Before the invention of the sawmill, boards were cut with a whip saw by two men using saddle blocks to hold the log and a pit for the pitter working below. The saw was slow and required strong and durable men. The upper saw had to be the stronger of the two because the saw was pulled by each man in turn, and the lower one had the advantage of gravity. The upper saw also had to guide the saw so that the board was of even thickness. This was usually done by following a chalk line.

The first sawmills adapted the whip saw to mechanical power, often driven by a waterwheel, to speed up the process. The circular motion of the wheel was replaced by the reciprocating motion of the saw blade by a Connecting Rod known as the pitman (thus a term used in many mechanical applications). Pitman is similar to the crankshaft, but in reverse; A crankshaft converts reciprocating motion into circular motion.

In general, only the saw was powered and the logs had to be loaded and transported manually. An early development was the development of a water-powered movable trolley to regularly move the log from the saw blade.

A small mill like this would be the hub of many rural communities in wood-exporting regions such as the Baltic states and Canada. The output of such mills would be quite low, perhaps only 500 plates per day. They also usually only work during the winter months, which is the peak logging season.

In the United States, sawmills were introduced shortly after the colonization of Virginia by recruiting skilled men from Hamburgh. Later metal parts were obtained from the Netherlands [4] where technology was much more advanced than in England, where the sawmill was largely unknown until the late 18th century. The arrival of a sawmill was a huge and stimulating step in the growth of a frontier community.

The first mills were taken to the forest, where a makeshift shelter was built, and the logs were shifted to the nearby mill by teams of horses or oxen, usually when some snow fell to provide lubrication. As mills got bigger, they were often installed at more permanent facilities on a river, with logs floating towards them by log drivers.

Technology has dramatically changed sawmill operations in recent years, with an emphasis on minimizing waste and improving operator safety as well as increased profits through increased energy efficiency.