Watching: Armand Rouiller, Sledge-maker

Overview

Armand Rouiller, 80, is a mountain peasant, woodcutter, and craftsman. He handcrafts large sledges, rakes and handles for scythes, a craft he learned from his father, who learned it from his own father, and so on. Rouiller gathers timber for his sledges and rakes from the ash, maple, and linden trees in a forest he inherited from his father. He is the last craftsman in French-speaking Switzerland to build sledges and rakes in the old-time way.