Sawyer (occupation)

Sawyers in Japan, circa 1800. Nishiki-e print after Katsushika Hokusai.

Sawyer is an occupational term referring to someone who saws wood, particularly using a pit saw either in a saw pit or with the log on trestles above ground or operates a sawmill. One such job was the now-archaic occupation of someone who cut lumber to length for the consumer market, a task now done by end users or at lumber and home improvement stores. The term is still widely used in the logging industry, wildfire suppression, trail construction and related work to refer to the operator of a chainsaw (or still in some limited applications, a crosscut saw). In the construction industry, the term is applied to the operator of a concrete saw.

See also

• Hewing