DA VINCI HYDRAULIC SAW — ARTOYA Learning Hub

Watch

See it come together

Assembly video coming — scan again after the next production run.

Read

The leaflet in the box

The same leaflet that comes with the kit, English on one side, French on the other. Free to download and print.

Download the leaflet (PDF)

ARTOYA_LEAFLET_AV0118201.pdf — 198 × 298 mm, EN/FR

Learn

Four ways in

Water-driven saw with automatic feed (top-left group of the sheet: water wheel, cam shaft, blade, sprung pole, log) — 'Par chu fait om une soore soir par li sole' — Villard de Honnecourt (French, active c. 1225–1235) — c. 1225–35; photographic facsimile 1906 — Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 19093, f. 22v — reproduced in H. Omont (ed.), Album de Villard de Honnecourt, Paris: Berthaud Frères, 1906, plate XLIV; scan Internet Archive (Harold B. Lee Library, BYU), page 70 of the PDF rendered at 300 dpi, cropped to the sawmill — BnF fr. 19093 f. 22v · IA albumdevillardde00vill

A Timeless History

The idea is far older than Leonardo. A 3rd-century relief at Hierapolis, Turkey, shows a water wheel driving stone saws by crank and connecting rod — the earliest known. Around 1225–35 Villard de Honnecourt drew a water-driven saw that fed its own log: "so a saw saws by itself". Leonardo, about 1478–80, recorded such a mill in use and noted how to improve it. In 1594 the same mechanism went under a Dutch windmill.

SourceMuseo Galileo, leonardo//thek@, Codex Atlanticus f. 1078 a r (ex 389 r-a), c. 1478–80 — teche.museogalileo.it · Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 19093, f. 22v · Ritti, Grewe & Kessener, Journal of Roman Archaeology 20 (2007) · Daly et al., PLOS ONE 16 (2021)

DETAIL OF SAW — Up-and-Down Sawmill (moved to Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC), Chester Springs, Chester County, PA — Historic American Buildings Survey (National Park Service); historian Deborah S. Burns — documentation compiled after 1933 (5 × 7 in. negative) — Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, HABS PA-116; via Wikimedia Commons (5000 × 3570 TIFF, cropped inside the black border, 4:3) — HABS PA,15-CHESP.V,1-5

Science In Action

Crank and connecting rod: the wheel's steady turning becomes the blade's up-and-down stroke • Ratchet and pawl: each stroke winds a rope one notch onto a drum, pulling the log carriage into the blade • One-way only: the pawl drops behind each tooth, so the carriage can advance but never slip back • One shaft, two motions kept in step — cut and feed share the same power and the same timing

SourceMuseo Leonardiano di Vinci, "Hydraulic saw" (reconstruction 2010, Università di Firenze) — museoleonardiano.it · Museo Galileo, leonardo//thek@ · Ritti, Grewe & Kessener, JRA 20 (2007)

Two Watermills and an Open Sluice — Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch, 1628/29–1682) — 1653 — The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles — oil on canvas, 66.4 × 84.1 cm; Getty Open Content image via Wikimedia Commons (4204 × 3340), cropped to 4:3 — 82.PA.18

Arts

Leonardo drew this machine as he drew everything: in perspective, the parts pulled out and detailed at the side, on a sheet meant to be looked at. Mills became a subject for painters. Jacob van Ruisdael's Two Watermills and an Open Sluice (1653) puts the wheels, the rushing water and the timber frame at the centre of a landscape; two centuries on, Henri Rousseau painted a Sawmill, Outskirts of Paris (c. 1893–95).

SourceThe J. Paul Getty Museum, 82.PA.18 — getty.edu · The Art Institute of Chicago, 1950.133 — artic.edu · Museo Galileo, leonardo//thek@, ATL.2155.1

Wood Products — Menominee Tribal Enterprises sawmill, Wisconsin: log on the carriage at the band saw head (Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance program) — Preston Keres, USDA Forest Service — taken 14 January 2025 (Flickr set 20240809-FS-PJK, photo 005) — USDA Forest Service Photography, Flickr 54265292652; via Wikimedia Commons (3840 × 2160, cropped to 4:3) — 20240809-FS-PJK-005

Applications Today

Both halves of this machine are still at work. A modern band sawmill carries the log past the blade on a powered carriage, the job Leonardo's ratchet did; ratchets and pawls index conveyor lines, hoists and the winding gear of a clock. And moving water still turns the wheel: hydropower remains the world's largest source of renewable electricity, a turbine doing what a paddle wheel in a mill race did 500 years ago.

SourceUSDA Forest Service, Wood Products Infrastructure Assistance — fs.usda.gov · International Energy Agency, "Hydroelectricity" — iea.org

Leonardo, Codex Atlanticus f. 1078r, c. 1478–80 — the saw and its note

Did you know?

Written the right way round

His note on this sheet — the carriage "should be longer" — runs left to right, not in his mirror script: a note a carpenter could read.

One more thing

This kit was designed for the classroom: the sheet splits the machine into groups A to K, so teams each build a module and then join them into one saw — and the box holds a wooden Vitruvian Man medal for the winning team.

SourceARTOYA instruction sheet AV0118201, Aug 2026 — assembly groups A–K; medal at step 28/28

Leonardo did not invent this saw. He saw one working, drew it, and wrote down how to make it better.

Go deeper

The long read

A two-to-three-page article with more images and full explanations — printable. Coming for this model.

Build

How it comes together

Every part is cut and marked on the board; full instructions are on the sheet in the box. Once built, it stays built.

1

READ THE SHEET

Take your time — every detail counts. Check all the pieces are on the board.

2

ONE PIECE AT A TIME

Press out each piece only when the sheet calls for it.

3

THE WHEEL

Mount the water wheel and its gears; the crank must turn freely.

4

SAW AND CARRIAGE

Fit the blade frame in the tower, then the log carriage and ramps.

5

PAINT LAST

Once it stands — or keep it plain. No two are alike.

What it will not do

It will not saw timber, and water will not drive it. You turn the wheel by hand, and the blade stays plywood. It shows the motion — crank, blade, ratchet, carriage — not the force.

What it will give you

A saw that really cuts: wrap one of the thin paper sheets in the box around the log, and the blade cuts the paper as the carriage feeds it forward — one turning shaft doing two jobs, at hand speed.

Assembly instructions

Lost the sheet? Enter the box code printed inside the sleeve (product code + last 4 digits of the barcode) to download the instructions.

Teach

Lesson plan

Free with the code printed inside your box, or $4.95 on its own. Teachers: sign in for the full pack — plan, worksheet, answer key.

Grade band: 8–12
Duration: 90 min
Standards: MS-ETS1-1MS-PS2-2MS-PS3-16.G.A.47.G.A.37.G.B.6HSG-GMD.A.1VA:Cr2.1.8aVA:Cn11.1.HSI1.4
UK: KS3 Maths — 3-D shapes, nets · KS3 D&T — mechanical systems