The Venetian frame saw

 

‚Venetian frame‘ comes from Venice

The expression „Venetian frame saw“ comes from the fact that this type of single-blade saw was tried out in the large forest estates of Venice, and from there it spread across the Alps within a short time.

Leonardo da Vinci as the spiritual father

Saws operated by hand and water wheels used for irrigation already existed in the ancient world. Grain mills powered by water wheels became established in Central Europe in the 12th century. Water-powered saws came later:

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519) is considered to be the inventor of the Venetian gang saw, who constructed the gang saw after the suggestion of rich Venetian wood merchants. One of these merchants was Titian, who made his fortune not only from his paintings, but primarily from selling wood.

Da Vinci succeeded in converting the rotary motion of the water wheel into a lifting motion of the saw blade by using the crank drive.

 

The Venetian frame  by Leonardo da Vinci – designed around 1480 – the oldest representation of the crank-driven saw frame and automatic pawl feed.

 

The revolutionary thing about it was that the saw was not brought to the log, but the log to the saw. To transport the timber, the rivers were dammed and the timber collected in the resulting reservoirs.

With the beams and planks cut to size by the gang saws, an entire merchant or warship could be built in the shipyards within a week.

Both the up and down movement of the single saw blade and the feed mechanism of the cart were driven by the water wheel located outside the building.

Essentially, a Venetian frame is made of wood, iron parts are used quite scarce.

The large gear wheel for driving the saw in the basement is also made of wood. The reason for this is that in the event of technical problems such as jamming, the whole gear wheel does not have to be damaged and replaced, but only individual wooden teeth.

In contrast to this single-blade saw (in the past, 2 saw blades were used in Riedau), there are also the full-blade saws. Here, several saw blades are mounted next to each other and you can saw an entire log at once. However, this requires much more effort (amount of water, height of fall).

All in all, the Venetian frame saw was a technical innovation that made people’s lives much easier.

Die Zeit VOR dem Venezianer Gatter

Quellen:

Sources: Information on the saw by Ing. Wilfried Pawel, LIGNORAMA volunteer, 2018.