[WIP] Arcantis, the lake city

[Mark Oliva]

I think historically, that smiths did not use mechanical hammers until much later,

I know of continental hammersmiths that date back to the 17th Century (i.e. 1600s). A hammersmith is a smithy with a hammer that usually is powered by a waterwheel. I know of a copper hammersmith in Northern Germany with two waterwheels: One to power the hammer and a smaller second waterwheel to power the bellows.

but water powered sawmills were in use in the 1700's, possibly earlier. The reconstructions I've seen did not use a circular blade, but a long vertical blade that moved up and down as the water wheel turned.

Again, I know of continental prototypes that go back to the 17th Century. But you're correct about the vertical saw blades. If there were circular saws in those days, I've found no historical trace of them yet.

This photo shows a typical rural sawmill that dates from the 18th Century (1700s). It's called the Schwarzmühle (Black Mill), and it's on the small Weismain (Wise Main) River in Northern Bavarian Upper Franconia.



Unfortunately, I have only one interior photo of an historical, waterwheel-powered sawmill. If you look closely, you'll see the vertical blade in the middle of the photo:



The photo was taken in the Black Forest Open Air Steward's Farm (Schwärzwälder Freilichtmuseum Vogtsbauernhof), an open air museum near Gutach in the Black Forest of German Badinia.

Sorry about the quality of these photos. They're scans of slides (diapositives) taken with a film camera back in the early 1980s.