Sawmill ‘Het Klaverblad’

The name ‘Klaverblad’ (‘Cloverleaf’) refers to the miller’s four daughters…
Slat-sawing mill ‘Het Klaverblad’ is the impressive result of thirty years of dedication by the owner, who built this mill himself. This rocker mill is built on top of a balcony, and was incorporated into Stichting ‘Het Klaverblad’ (The Cloverleaf Foundation) in 1986. The mill includes a bandsaw that enables sawing tasks to be performed easily, and the barn on the premises is available for events. Construction of the mill commenced in 1973, and thanks to perseverance and the investment of private financial resources, was completed in 2005. It is a ‘lattenpikker’, meaning ‘slat chopper’, which is a sawmill intended for cutting smaller timber sizes. The owner also built the little house on the water (the ‘skaithoisie’) himself. The text on the door, in unadulterated Zaan dialect, reads: ‘Manne, Allienig as je met de broek of moete magge jollie op het skaithoisie. Aars in het riet pisse’. Freely translated, this means: ‘Men, you can only use the shithouse when you have to drop your pants; other than that, you must pee in the reeds’. Upon completing the work in 2005, the owner named the mill after his greatest source of joy: his four daughters. He and his family spent almost all of their weekends and holidays in the cottage on the mill grounds so that Dad could keep working on his mill. The mill is now managed by one of the daughters. ‘Het Klaverblad’ is not just a mill; it’s a deeply personal story of dedication and significance for the owner and his family.

Ruud Pos is the builder and owner of sawmill ‘Het Klaverblad’