logs to slide easier - simple V's tend to bind.

For chain saws, I would not use any sawbuck, per se.  I drive posts vertically along the stack of logs and lay small logs perpendicular, fill the gap between the posts with a stack and start cutting.  Simple and efficient.  I used to have a woods cart that had posts along the side and often cut the stack from the back until I got to the frame in that fashion.  

A wild thought just hit me, if you were to make your sawbuck and needed a stabilizer, why not cut a pole - maybe with a chunk of wood on the end, just light enough to allow you to lift it.  Dropping that on the opposite side of the front V would hold any light material to keep it from getting squirrely.  Then you would not be tempted to imitate my error.

Good luck and have fun experimenting.  You need it to be customized to you.

I'd love to dedicate the time to customize my equipment completely. Sort of like that British science guy that liked to promote depressing theories said, 'if you want to truly create something from scratch, you must first invent the universe'. I'd like to suss out some idea of what conventions are that have worked for various people so that my first guess on adapting something for myself falls within a happy little zone of usefulness. This would leave me with a better result in fewer iterations. As such it probably will have some shortfall from what would be ideal for me, but at this point I have too many pressing demands to accomplish things with tools to obsess over any one of them.

I'm grateful to Dan Boone for creating and curating this thread as far as he has. The ideas presented here are sufficient to reintroduce the concept, I'm just thinking in terms of numbers, am using some old growth lumber I salvaged, and would like to have it come together as something that will see regular use

Glenn Ingram wrote:My sawbuck works well except it does have the problems you mentioned of the upper "arms" being too long. That's a problem I have lived with and will correct on my next one. I don't use it for bucking much for the reasons people mentioned but it is ideal for bucking by hand which I do some.  It is wonderful for working a log with hand tools. I used dimensional lumber because it was what I had on hand.

This looks almost exactly like the design i had in mind. At about 5' long it could fold up and be carried to a downed tree for use at the fell site. Would wood pegs like this or carriage bolts have an advantage over one another?

[edit: also, that design has an almost symetrical 'X'- I was thinking of making the pivot point (w/peg or bolt) a bit higher to raise the work area and shorten the upper 'V's. Are those bottom braces in the way of working such that wider footing would make it worse?

paul wheaton wrote:check out this sawbuck (of sorts)

This is my favorite.

You asked ... my instant DIY sawbuck repurposed from an old stool.

Not old-fashioned, but this works well for me. I have notches set to give me 15 inch logs for my RMH. I can load a bunch of small logs 8' or more long, and cut them all into perfect firewood with my chain saw in a couple of minutes.

Can't find any mention of sawbucks in Foxfire 1, 2 or 3. (You have to look in number 3 to find the index, all 3 are indexed together.)

Going through family photos last week, I found a photo of my great Grandad, who was a coppice contractor in Kent UK, with his sawbuck (sawhorse). It's not a great definition picture unfortunately, but you can see that his sawbuck had roundwood knobs, rather than the X shape.

At the 8:27 mark, you will see this

Here is my sawbuck. Not old fashioned but it works for me. Scavenged, angled roughly 1x4 aluminum tubing, 4 foot length the channels form a v to hold my logs. Have a 2x8 wood top plate to convert to a sawhorse. It holds pipe too and have used it as a redundant ground when welding tube.

Ok, I've finally started getting wood ready for winter and that means I had to rebuild my rotting sawbuck I posted earlier in this thread.  Based on some of the inspiration I got from what the rest of you posted I made my new one with an extra "x" in the middle.  That was extremely handy for giving me support where I need it.  This morning I went out and cut up a bunch of logs using the new sawbuck and it went very well.  I was able to pile in multiple logs and cut through them all together with my corded electric chainsaw.  Now for the real work, splitting them all into smaller pieces for my RMH!  Thankfully I have a kindling cracker I made for that.

I had originally thought I was going to have to pull out of my small stock of new lumber to make this, but thankfully with a bit of digging I found I did have enough salvage pieces from old pallets that I could use.  I even used some reclaimed screws to hold it together.

Travis Johnson wrote:If a person is going to use a sawbuck, why use a chainsaw at all though? Why not just buy a cordwood saw and use one of them to cross cut the pieces of firewood? They can be found for cheap used, and still are being built new. With the right size wood, they are very fast, and a very efficient way to produce firewood.

My family and I have a friend that we refer to asl one-arm Franck when trying to distinguish him from our other friends named Franck. One of these gave him that distinguishment.

Travis Johnson wrote:

If a person has a sawbuck set up in a particular area, they could also set up a dedicated gin-pole. They are nothing more than a tree or pole stuck in the ground with a swivel and pivot point for a second pole. A winch, comealong, or rope lifts this second pole up like a crane. This lifts the heavy log while it is swung around onto the sawbuck. These were very, very common types of cranes used in granite quarries here in Maine.



Thanks for the "gin-pole" tip, Travis. Did a little poking around and found this nice description of a gin-pole: https://alaskahomesteadadventures.com/blog/2017/10/24/cabin-5-gin-pole


A little off topic, but I've been cooking on the gin-pole idea to hoist stone and gravel up out of a creek that runs thru a culvert pipe under my driveway to replace what gets washed away when the creek overflows the driveway. After a good gully washer lots of good material is deposited on the outflow side of the culvert.

My sawbuck looks, suspiciously, like this:

Thought I would include this picture of a traditional style sawbuck, however I decided to take advantage of the "power of the triangle" for added stability, this way each upright acts as a mini truss.
The sawbuck also has a rope attached to one of the uprights that can either be tied off or a foot can be put through the loop to provide pressure to hold the log.
I have recently been using the sawbuck for smaller limbs and poles that it seems a waste to start a chainsaw up for. I use either a Swede saw or wooden framed Buck saws.
The wood used is Burr Oak which is very strong under compression. The  sawbuck is light enough to be portable yet more than adequate for the size logs sawbucks are designed for, 5/16 nuts and bolts were used for fasteners.
Most traditional sawbucks were I'm sure, intended for only using hand saws and smaller logs, anything that cannot be easily picked up would have been cut on the ground by large crosscut saws.
Regarding chainsaws which along with other large heavy equipment probably doesn't qualify as "low tech" I'm addressing merely because they have been mentioned previously in this post and I have used one for decades to put up 8 to 10 cords of firewood seasonally.
I have included a page from a Stihl chainsaw manual, showing some correct cutting methods for safety.
Note that any logs that are too large to be comfortably picked up and placed on a sawbuck are cut to length on the ground, this is standard procedure and if you do not like bending over you can assume a one knee stance, which in effect brings you and the log to the same attitude as waist height.
There's no good reason to pick up large heavy logs when they can be safely bucked up on the ground.
If you're worried about hitting the dirt with the saw blade you can merely turn the log before finishing the cut with a  Cant hook or Peavy which are designed for that purpose.  A Cant hook was also previously shown in this post.

Hello,

I made a sawbuck out of two pallets. Found this instruction on YouTube and build one myself and I’m loving it.
I have been using it since.. it works perfect!

Here is another one from Mother Earth News that looks more like the description of what you were hoping to find.                                                                                  

https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/easy-log-cutting-and-storing-zmaz96onzgoe/

.

Not sure why the picture is not showing up.

From Caleb's BRK thread





This is following this design



Now to give it a try out in the field!

All this brings to mind my idea of the perfect saw horses. They have three legs, rather than four. Because of that, they can be more easily used on rough terrain.   It's the old "[a] three legged table will never rock," thing.  

[Why don't restaurant furnishing places sell three legged tables instead of the problematic (rocking) four legged type?)]

Dan Boone wrote:The sawbuck is, essentially, a workbench for roundwood.

…..and pulling selected logs and poles out of the woods to make fence poles and structural members for various small outbuildings.

This is exactly why I came here looking for sawbuck ideas. I'm taking down a row of extremely overgrown arborvitae and I'm thinking of using the material to build a split rail fence.

For the larger pieces I'll strip the bark and flush the knots while it's on the ground. But with the small and medium sized pieces I want to work at a convenient height. I'll be cutting posts to length and mortising them for the rails. And the rails will need to have tenons cut to fit the mortises. What I really need is a work bench (or two) for round or odd shaped wood.

Here's one Pinterest dropped in my email. I like it.

Jerry Brown wrote:Can't find any mention of sawbucks in Foxfire 1, 2 or 3. (You have to look in number 3 to find the index, all 3 are indexed together.)

I realized this thread was five years old and as I was catching up on it, I thought "You know, I should have checked the Foxfire books!" But I don't have them handy, so I'm delighted to learn that somebody else looked. So much for that bright idea.  

Lots of nifty sawbucks in this thread, but still haven't seen one in roundwood built the way I remember. Memory is funny; could be I was nuts all along.

I wish I had seen this thread earlier. After several years of cutting firewood on the ground, I finally took the time to bodge together a sawbuck for myself. I used some cedar posts I bought from a guy on craigslist. I would've gone with roundwood from the property, but it's all mostly non-durable wood and I would have to build a new one again after a couple seasons.

It was really great for loading up with smaller poles for cutting quickly to size for making charcoal.

Stephen's sawbuck this year

(from stephen's thread)

paul wheaton wrote:Stephen's sawbuck this year

(from stephen's thread)

I can't tell how those two larger upright legs are joined, but the smaller appendage down near the ground looks ready to snap free at the slightest provocation.

Ned Harr wrote:I can't tell how those two larger upright legs are joined, but the smaller appendage down near the ground looks ready to snap free at the slightest provocation.

I agree with you about that appendage, which I call the "kickstand." In the second version I made today, I adjusted the angle and found thicker stock.



Still not 100% pleased with the finished position of that kickstand, and my revised version (technically, the third one I've ever made) will have the leaned-in body of version 1, but with the terminus of the kickstand below the intersection of the two larger pieces. That's the plan, anyway.

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:

Ned Harr wrote:I can't tell how those two larger upright legs are joined, but the smaller appendage down near the ground looks ready to snap free at the slightest provocation.

I agree with you about that appendage, which I call the "kickstand." In the second version I made today, I adjusted the angle and found thicker stock.



Still not 100% pleased with the finished position of that kickstand, and my revised version (technically, the third one I've ever made) will have the leaned-in body of version 1, but with the terminus of the kickstand below the intersection of the two larger pieces. That's the plan, anyway.

Sometimes wood is surprisingly strong for how robust it looks, but I'm still worried by this design. I think it has to do with the relative thicknesses of the various pieces. I would want any piece to be as robust or more robust than any piece it is supporting/propping up, especially if the joint between them is going to be carrying live loads. Your design goes from thicker to thinner everywhere I would want it to do the reverse (and vice versa). By way of remedy to the design, I would:

1) attach the kickstand further up, right where the legs are joined (even if your kickstand, as pictured, doesn't snap out, I imagine it will introduce a lot of bounce)
2) ensure the thickness of the legs and kickstand are all close to equal (when load is spreadevenly among three members, each member can be substantially thinner than the logs you are cutting)

So essentially you would have two teepees, with each tepee (not sure how to spell it so I will use each spelling once :P) having one member that terminates at the joint rather than extending up past it like the other two. You might orient those "flush-trimmed" members on the inside or outside of the whole two-teepee design depending on your needs..

As for how to form that joint, if all three members are approximately the same thickness then I would do some kind of 3-way lap, or maybe a regular lap joint for the legs and then have that rest on a kind of rabbet at the end of the kickstand...you could probably get somewhat creative with it, so long as you keep in mind resistance to expected forces/load. But yeah, I would NOT whittle the end of one down to a broomstick-sized tenon and stick that through a mortise...

At the same time, if this is just an experiment with some spare logs you had lying around, then maybe go ahead with it, for science! And let us know how it fares...