pit sawing

noun

1. a method of sawing logs or timbers, as into boards, in which the piece to be cut is laid horizontally across a pit and cut by a saw operated vertically by two people, one above and one in the pit below the piece.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pit sawing¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

Katsushika Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji and Ando Hiroshige's Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido are both travelogues and social listings, in which every sort of occupation, from pit sawing to innkeeping, gets its allotted description.

From Time Magazine Archive