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It takes forever for a whole farm.

 

The roofs of the Black Forest farms had to endure a lot, in the truest sense of the word. Not infrequently, winters were extremely snowy, which is why a solid covering was indispensable. Since there were no tiles in past times, the roofs were mostly covered with wooden shingles. These had to be sturdy enough to survive the extremes of weather.

Since the hipped roofs of the Black Forest farms are pulled down low, their surface area is large, which is why a considerable number of wooden shingles were required. There are said to have been up to 35,000 per farm. Their production was taken care of by the shingle maker, who made each shingle by hand during the long winter evenings. Such shingles are stable and last for several decades. Their basic material is spruce wood.

 

Since wood stretches when it comes into contact with water, the shingle maker must take care to use only material from trees that are left-turning, that is, whose trunk twists in on itself to the left. This ensures that when the shingles dry, they all twist again in the same way. Due to the effect of stretching, the roof was tight when it rained because the shingles lay flat on top of each other, while when drying, small gaps were created between the shingles that helped the moisture to evaporate. Thus, the roof thinks with you and adapts to the weather.

 

Wood shingles are obtained from the tree trunks after they are debarked and sawed into small round pieces. These round pieces are then split into the raw shingles. They are then still rough and must be smoothed with a special knife called a "drawing knife". This tool is quite wide and has two handles, so it can be used with both hands. Consequently, the raw shingle must be firmly clamped so that it does not slip away. The shingle bench, a narrow wooden trestle that the shingle maker places in front of him, serves this purpose.

 

Shingle makers rely on an ancient knowledge of the quality and properties of wood. Thus, they primarily use wood felled in winter and pay attention to the days when the trees are felled. Here the phase of the moon plays an important role.

 

Wooden shingles were cheap and easy to obtain in the Black Forest, because wood was always available here. However, this building material has the disadvantage of being easily combustible. This is actually also the reason why, after the eighteenth century, wooden shingles lost importance in roofing. The numerous city fires of that time led to a rethinking towards other materials such as slate or clay.

 

Shingle maker was an early profession in the Black Forest, different from clock-maker, because the latter were farmers' people who assembled clocks on the side.