“Always cut with a sharp blade”

Tool tuning was integral to every cutting operation we encountered. At the sawmill in Marshfield, Dean Copeland estimated that on high volume days he sharpened the teeth of his blade at least twice. Given that his blades have fifty teeth, this is no insignificant chore. Dean gently files the edges of each tooth with the help of the device pictured above: a custom “Dexter file guide” or tool rest to keep the file in place. The consequences of not sharpening the blade (which costs about $3,000)  are devastating: a blade with dull teeth will rip through the log too slowly, overheat, fracture and warp. Such a condemned blade is destined for the purgatory of the shop sign, an admission of failure, Dean explained, for any self-respecting wood cutter.

Historians and critics don’t take acts of maintenance like sharpening too seriously. What counts, one would think, is the making, not the supporting operations that go on backstage. Yet on a typical day Dean expended almost as much time and energy sharpening his blade as he did cutting with it. And he was always on the look-out for the signs that sharpening was needed: the off-pitch whirr that signaled the blade was moving too slowly, the teeth that felt dull to the touch. Tool tuning tells us that artisanal intelligence lies at the core not just of making, but of maintenance, and that knowing one’s tools is as crucial as knowing one’s material.

By the way, the sign for the Copeland Mill is a blade -- but it’s made of wood.

- Ethan Lasser