Bens Mill : Making a sled

[PhilG]

http://www.folkstreams.net/film,187

Bens my new hero

[Joshua Kingsley]

That is a really awsome link. Makes me wish that I had more time with those that are fading fast and would be able to learn all that I can while they are on this earth.

Joshua

[mitchmaine]

hey phil, ben thresher was my hero too. he got hit by a car crossing the road from the mill to the house and that lead to his end. hes buried up the road in peacham. family plot, i think. they saved his mill, but with good intentions, swept it and cleaned it up and lost alot of ben when they did, i think. the dam and race are gone. if they hadn’t touched it, maybe you could have found something on the bench that might have gave you some insight into how he worked and built the marvelous things he did. i built a cross of one of his sleds and a maine scoot. it had the three beams and was pinned and lined up like his, but i shod mine with beech and left out the pole and roll and replaced that with nose chains. no way near as nice as his sled. the guy was a genius. i guess its the way of things, but we seem to be losing alot of the good ones lately. its up to you now to make one of those sleds and keep it going. best o’ luck. mitch

[PhilG]

Mitch,
Thanks for the info on Ben, sad as it is. It was nice to see him work, everything was just natural in his movements, he new what was going to hapen next and with out any strugle or second guessing himself.
I will definately build one of those, I hope our tight grained Dug fir will hold up for a season or two, no hardwoods around me at all, and no blacksmithing corner in my shop, I’ll have to remidy that. If you get a chance post a photo of your nose chain set up and what you use to build the pivit part on the Maine scoot. Maybe I can help spread some your Northeastern ways here in the Rockys.
Thanks again

[Michael Colby]

Wow. Thanks for the link. The fella running the mill — Frank Foster of Walden, VT — was my neighbor for ten years. What a man. And what a family. In fact, I still use his son, Terry, to truck wood for me when the need arises. The Fosters had some amazing draft horses in their day, Brabants especially.

I could listen to those accents all day long.

[CharlyBonifaz]

I admire how out of discarded scrap he built this new sled

[reb]

Thank you for the link. Ben and his shop remind me of my grandfather.

[mitchmaine]

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hi phil, here is a photo of that scoot i made. needs shoes. the beams and pins and ash runners are the same as ben’s. i shod mine with beech and pinned them on with 1″ hardwood pins. the nose chain takes a pole through the big ring in the center. the draft chains pass through that ring also and hook to your evener. you can use it without a pole on bare ground just like it is. we use it for sap and wood. its a tough rig. loose enough to work while its going.

mitch

[Anonymous]

Fantastic video! I now live in North Georgia but was born and raised in Maine. Most of my family is still in Maine. My family has logged with horses back some four generations, on both sides, that I know of and I as well log with horses here in N. Georgia. Though the south does have some “old style” draft horsemen still around they are, unfortunately, to few.
I made a 3′ x 6′ training/work sled with a nose and draft chain setup, that I use without a pole, as in Mitchmaine’s scoot photo, that I pull through the fields. My father in law, who grew up plowing his families fields with mules and horses, was fascinated with this sled and the nose and draft chain configuration. He had never seen that type of setup.
The knowledge of old style draft horsemen and tradesmen such, as Mr. Ben Thresher, are rapidly and quietly being lost. This video gives us a mere crumb of what was once commonplace. Today, so few truly work horses and as a result, much of the modern draft horse owners and breeders are, unintentionally, supporting that loss of the knowledge. An example is how the show rings have encouraged the breeding characteristics that present more “flash” than true draft. With this hobby of showing draft horses instead of working them for self sustainability or profit they need different equipment of lesser craftsmanship intern encouraging corners to be cut to the point of abandonment. Thus, that corner will be lost.

Didn’t mean to run on there.

[Matthew]

That was awsome I could just picture my self sitting in that shop watching ben build that sled. We loose a little bit of history each day.

[Author]

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