Interesting video on how straight saw blades were manufactured in Germany

[scsmith42]

It's in german, so I watched it at 2X speed.  I'm guessing that it was filmed in the 1950's or 60's.

[doc henderson]

I wonder how many of those great hardworking guys had to drink their beer with their nondominant hand.  lots of potential to lose fingers and hands and even arms.

[Old Greenhorn]

Most of those overhead flat belt drive systems were gone before WW2. I am thinking that's is in the 20's or early 30's. Those flat belts alone were an enemy of humanity. My Pop, as a young apprentice, watch a guy get killed when he was oiling journal bearings and his long hair got sucked up and wrapped around the shaft by the wind those things can generate. It flopped him around like a rag doll until they could stop the shaft, which took way too long.

[tule peak timber]

Very cool video, what craftsmen! I did spot a late 60's VW bumper on one of the scenes. How do you spell kinetic energy,,,holy cow! 

[barbender]

OG, that sounds like a horrible memory your dad had to carry.

[beenthere]

Translation
"Schleifsteinhängen und Schleifen von Sägen in der Schleiferei Wolf und Bangert" translates to "grinding of grinding stones and sharpening of saws at the Wolf and Bangert grinding shop."

[beenthere]

By the looks of the cars and trucks, it looks post war WW2. And we had belt driven industries in the states in the 60's. Even a 4 story furniture plant that had a long flat belt for an elevator, with steps that would carry a person up a floor or 3 and step off at the floor desired. The belt returned so just stepping on the down side was the way to pass down a floor. Much less space than and elevator or stairs occupied. 

[scsmith42]

Most of those overhead flat belt drive systems were gone before WW2. I am thinking that's is in the 20's or early 30's. Those flat belts alone were an enemy of humanity. My Pop, as a young apprentice, watch a guy get killed when he was oiling journal bearings and his long hair got sucked up and wrapped around the shaft by the wind those things can generate. It flopped him around like a rag doll until they could stop the shaft, which took way too long.

video shot in 1971

[Resonator]

Amazing how the truck driver hauling the stone roller put on oversize flags, but did nothing for load securement.  
(Though he did have a pile of tree branches at the front of the truck bed to cushion it in a brake check). 

You guys are correct about belt driven equipment. Early factories would have a stationary engine that would drive a main shaft running throughout the building, and all the equipment would pull belt power off of it. Kind of like a safety warning film watching those guys work.

[Machinebuilder]

the flour mill my Dad worked at had 1 huge electric motor that ran everything.
As I recall there was a huge rope (at least 2") that looped up and down the whole building driving shafts on each floor.

that plant had the vertical people mover belts too.

[Hilltop366]

Interesting video.

To get a better idea of what the narrator is saying you can turn on "CC" and then go to the cogwheel symbol next to it and click auto translate and chose you language. I'm sure some of the translation is incorrect and sometimes it is downright funny but this one seems to make sense most of the time.

[Old Greenhorn]

After Hilltops revelation on the translator I went back and watched the first half again. My first watch I had not 'scrutinized' the video much. I missed the vehicle vintages in the background. I now understand this is a plant that stuck with 'the old way' of doing things, but still think this had to be in the late 50's or early 60's at best. The video may have been released in 1971, but...
 Even sticking with 'the old way' I can't imagine they would not have used forklifts if they were available. I think we are looking at a Germany that is still working their way back from the previous war. Workmanship and skill still mattered a lot in that time. Pride in the product was always there. The 70's saw major changes in many things.
 None the less, those overhead drive belts systems were a nightmare and these manufacturing processes that depended on good people who knew where there fingertips were at all times. Truly muscle memory and instinctive decision making on a full time basis. Truly a time when men were men and anyone else was a casualty.

[beenthere]

If this video was made in East Germany, still under the communist regime, then pre 1989 there were few modern advances in these factories. But I suspect it was made in West Germany. 
I was in several sawmills in West Germany in 1979 and many were still moving logs and lumber on push carts. 

[Resonator]

I'd say 1971 is accurate for the date, maybe filmed a year or so previous, but not a lot earlier. 
First the truck the stone hauler was driving is a Mercedes Benz "L" series, which was built from 1959 to 1995 and sold worldwide. But more importantly, many of the cars he drives past around through the city have very late 60's to 1970 styling, especially the ones with square fronts and square headlights. 

[Hilltop366]

Title at beginning according to google translate:

Regional film documentation of the Rhineland Regional Association of Reinland

old crafts in the Rhineland

GRINDSTONE HANGING AND GRINDING OF SAWS IN THE GRINDING SHOP

in the grinding shop Wolf and Bangert Remscheid 1971


It was in Remscheid on the Wupper tributaries a bit east of Dusseldorf so closer to Netherlands than old east German border. 

[scsmith42]

Amazing how the truck driver hauling the stone roller put on oversize flags, but did nothing for load securement.
(Though he did have a pile of tree branches at the front of the truck bed to cushion it in a brake check).

The lack of securing straps was one of the things that I noticed too.  There is no way that I'd drive across town with a load like that unsecured.  

[beenthere]

Another video of mining the stone and hand carving to shape them. 

Doubt there was any welfare or social security to take the place of work/labor.