This Week in H’burg is a weekly column featuring photos and fun facts from local photographer Pierre Ratté. Each week we’ll feature a new photo from Ratté along with a fact about the subject matter of the photo.
This small Healdsburg woodshed features oversized circular saw blades from a bygone era. Once circular blades were fixtures in local sawmills supplying lumber for San Francisco’s turn of the century building boom. But many circular blades became disconnected from their mills.
As early as the 1920s, thinner band saws began replacing circular saws due to kerf efficiency and reduced sawdust. Kerf refers to the thickness of a saw blade. One steam-powered mill with old-fashioned circular blades, Sturgeon’s Mill, operated in Sonoma County until 1964, and continues to operate as a working museum, open to the public, a few times a year.
In a different context altogether, the word “woodshed” refers to a quiet place where a musician goes to practice. Woodshedding means practicing a difficult musical passage.
Pierre Ratté posts a daily picture on Instagram, Facebook and TodayinHburg.com. He can be reached at pj*****@ic****.com. His book “100 Days Sheltering-In-Place” can be purchased at Levin’s and Copperfield’s bookstores, TodayinHburg.com or Amazon.com.
