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Family Tradition
Fifth generation family sawmill still going strong.
By Dan Manning
Wearing a sheepish grin, Donnie Sharp admits he has “wanted a sawmill ever since I was a kid.” The fact that several family members had owned and operated portable log-cutting rigs was a likely stimulus for Donnie’s youthful yearnings. But only recently has the dream become a reality for the rural Fair Grove, Mo., man.
After instigating a friendly horse-trade a couple of years ago, Donnie gained most of the apparatus needed to completely restore a No. 5 Geiser portable sawmill with variable friction feed in exchange for a promised paint-job on an old Diamond T truck owned by his dad’s cousin, Charles Sharp.
According to what Donnie could make out on the weld-patched clutch housing after scraping away layers of caked grease, the mill was patented Feb. 1, 1887, by the Geiser Mfg. Co. of Waynesboro, Pa. The parts Donnie obtained were actually leftovers: The best pieces were used by his cousin when he set up his own sawmill operation more than 30 years ago at his farm with a mid-1950s era Case LA tractor as the power unit.
True collectors of antiquated contraptions, Donnie and his wife, Melanie, typically concentrate on their tractor restoration business. But family ties made the sawmill restoration project a labor of love. They worked enthusiastically, dragging rusty levers, gears, pulleys and crumbling wood from the dark interiors of a tumbledown chicken house and transporting them home.
George Sharp, Donnie’s great-uncle, spent his entire life working with sawmill equipment. Before his death in 1975, he dry-stacked a stockpile of large-dimension ash and yellow pine. Originally cut from 14-foot long beams (each 16-by-16-inch), the pine lumber had been salvaged years earlier from a Kansas City demolition site. When Charles Sharp gave Donnie the big timbers along with the mill, he sweetened the deal considerably.
A friend, Delbert Choate, used a band saw to custom-cut the oversized beams in accordance with dimensions needed for the old mill’s bracing. According to Donnie, clear-grain lumber of such a large size would be nearly impossible to attain at any price today. His uncle had planned to replace the mill’s fatigued framework with the well-cured wood. Grateful for that foresight, Donnie, Melanie and their teenage daughter, Megan, were determined to complete the unfinished task.
The Sharps’ premier sawmill re-building project offered plenty of challenges. Finding replacement parts was not one of them. As the project evolved, at least four cast-off mills in various states of disrepair found their way to the Sharps’ back 40 bone yard. Without that good fortune, the project could have stalled for want of parts, as Geiser Mfg. Co. has been defunct since 1912. Donor mills allowed the Sharps to tackle the project by reworking and refitting one piece at a time.
Throughout a cold and unusually icy winter in 2006-07, restoration work included hand-chiseling mortise-and-tenon joints in large timbers as well as recasting flat rack- and drive-gears made of iron. The Sharps fabricated several bearing oil flipper covers used as sawdust protectors on the carriage. (Some were even used to replace long-missing ones on Charles’ sawmill.) Head-block gears, handle castings and gears for retainer dogs to hold logs in place on the carriage were also recast and machined. Donnie fabricated a control device on the geared set-works (a system of ratchets and dogs used to determine cut width) to replace a missing piece. Later, the correct piece was cannibalized from one of the donor mills. A belt-tightening pulley from the same retired mill was substituted for one that played out during initial sawing tryouts.
Megan painted all metal parts black and brushed 6 gallons of custom-mixed “rutabaga red” paint into thirsty frame timbers. Next, Donnie plumbed and aligned the 54-inch circular saw blade with 40 replaceable shanks (or teeth), made to cut softwoods (to cut hardwood, a blade with 44-50 teeth is used).
Almost immediately, the blade began to stray out of adjustment by “dishing” the wrong way or becoming wavy when overheated while cutting. A tedious blade adjustment known as “hammering” seemed a possible remedy, but that process was available only at an off-site facility and at professional prices. Instead, Donnie turned to the internet, where he found a U.S. Forest Service manual, Sawmills and their Efficient Operation, by Stanford J. Lunstrum. By following a series of methodical procedures, Donnie solved the problem.
The sawmill consumed several blades before Donnie finally bought a 54-inch model made by Simonds International, Fitchburg, Mass., with 50 new teeth and holders. Several endless flat belts did temporary duty, running from Melanie’s 69 hp John Deere 820 diesel tractor (a Mother’s Day gift) to the mill’s mandrel pulley, until James Beckner, a friend of Donnie’s, came up with an excellent belt that was placed into permanent service.
Another friend, Joel Freese, commissioned the first sawing contract. Cedar trees at his parents’ home had been damaged during a devastating ice storm. He wanted them cut into 1-inch slabs to use in making a cedar chest. After a few trial-and-error slices through scrap logs, it was a pleasure for Donnie, Melanie and Megan to peel pungent red-and-white grain rough-cuts from the loudly singing blade. Surprisingly, they didn’t hit one nail during the process. With that, the fourth and fifth generation of Sharps put the old mill through its paces.
On May 5, 2007, Donnie Sharp marked his 41st birthday. When Melanie asked him what he wanted to do to celebrate, Donnie had a ready answer. “I’d like to saw lumber all day,” he said. His wish came true. As he handled the controls, Melanie and Megan worked as off-bearers, piling lumber according to size. After a long day on the job, the whole family was tired and dirty. Supper and hot showers were the first order of business, followed by a different kind of log sawing.
For more information: Donnie and Melanie Sharp, 243 Whitetail Road, Fair Grove, MO 65648; (417) 933-2253; www.oldjd4u.com
Dan Manning has been an active member of the Fair Grove, Mo., Historical & Preservation Society for 30 years. His dad, a third generation hardware man in Gypsum, Kan., instilled in him a love for early-day machinery.