ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Saw pit

A saw pit is a hole in the ground where people used to cut logs into pieces of wood. Imagine you have a big tree trunk that you want to turn into planks of wood to build a house or make furniture. You can't just chop it up with an ax because it's too thick, heavy, and hard to work with. So, people used to put the log in the saw pit, which is like a big trench or a dugout in the ground.

The saw pit has really high walls made of dirt, and it's long enough to fit the whole tree trunk. Then, two people would stand on either side of the saw pit, and they would take a long saw, called a pitsaw, and start cutting the log in half. The saw is really long and has sharp teeth that bite into the wood and make it easier to cut.

One person would stand on top of the log, and the other would stand underneath on the other side of the saw. They would both push and pull the saw back and forth, slowly cutting the log in half. It takes a lot of work and it can take a long time to cut up a log, but it was the only way to make boards and planks back in the day.

After the log was cut in half, they would cut it into smaller pieces, and then they would use other tools like planes and chisels to finish the wood and make it smooth. Saw pits were used a long time ago before machines were invented to cut wood, and they were an important part of making things out of wood.