[Culturechat] A step back to the old days

[Vance Roy]

Today was my usual meeting with my Swiss friend, Herr Britschgi. Instead 
of sitting and talking, this morning we drove to his mother's home in 
Kerns, near Sarnen. He and his three sisters grew up there, and his 
father's business was in an attached building there. His deceased father 
was a wood worker with a specialty in making the various tools and 
implements used by dairy farmers for the production of cheese.

Entering the old shop, one feels as if one has been taken back in 
history. There are some modern machines, but also, there are implements 
that are now irreplaceable. Since the early seventies more and more 
dairy men have gone to the modern tools made out of stainless steel. 
Still, there are a few orders that trickle in, and Herr Britschgi works 
on these as time permits. He learned the art from his father but never 
used it as a means to make a living.

He showed me the aged wood (mostly maple) that dries for up to 10 years 
before being worked. There are lathes, routers, and other electrical 
finishing tools. There are also tools there used by the old timers, and 
these are no longer replaceable. There is a furnace used to make steam 
for bending the staves for the various bowls and the Jaeobs (the rings 
in which the fresh cheese is sat to cure). The scoops for skimming the 
cream for butter vary in size from huge to less than a hand width. They 
are all made of  single pieces of wood, some the size of tree trunks. 
The bowls used to hold the milk for settling have no glued joints. They 
are made so exact that leaks do not happen.

This shop could one day be a nice museum. The things in it are from 
another age and won't be made again.

There are some photos on the way.


Vance Roy
gigli.saw@dplanet.ch