Before the wood made it to the sawmills and shingle mills, it had to somehow be cut down and transported to the mills. Many different tools were used and developped to make the jobs of the loggers, sawmill workers, and shingle mill workers easier.

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.

Axes

The single bitted axe, developed in 1715, had a curved handle and a head that was counter weighted on the back.

The double bitted axe was developed in the 1860's. It had two different cutting edges, one narrow for felling trees and the other thicker for chopping branches.

A falling wedge used to stop the saw-cut from closing and binding the saw. The faller hammers a wedge into the cut and is able to continue sawing through the log. Oil or kerosene was poured into the blade to release it if the saw became too sticky.

The Peavey is a multi purpose tool invented by blacksmith Joseph Peavey. It is used to roll logs, push over trees, split large logs apart and pry rocks loose.