The Region of Pinares Burgos-Soria comprises a group of localities, located in both Castilian provinces, which have traditionally developed an economic use of the forests without harming Nature. A timber exploitation that harmonizes the regeneration of the forest mass with the employment alternatives of the inhabitants of the area. At the end of the 18th century, the monarchy recognized as a privilege that the residents of the region benefited from the benefits of the pine forests. The “matas” and the “corros” are the so-called “lucks”, that is, the distribution by lot of lots of green pines and dry and broken ones. The parent trees are responsible for the renewal of the forest, which are characterized by being over a hundred years old, with excellent wood quality, great capacity to produce pineapples and pine nuts, and a leafy and striking crown. When they have regenerated, they must be cut to facilitate the growth of the young. Here arises the work of the cutters, regulated by the forest nursery that determines the diameter of the trunk of the trees to be felled, in this case with the forciple. It is a pine that is about seventy centimeters in diameter, and approximately sixteen meters long. It is an exceptional pine, it almost approaches three cubic meters of wood. The frame is the tool, on the one hand an ax and on the other hammer, with which the pines are marked. The cutting edge notches the trunk; the blow of the hammer prints the signal, which is a pickaxe crossed with an axe. And you are ready to code it. The letter M means bushes and the number one that is given to each neighbor because what belongs to him, of course. How many studs do I put on this pine? Fourteen. Quarry, schools, part there, left bank road. Well, now I have written here the sign that we put on it so that whoever comes to look for it knows the place where the pine tree is. In the Comarca de Pinares, the ancient unit used to measure pine trees is the buttresses, with an equivalence of four for each cubic meter. The economic value of the log lies in the special planks and those of the following categories that can be extracted in the sawmill. This pine can have a value of approximately 60,000 or 80,000 pesetas. In the past, the felling of pine trees in the forests was carried out by cutters or axemen who worked in gangs. It was one of the toughest jobs due to the enormous physical effort it required. So there was no schedule, so we left home at night and came back the same at night. Then he went to the mountain from sunup to sundown. Axes are the original cutting tools. Its care and the optimal state of the edge proportionally favor the work of felling a pine. The first thing to look for is the unevenness of the pine. The head is the one that commands where the fall will go. Some accurate blows with the axes mark the fall of the tree, which the cutters have previously calculated. These blows fulfill another specific function. The "bridles" are these blows that are given here, on this side and the other, to the two parts so that the tree does not split. To the one who pronounces the fall, that prevents him from cracking the tree. The hand splitter replaced the axes in the task of splitting tree trunks across. This is an elongated saw, with handles at each of its ends, through which the loggers attack the cut in a definitive swing. Once lying down, the axemen peel the bark of the tree, clean it of branches and descop it, making sure of its usefulness. Just as the colaña marks here, inside the entire heart is the hollow pine. The "colaña" is a defect in the trunk, in the form of a circular crack, through which the heart of the tree detaches from the wood that surrounds it. The aim of the axemen is to shape a beam "by axe" with the usable wood, in the same way that it was done in the past. Here we are checking the diameter that we can give to the beam, the measure that we can give it. If he gives us twenty or he gives us twenty-two. All this wood is left over and all this has to be worked. Till it until we get this entire line out. Climbing on the trunk and handling the axes with pendulum movements, these men release the remaining wood in what is called roughing or squaring. The skill of the axemen is demonstrated in the use of the axe, in the cutting speed and in the precision of the transverse incisions, which reduce the wood until it “takes its face off”. Away from home, weather conditions in the woods are always harsh: in summer because of the heat; and in winter due to the cold temperatures, the snow and the freezing winds. At the same work point, the rancher is responsible for preparing the food. He is in charge of lighting the fire, chopping up the sheep and putting it to boil in the cauldron until it foams. Rations that are distributed to half a kilo of meat per head, an amount that could seem exaggerated. No, no, no, half a kilo of meat working in the mountains is not enough. Half a kilo of meat and a bottle of wine, at least. While the food is being made, the axemen continue with the task of discovering the four faces of the beam. A list smeared with blue indicates the lines to be respected in the carving of the wood. When the carter garlic meat foams, the rancher sets it aside and adds the ingredients for the stew: chilli pepper, pepper, onion, garlic and coarse salt. In less than two hours there will be half the water with which to prepare the soup. If at first the roughing of the trunk materialized with rough cuts, as the faces are removed, the blows with the axes must be more precise and delicate. After removing the meat from the stew, the ranchero “chops the soup”, that is, he cuts a piece of bread into thin slices. In ajo cartero, the hot meat is first eaten and, meanwhile, the broth is finished cooking. When the time to eat coincides with the end of the task, the food gladly compensates for the inclement weather and the effort made. This was the most used method to manufacture the wooden beams that secured the roofs of the houses. Some beams that have given an account of their functionality withstanding with dignity over the years. Along with the loggers, another of the essential trades in logging was that of the carters. And worth. These men also intervened in the felling of trees both for transportation and for their needs in the repairs of the carts or to get the firewood with which to heat themselves in the winter. It is going to be cut because it has a fault here, and a meter or so is going to be cut here because it has a fairly large fault and is not suitable for wood. And it will have to be cut. And in the "cocota" another piece will have to be cut because it has broken and it is common and not good for wood. Transporting the fallen logs to the sawmill was one of the usual tasks carried out by the carters. Loading the cart became an exercise in strength and skill. Putting on the brakes Here I am applying the brake so that the car does not move. Voucher. And now I'm going to load the pine. So that the load does not move. While the road garlic is being made, we are going to unload this wood to the factory so that they can saw it. Until the expansion of motor vehicles, carts driven by cattle were the means of transport used to move logs. The destination was the sawmills, where the saws, first moved by waterfalls, windmills or even steam, and then electric, split and split the wood. We already unhooked to unload to saw it here in the factory. The recess is the space in the sawmill where the logs ready for sawing are lined up. Here they are called tajones and are the raw material for sawmills. We are going to cut a ten meter beam. Cutting with a mechanical saw replaced the traditional system of carving beams "by hatchet". In the sawmill, a handling process was in operation that began by arranging the logs to measure. To make a solid beam, the sawmills drive the log into the factory with a trolley. The strength of the men moves him, perched on the heads, to the saw car. We are going to saw a beam that is ten meters long and we are going to cut thirty by thirty. Give it a little twist to put it in its place, huh. Ok, there. In this old sawmill, the chainsaw is used to section the logs. The log moves in a car that runs on rails and is pushed by the sawmills. The one who "sends back" and directs the size and orientation of the block is the so-called "mouthpiece". The shooter executes his instructions and controls the sawing from the front of the trunk. Just four passes and the beam is profiled. Faced with the efforts of the loggers in the mountains, the arrival of this technology meant a revolution in the industrial treatment of wood. In the embedment, the sawyers who receive the blocks also have their name. They are the peelers and are in charge of debarking the trunks. You have to clean this because if not, then the plank takes... it stays like black, that is, it stays ugly, and the wood sticks a lot. That's why you have to clean the pine, peel it so that it doesn't turn blue, it doesn't turn black. In the sawmill, the movement of wood in and out is constant. The lifting of the blocks to the trolley is done manually with the only help of the hooks. The custom-made placement is decisive, always placing the blocks on the clean side that offers the best appearance. To get the face, the best you have to square the wood and then turn it and give it the measurements we have, for example twenty, thirty, ten, whatever. The carriage saw is articulated by a belt and pulley transmission that moves the blade, and that is regulated with the up and down handwheels. The shooter greases the saw blade from time to time to prevent it from “fatiguing” and breaking when heated by rubbing against the wood. Already from the embedment, the pilots, the most experienced sawyers, carry out the task of distributing the cuts of the blocks. And now the sawyers saw him, they look for his face and they will take three specials or four specials from him, on the banks. The special ones are four clean faces, without knots, the special ones. Tracking a cut matched the predictions of an experienced pilot with the end result. The heart is what has a segment, and that is why we are going to take it to the shores, which is the slack, the special ones. And after we take out the special, fifty-two centimeters, we can still take out another three or four firsts. Planks are given a category based on their wood quality. The special ones are the most appreciated and are characterized by having clean four sides, without knots or segments. The "first" have three clean faces; the “second”, two; and so on up to the fourth category. This is the one that is second because it has segments on two sides and small segments. The objective in the sawmill is to make the most of the pine trees chopped into logs to get the maximum benefit from the cuts. The degree of use of the tajones depends on the eye and the skill of the mouthpiece and the shooter. Loggers must respect one of the sawmill rules: "If you saw against the law, the wood twists." In this region the pines grow slowly. A cubic meter can take a hundred and fifty years to form, producing fine wood of excellent quality. This is the complete pine which has seven pieces. We have been taking out pieces: the first, the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth and the seventh. According to the pine of quality, we have started at the bottom and we have finished at the bottom and that is how it is put here. Here we bring the plank, with the condition of retesting the heads, so that they are equal on one side and the other, and so that the exact measurements remain. And that is the mystery of this device, the circular one. It has no more mystery. To equalize the front face of the planks, the circular saw is used: a toothed disk that crosses a table on which the wood to be cut slides. Well, we have brought the coastal one here to measure it. There we are going to give him two fifty and there he will come staying about 2 meters or 1.50. Come on, give him 2.50. So we're going to cut it here. The same thing we have done with the plank. If the carriage saw forms the planks, the circular and the other saws cut the remains, starting with the coastal ones. This to protect the thorax, which is what is worked with in this device, because otherwise it would be harmful to the thorax. The chest is the guard used by the sawyer who handles the band or chest saw. The cut is executed by a saw blade that runs through two flywheels located on a horizontal axis forming a band. The coastal ones are pushed with the chest and from them all the possible variety of boards are extracted. The sawyers call “cutting the board” the first use they extract from the coastal ones, obtaining flat pieces, of little thickness and with parallel faces to each other. The grommet squares the blinds with special wooden slats, which have the best view and due to their hardness they withstand inclement weather. These slats are used to protect the windows and regulate the entry of light into the rooms. The last use that carpentry can make of pine wood is the railings, used to level rooms. And only the remains are left. I'm going to tie it up to leave it lying around, because this later goes to the kitchens or for whatever they want and this is no longer worth more than firewood. Planks,...boards,...blinds...and railings. A wood variety that took advantage of every last thread of the pines of the Pinares region. But the planks must be dried in the sun before being worked on in the carpentry. The usual way of doing this is stacking: the planks are placed on some heads with the heart on top to prevent the heat from cracking the wood. They are stacked thick. These are 7.5. The ones that we have placed below 52. Well, look here they are 8, which are all placed by the same thickness, so that the "charrancha" fixes well and does not twist. And this is also 7 and this is 5, that is, you have to keep the line equally. And so I say, so that the "charranchas" fix, because if you now put one of 5 on the shore here, this "charrancha" goes down and then gives way. Special planks, first, second, third and fourth that rest stacked to dry. A forest wealth that occupies and maintains sixteen towns with more than twenty thousand inhabitants. This is the wood that came out of the pine. It is left to dry. About 3 or 4 months, until it turns golden. An entire wood industry, with the most diverse purposes, which presents the exceptional quality of the trees of the Pinares Burgos-Soria region. The heritage of a wood tradition collected with care by the inhabitants of a land that clings to the forest as the center of life. I'm Eugenio Monesma, director and producer of the documentary you just saw. If you liked it, I encourage you to subscribe to the channel by activating the notifications from the bell and so you can enjoy the hundreds of documentaries that I already have on the channel and those that I will upload weekly.
