A springboard was a small Douglas fir plank was inserted into a notch cut into the tree above the root flare, & provided a platform on which the "faller", whose primary job was to cut down trees, could work a metal lip bit into the wood to hold it in place.

In the 1880's loggers started to use the crosscut saw instead of axes to fell trees. The handles are removable to enable the saw to be taken out of the saw cut. It was designed to cut in both directions, but to be pulled not pushed in the cut.