Austria Oetztal – Crafts
The ancient craftsmanship occupies a rather modest framework in the Ötztal. Only for their own use can you still find small farms, which are mainly due to their rural origin.
In Ötz we find a farmer who maintains a small sawmill for his business and, as needed, still works on his tree trunks, which he fetches from his own forest.
The sawmill’s machinery seems primeval, but still serves its purpose. Several saw blades are housed in a block frame, which are driven by a chain train. The tree trunk is held on its path with pliers and pulled over the chain mechanism into the saws rotating up and down. In this way, eight to ten boards are cut from the trunk, depending on the size. The farmer tells us that he maintains and repairs the machine himself. The saw blades need to be sharpened from time to time. The sawmill consists mainly of pure mechanics. This work still requires pure muscle power.
Nothing has changed for hundreds of years. How long will this gem be preserved for posterity? In other regions, you probably have to look for such handicraft facilities for a long time. Often they can already be found in a museum at best.
