lumberjack
Lumberjacks (also: bar bat or veralt. Feller , woodcutter , woodcutters ) is a traditional name for a very old profession. The job of a lumberjack is in the case of trees and preparing the felled trees for removal.
history
Logging became an independent profession due to the massive increase in wood demand in connection with the emergence of mining , smelting and metal processing and the associated division of labor .
In ancient times , ever larger communities needed increasing amounts of heating and construction wood. Fortifications and excessive shipbuilding required organized logging and transport. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the woodcutter worked closely with the now almost extinct professions of raftsmen and charcoal burners .
The increasing industrial use of complex machines such as B. the wood harvester .
The job of the simple woodcutter turned into a forester and specialized machine operator.
equipment
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Logging is a laborious and dangerous job. For thousands of years, only axes , felling wedges or saws have been used for manual felling . With the first chainsaws after 1900 and further technical innovations in the 1950s, working conditions and income opportunities improved. The use of protective equipment such as forest helmets , hearing protection and cut protection clothing as well as stricter accident prevention regulations have made motor-manual forest work safer.
Competitions
There are now so-called lumberjack championships in many places. It all began in Australia in 1891. Such competitions were particularly popular in New Zealand, the USA and Canada. These include the Lumberjack Championships in the USA, the World Logging Championships , which began in Yugoslavia in 1970 and is regarded as the professional foresters' championship, and the Eurojack , a European championship for wood workers since 2003, and the Stihl Timbersports , which professionalized this sport. This is mainly about using chainsaws and hand saws. In addition, there are various disciplines such as ax throwing , sawing off as many tree slices as possible or balancing on tree trunks floating in the water . These championships can be compared to the Scottish Highland Games .
However, these competitions are only remotely related to the profession. The represented participant violates several safety regulations (shoes, missing protective trousers).
Movie
- Ax Men - The Woodcutters - Documentary series USA 2008
See also
literature
- Uwe Tobä: Between a stopwatch and a splitting ax. The history of forest worker training in the 20th century. Interdisciplinary investigation with special consideration of forest work science and professional and work pedagogical developments, basics and justifications . Conte-Verlag, Saarbrücken 2003, ISBN 3-9808118-7-5 .
