0 Zaanse Schans: Sawmill and Wooden Shoe Making

Het Jonge Schaap, the sawmill, was probably my favorite.  It's actually a 2007 re-creation of the original sawmill, which was demolished in 1942.  The unique thing about it is before the original mill was destroyed,  an engineer was brought in to create detailed plans and blueprints of the existing mill.  The current recreation was made according to these plans, using historic methods- dovetail joinery, pin-locks, etc.  The only modern implements was the use of cranes for heavy hoisting.

The mill has a niche market for cutting irregular length/width boards, mostly used in reconstruction and renovation of historic properties.  It would cost too much for an industrial sawmill to reset blades for these limited orders, but the cap sawmill can change blades and widths easily. I love that the historic sawmill is used to keep historic properties alive!

The logs are kept in the water until they're ready to be cut.  The bark is stripped with hand-tools, then the logs are fed into the saws.  

Lumberyard!

Zaanse Schans also has a wooden shoe workshop with demonstrations.

They use modern machinery.

I was fascinated by the rows and rows of wooden shoes- on the walls, on the ceilings, stacked on the floor.

The plain-colored but intricately carved shoes are traditional wedding shoes.  They were my favorite!