PONTIAC, Ill. — At first, many who heard the shrill vibrato zinging like a bee across the fairgrounds mistook it for a high-pitched vintage steam engine whistle or the cry of a lonesome coyote.

Upon tracking the source, they found the sound was produced by Wendell Lighty, a 78-year-old retired farmer from Saunemin, Ill., who learned to play a musical saw eight years ago. He entertains with it today at churches, schools, nursing homes and other events.

“I consider it an art,” Lighty, who is referred to a sawist, said from the entertainment stage at the 64th annual Central States Threshermen’s Reunion Labor Day weekend. “I don’t read music, but I have mastered this. I play by ear, even though driving a tractor for years on the farm took its toll on my hearing.”

Although two days of nearly five inches of rain was a huge drain on attendance, Lighty’s performances still captivated visitors.

“This is a hand saw,” he told his audience. “The teeth are straight and sharp. You play the back of the saw with a cello bow, which is a little wider than a violin bow. It’s made of black horsehair, which is coarser than white hair and holds the rosin better when you’re playing on the edge of the steel. There’s two octaves in the sound of the saw.”

Most sawists sit to play. They squeeze the handle between their legs, teeth facing inward, and hold the far end of the blade with one hand. To sound a note, they bend the blade into an S-curve, adjusting it upward on the blade for a higher pitch, and toward the handle for a lower pitch.

Lighty learned the art from the late Gerald Bestrom of Hastings, Mich., also an Abraham Lincoln impressionist. “Now I’m hoping I can find a young person to carry this (musical saw tradition) on,” Lighty said. “I’m not going to last forever.”

This reunion is the nation’s second-oldest tractor, gasoline engine and vintage farm machinery show, and is staged at fairgrounds just north of Pontiac. The event was begun by a small group of old iron fanciers as a way to show their hobby to the public.

Gordon Ferguson of Morris, Ill., who directs the event, noted, “Many bring old farm tractors, some bring gas engines and others whatever their hobby is. Many want to see what the flea market at the show has to offer. Others are curious about vintage farm machinery.

“Still others enjoy the many activities, like sawmill and threshing demonstrations, tractor pulls, live music, the gigantic downtown parade on the fourth day and the daily afternoon Parade of Power on the fairgrounds.”

John Carroll of Graymont, Ill., displayed a 1997 version of what circle saw mills used to do. He demonstrated how the equipment sawed logs into lumber planks for a variety of uses. The logs, some three feet across, were uprooted in a storm on the Vermilion River in early July.

He also brought a log that “just showed up in my yard one day,” he said. “I have no idea where it came from. People know I have the sawmill and they just donate me logs.”

Dale Stockes, also of Graymont, said the days of rain cut into attendance, dumping more than three inches of precipitation on the grounds. “It’s been pretty muddy out here,” he said. “We’ve had rain before, but nothing like this.”

Stokes operated the club’s vintage sawmill, of unknown age, throughout the show. He noted that basically, it is a homemade piece of equipment; no name or other markings exist on the sawmill. Donated to the Central States club years ago, it is a permanent display on the grounds. A roof partially shelters it from the elements.

A couple of small-scale models of vintage steam engines that prowled the fairgrounds entranced many visitors. John Yoder of Gridley, Ill., drove a half-scale model of a steam engine he constructed with a friend. He built it because he’d always wanted an engine of his own.

He stayed away from the big, powerful steam engines “because you have to have a semi-trailer truck to haul one of those things, whereas I can haul this one on my own trailer and store it in my shop through the winter.”

Yoder’s engine was a model of a Case 65. He did not design it, but plans and parts were available for the model. Up to 100 or more of the scale models probably exist today, he said.

Neal Drummer of LaMoille, Ill., brought his 1920 Port Huron steam engine to the show and paraded it around the grounds to the delight of onlookers. He displayed the engine last month at the Stephenson County Antique Engine show in Freeport, Ill.

He said the black mental monster was “a part of the family.” “They wake up when you fire them up, and they go to sleep when you shut them down, just like a horse,” he said.

A quarter-scale model of a 1915 Case steam engine was proudly displayed by Dave Harms of Chillicothe, Ill. His grandfather once owned the full-size version. Completed in 1977, Harms spent three years building his model from castings and drawings supplied by Tom Turney of Valley Center, Kan.

“Turney has since passed on, and I don’t think you can get parts for the old girl any more,” Harms said. “I have all the drawings and everything, and I’ve had to make some parts and repairs.”

Harms is a former director of the Central States show, as was his father. He said the model burns Pocahontas coal, mined in Pennsylvania. “You have to use a very high-quality coal, otherwise the flues and that are so small on the model that they plug up with soot right away,” he said.

“There’s a lot of problems with running the scale models that you don’t have with the bigger engines.” Harms and his son, Matt, sit on a little cart behind the engine to drive the model.