Stories

Kyle Snellenberger had the creative idea of using an entire log for one piece of furniture, so he milled and made a one-of-a-kind statement piece for a hotel lobby in Louisiana.

Residing in Salida, Colorado, Parker Dunbar used his Wood-Mizer LT15 portable sawmill to create a brand-new yoga studio for his fiancé, Jillayne.

Bryan Summerlin and his family used their portable sawmill to create a beautiful pavilion, covered bridge, wraparound deck, and outdoor bench at the Neal Creek Resort in Scio, Oregon.

Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, Paul Gangloff went from electrician to sawyer, opening his own sawmilling business, Riverside Logging and Sawmilling.

Located on the beautiful shore of Lake Superior in Wisconsin, woodworker and sawyer Joshua Swan has been building unique wooden boats for more than two decades.

Good Wood Nashville, located in scenic Nashville, Tennessee, is dedicated to turning salvaged and reclaimed wood from tragedies, natural disasters, and urban development into amazing works of art including a once-in-a-lifetime project with Belmont University.

Farm owners Bill Finnegan and Amy Finnegan along with their friend, Jon Scott, used a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill to mill trees from their farm and build the stunning Trinity Knot Chapel in Connecticut as a place to thank God for their blessings.

Located in the lush rolling hills of Piketon, Ohio, Brandon Wooldridge and his son Bryce run their own sawmill business, Deep Woods Lumber Co. The family owned and operated sawmill business was established in 1998 and recently upgraded their equipment to a Wood-Mizer WM4500 industrial sawmill system to carry on their long family tradition of sawmilling.

Part of the "Our Beginnings" documentary series, "Going Global" shares the story of Wood-Mizer's humble beginnings to serving customers on six continents throughout the world with globally-recognized sawmill and woodworking equipment.

Part of the "Our Beginnings" documentary series, "Sawmill #1 – A Special Start" shares the story of Wood-Mizer's first portable sawmill.

Part of the "Our Beginnings" documentary series, "The Legacy of Don and Dan" shares the story of Wood-Mizer's two founders - Don Laskowski and Dan Tekulve.

Part of the Wood-Mizer 40th Year video documentary series, “Our Beginnings” is the 25-minute short film featuring the inspiring story of Wood-Mizer - the product, company, and philosophy.

Located in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan, family-owned and operated Wilson Enterprises has provided high-quality evergreen and wood products for home décor, construction, and craft projects since 1985. Recently, the company invested in a Wood-Mizer WB2000 industrial sawmilling system to process logs to finished products all in-house while offering their wood products in close to 5,000 retail stores throughout the United States. 

“Scotland is beautiful with its landscapes, numerous castles, and unpredictable weather. Travelers going north of Edinburgh get to Perth, where they might think it’s the last bastion of civilization, but over the mountains, there is Inverness. With its microclimate and fertile grounds, this surprisingly warm little section of Northern Scotland is perfect for growing good timber,” says Ronald Munro Ferguson, the owner of Novar Sawmill.

Located within the city limits of Atlanta, Georgia, the nonprofit sawmill, Atlanta Wood Foundation, was established in 2021 to save damaged, diseased, and fallen urban trees from the landfill while providing high-quality wood to the surrounding woodworking community.

Located along the beautiful Pacific coastline in Seaside, Oregon, Marlborough Milling produces rough-sawn lumber as well as custom wood furniture with a Wood-Mizer LT50 Hydraulic portable sawmill.

A 17-year-old sawyer, Max Smith, has been learning the craft of sawing lumber on an entry-level manual sawmill. Recently, Max upgraded to an LT40 Super Hydraulic portable sawmill for his sawmill business in New Brunswick.

As an experienced tree faller, Jimmy Pleym has dedicated his skills to becoming a custom sawmiller in British Columbia. With the help of master sawyer and mentor Mark Thornley, Jimmy and his wife Val founded Alpine Wood Products using their LT40 Hydraulic and LT15WIDE.

Nelson Wood Shims, the largest shim manufacturer in North America, recently installed an industrial sawmill system from leading wood processing equipment manufacturer, Wood-Mizer, at its state-of-the-art, high volume sawmill facility in Minnesota, USA.

Hectorspruit-based JRM Pallets is investing in continued growth to unlock timber opportunities in South Africa and the region.

With the combination of being a woodworker and owning a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill, Gregg Turk was able to build an incredible new wooden sleigh for Santa Claus.

Located in Northern Wisconsin, in the small town of Antigo, Travis Allen and Logan Wells have dedicated their talents to teaching sawmilling and woodworking at Northcentral Technical College (NTC). In doing so, Travis and Logan have set their sights on educating and preparing the next generation of woodworkers and forest products professionals.

Chuck Vance has spent the last thirty years shaping his 39 acres of forest near Sandy, Oregon. Chuck’s forest can provide enough logs each year to sustainably support his sawmill, benefiting his environmental goals and his community’s goals as well. Through those years he has sequestered more than 50 million pounds of CO2 equivalent in greenhouse gases.

Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Manayunk Timber is a family-owned and operated urban sawmill that uses their Wood-Mizer portable sawmill to preserve the city’s rich history.

A recently commissioned Wood-Mizer Industrial sawmill line at Panbult Denne Saagmeule in Mpumalanga flexes its muscles.

Located in Yagoona, New South Wales, Australia, Bass Mahmood and his team at Aus Arbor use a Wood-Mizer LT15WIDE portable sawmill to recycle trees destined for removal into usable timber.

Rajesh Agarwal and his team of 25 at Sunder Lumbers in Anjar, Kutch, Gujarat, India, mill a large quantity of logs into functional lumber that is sold across India.

The northern region of New Zealand’s South Island is home to a temperate climate with good rainfall – creating the perfect condition for rapid growth in the plantation forestry industry. In 2012, Justin Wells saw an opportunity in milling local tree species, and Logs 2 Lumber began.

Arthur and Valerie Flores of Tumacacori Mesquite Sawmill in southern Arizona milled and made a unique mesquite treehouse with their Wood-Mizer portable sawmill.

After dreaming and planning for decades, George Coker milled and made the Mulberry Chapel on his 450-acre farm in Georgia with his Wood-Mizer portable sawmill.

Jerry Ball achieved his dream of building a rustic log cabin in Ontario with help from his team of logging horses and his Wood-Mizer portable sawmill.

Stan Kujala built a dream greenhouse on his lakeside property in Port Alberni, British Columbia with Douglas fir and cedar milled on his Wood-Mizer portable sawmill.

West Coast Custom Timber on Vancouver Island has experienced growth in demand and repeat customers with a Wood-Mizer hydraulic portable sawmill and board edger.

Travel across a small footbridge from Andrew Koessler’s main cabin in British Columbia and find a picturesque creek-side guest cabin milled and made with a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill.

Ken Postema, My Wood-Mizer Project Contest award-winner and woodworker from Michigan, USA uses his Wood-Mizer portable sawmill and planer/moulder to build tens of thousands of wooden toy cars for Operation Christmas Child.

Vickie Knapp shares her story of sawmilling in Trapper Creek, Alaska with her late husband and their Wood-Mizer LT40 portable sawmill.

In 2017, tragedy struck Livengood Pallet Services when a fire devastated their business. Now, with the help of three Wood-Mizer Pallet Hawg® machines, Livengood Pallets is back in business recycling pallet material and building combo pallets.

Restoration Sawmill's goal is helping men struggling with addiction in Indiana, USA. With a LT40HD portable sawmill, they are able to sustain their non-profit mission and, more importantly, teach men the values of hard-work and service.

Located in southern Ontario, Rustic and Reclaimed's unique business model includes offering demolition services for old, unused barns and salvaging the wood. This wood, as well as other logs salvaged by the company, are processed on a Wood-Mizer LT28 and turned into usable lumber and live edge slabs.

The Wood Project is a salvage sawmilling business started by Sarah and Nath Worth in Victoria, Australia. Starting out primarily as a firewood business, Sarah and Nath added a Wood-Mizer LT50 WIDE hydraulic portable sawmill and a wood drying kiln to their operation and now produce furniture and other finished timber products.

Looking for a change of pace, farmer Dave Slingerland seized the opportunity to buy HC Forest Products, a custom sawmilling company in southern Alberta. More than a decade later, Dave has no regrets.

Steve Kesti, owner of Backwoods Lumber and volunteer firefighter, uses his Wood-Mizer LT40 hydraulic portable sawmill and MP260 planer/moulder to produce and sell lumber for cabins, chicken coops, siding, flooring and other products in Michigan, USA.

Island Specialty Timbers in Tasmania, Australia, utilize an LT70 Super Hydraulic portable sawmill and other wood processing equipment to ensure that customers enjoy all the benefits of the unique wood species growing on the island.

On the secluded Gambier Island off the British Columbia Coast, Mike Collier utilized his Wood-Mizer LT15 portable sawmill to turn local trees into lumber in order to build his dream project: a beautiful island home.

Fourth-generation farmer Adrian Hood and his father Randy are growing a successful sawmill business which includes the production of high-value live edge wood slabs, heirloom furniture, and dimensional lumber with a Wood-Mizer wide cut sawmill and slab flattening mill.

Five feet from the shore of the Salish Sea in British Columbia, Canada stands a majestic cedar chapel artfully crafted from locally salvaged dead cedar trees by 80-year-old retired mathematics professor Lowell Hinrichs and his Wood-Mizer portable sawmill.

The Narrow Gate Foundation has helped more than 500 young men discover a relationship with Jesus Christ while finding and pursuing their life’s purpose through woodworking.

Select-A-Fence located in New South Wales, provides property development and timber construction for people who are escaping to the country or need a property upgrade for their rural Australian lifestyle.

Morris Sawmill and Lumber supplies sawn timber for custom homes, wood decks, and fences in British Columbia with a Wood-Mizer LT40 hydraulic portable sawmill.

Retired police officer Gary Phillips is using his 45 acre woodlot in Nova Scotia and Wood-Mizer LT35 hydraulic portable sawmill to help people struggling with PTSD.

After the Southern Hemisphere’s most-powerful cyclone hit the Fijian islands in 2016, a group of dedicated missionaries and volunteers traveled from Montana, Alabama, Tennessee, Iowa, Oregon, and California to begin an extensive rebuilding project that resulted in more than 600 homes built for dozens of Fijian island communities.

Henry Brown has worked the Grange Farm with his father and now as sole proprietor in the village of Rosedale Abbey in England for more than 20 years. On the 300-acre farm located in the heart of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park, Henry and his wife manage 400 mule breeding sheep, 1,200 pigs, horses, two bed & breakfast cottages, and a timber business. “I have such a varied job description,” Henry laughs. “Whether it is managing the cottages, the farming side, the timber side, every day is different.” However, diversity to keep the farm consistently profitable was not always the case.

Why swing with an old bat, when you can swing with a Young one. In the mountains of North Carolina, the family-owned and operated Young Bat Company handcrafts wooden baseball bats from forest to field for everyone from little leaguers to Hall of Fame caliber players.

On a small Caribbean island, a family-owned sawmilling shop is providing handcrafted wood furniture, woodworking repairs, and lumber sales to customers as far away as the United States.

At the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan, world-renowned woodworker Tak Yoshino creates custom, handcrafted chairs that promote proper and healthy posture through the practice of Zen. As a result of his chairs receiving worldwide acclaim and an increasing number of woodworkers learning Japanese carpentry from Tak, he is currently building a woodworking school with sustainably harvested timber from his own forest.

By sawing urban wood with a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill, Megan Offner and New York Heartwoods are reducing wood disposal expenses, redirecting material from the waste stream, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, fueling the demand for local wood products, and growing an exciting new economy.

On the outskirts of Buffalo, New York in the small town of Holland, is the hard-working family sawmilling business Holland Timber Company. Starting as a portable sawmill for homeowners, the business has evolved to a production mill supplying cabinetry, flooring, and pallet manufacturers throughout the Northeast United States.

Wheeler Mission Pallet and Industry produces high quality pallets while rehabilitating a workforce through Christ-centered programs.

Sometimes the size of a business is less important than the potential impact a company can have on the community it serves. Mountain Works’ core approach to business revolves around its function as a demonstration project seeking to bring about change in the way most forestry and agriculture is done in America.

Teaming up with Youth with a Mission (YWAM), several Wood-Mizer employees and family members traveled to Costa Rica to build a housing structure for visiting missionaries in the area. Here are a few first-hand experiences from the mission team’s travels.

Established in 2010 as a collaboration between an ISA Certified Arborist and a sustainable building consultant, Josh Greenspan and Alex Woodbury of Kamuela Hardwoods save logs from the landfill to create locally-sourced, high-quality, salvaged lumber for islander woodworkers, builders, and instrument makers in their Hawaiian community.

Missionary Jesse Pryor returned to Papua New Guinea where he was born and raised to build churches, schools, and medical facilities for the local community in the remote jungle.

One of Wood-Mizer’s smallest sawmills was used to cut 50% of the timber for the world’s largest freestanding timber frame structure – a Biblically-sized reconstruction of Noah’s Ark.

Missionary Glen Chapman shares how one small sawmill in Congo has improved lives in amazing ways.

Billy Reeder didn’t just build a cabin by milling his own lumber with a portable sawmill, he built a new life. A simple life. A good life.

Timber frame structures are known for their big, heavy, dramatic designs and David Watters of The Beamery based in Indiana uses his Wood-Mizer portable sawmill to build them.

Paul Grainger is an engineer at heart. Whether it’s restoring motorcycles, repairing farm machinery or building timber-framed roofs, he can turn his hand to it. An eye for detail and a healthy dose of passion for carpentry has seen him build a diverse, busy business across North Yorkshire in England. Having three Wood-Mizer LT40 sawmills since starting the business has helped him go from selling waste wood on eBay to becoming an intrinsic part of a multi-million-pound restoration project at a luxury rural hotel.

Recognized as one of Tasmania’s finest wood furniture craftsmen, fourth generation woodworker Craig Howard turns sustainable sourced timber into handmade furniture in Tasmania’s capital city of Hobart.

Tasmanian Native Timbers is a boutique family-owned sawmill and timber supply business based in the Northwest of Tasmania, Australia. Our sawmill had been operated at the same location for more than ten years when we took over the business from the previous owner. It has been run by the Bird family including myself, Helen and Nelson for just over 3 years.

Ogonek Custom Hardwoods in East-Central Ohio grew out of a family's love for a place that represents much more than an investment. With deep family roots, Dan and his family enjoy building and assembling timber frames with their LT50 sawmill.

Lincoln Dobson of Last Mountain Timber Wrighting in Saskatchewan turns reclaimed wood from demolished buildings into timber frame structures, building components, and heirloom-quality furniture.

Located on two acres in Kamloops, British Columbia, Valley View Industries produces and sells a variety of cedar products including gazebos, fencing, and more to customers throughout North America and Japan.

Fifth generation Brooks Sawmill in Alberta, Canada produces lumber, beams, and heavy timbers for high-profile movie sets, log homes, furniture, and landowners.

Located on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada, Larch Wood handcrafts wooden end grain cutting boards from sustainably managed and harvested larch trees. In addition to its beautiful colouring and grain patterns, Larch Wood specialises in end grain cutting boards because they are durable and feature a self-healing cutting surface.

Mack Lowery turned a tragedy into a dream come true when he finished his stunning hand built, two-story, timber frame home in the dense woodlands of Mississippi. The first log cabin Mack originally built as a young man in 1976 burned in a massive fire that left his family homeless and devastated.

Harrop-Procter Community Co-op in southeastern British Columbia, Canada is sustainably managing the community forest while also benefiting the local economy and community.

The family-owned and operated L. Garbers & Sons Sawmill in Northwest Ohio was established in 1997 by Luther and Kathryn Garbers and their two sons David and Marty. What started out as a side business with a portable sawmill has grown into a full-time operation with a high-production industrial sawmilling system producing thousands of board feet daily of pallet material, cut stock, blocking, and grade lumber in Wauseon, Ohio.

Thomas Orderud, owner and operator of DesignIce, started harvesting ice from a local lake in Southeastern Norway about 15 years ago. Today Thomas can supply “everything from ice cubes to ice hotels” from his frosty 400 square meter workshop. Even in the winter he keeps the temperature at a steady -5 degrees Celcius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) so his 500-600 ton stock of ice blocks stay frozen solid.

Eric Savics and Danny Hagge established Van Urban Timber to produce live-edge slabs and custom wood furniture from locally salvaged urban trees in Vancouver, British Columbia.

G.L. Wood Products in New Brunswick, Canada manufactures a variety of wood products including wooden boxes, pallets, stickers & laths, and dunnage with two Wood-Mizer six-head horizontal resaws.

With eight years of hard work and dedication, along with a few helpers and a Wood-Mizer portable sawmill, Nathan accomplished his lifelong dream of building his own home.

Cody and Ashley Koke run Timber Koke’s Sawmill, a custom milling operation in Brooklyn, Prince Edward Island. Established in 2015, Timber Koke’s specializes in supplying hardwood material for lobster traps as well as dimensional lumber for both homeowners and professional clients.

Just outside of Edinburgh, Scotland, Sandy Crook has retired from his full time tree surgeon business to spend more time with what he really enjoys, seeing timber turned into final products. With his full complement of Wood-Mizer sawmills and new MP360 planer/moulder, he can do everything in-house.

Brampton Woodworks is an English carpentry workshop that specializes in building wooden footbridges and footpath signs. Recently, the number of orders from local authorities was increasing and they needed to purchase a new sawmill which would increase capacity and boost productivity. After thorough research they settled on the new Wood-Mizer LX450. “We found that the LX450 offered us larger capacity, we can put larger saw logs on,” says Robert Jeffrey, owner of Brampton Woodworks.

In Dunfermline, a little village north of Edinburgh, Scottish Wood has grown substantially over the past 20 years. They are a social enterprise - a charity which owns a sawmill and supplies local builders with locally grown timber. “We are primarily a hardwood sawmill. We cut homegrown, Scottish grown hardwoods and also some larch and Douglas fir,” Jim Birley from Scottish Wood says.

The night was dark and stormy. August is still the dry season, but a tropical thunderstorm accompanied by lots of wind was bearing down on Kikongo, a small village deep in Congo. I was far away in the capitol city of Kinshasa that fateful night, so my wife Rita alone worked to close all the windows and put the barrels out under the water spouts to capture the precious water after months of no rainfall. In the midst of the storm, she heard a tremendous earth shaking crash outside the house. A tree had fallen close by, she knew that right away. She heard a panicked voice at the door and her heart jumped into her throat when she saw who it was.

In June of 2017, due to an unusually dry summer a devastating fire quickly spread engulfed the area around the village of Knysna, South Africa. The fire killed seven people and destroyed over 1,000 homes and businesses, leaving at least 10,000 citizens without a place to live. Daniel Hennessey, owner of Timber Village Furniture Manufacturers in Knysna, was among those affected by the fire.

In the East Coast region of Malaysia, in the State of Kelantan, just outside of the town of Kota Bharu, Mohd Nazmie lives with his family. He’s a schoolteacher. And he’s a woodworker and sawmiller. He salvages trees that otherwise would have been burned. He produces and sells live-edge furniture for friends and local clients. Thanks to a daring investment in an LT15 sawmill, he has opened up a whole niche industry to himself.

How the Philippines developed a plan to salvage illegally-logged timber that was left rotting after being apprehended by authorities, using the valuable timber to produce...

In order to interview Mr. Hutter for the article and video, we packed all our video gear onto the train and began the ascent of Mount Rigi. Known as a ‘cogwheel’ train, the train rests on tracks like any other, but has an additional gear that attached to a cogged track between the two smooth ones. The gear locks into this cogged track, pulling the train up the unusually steep mountainside railway to the summit of Mount Rigi.

“The idea came from a trip through Norway and Iceland where my wife and I saw quite a few green roof structures on sheds and commercial buildings,” he said. “It triggered an idea that I wanted one at home.”

After 25 years working as a carpenter, John Price starting Smithfield Joinery in the year 2000, his son Leigh joining after his military service. Seven years ago, they implemented a woodland management plan for their acreage. They wanted the woodland to be able to work for itself – to be beautiful and useable at the same time. To do so required thinking about the future of the woodland, how it would be used, and how to maintain it.

Developed by missionary philanthropist John Enright, a co-op style honey initiative, is taking off in Zambia, and improving lives for the 10,000 individuals already involved.

James Thomson of Glenrothes, Scotland started Thomson Timber in 2007. Previously trained as a mechanical design engineer, he had worked in Australia and Edinburgh before returning home and taking up teaching woodworking for twenty years.

The WM1000, which can cut logs up to 1.7m diameter in the centre, was originally designed to meet demand for a cost-effective machine to saw tropical hardwood logs in Asia and Africa, but at Copford Farm Sawmill in Sussex it is proving its worth cutting large diameter oak prized for top grade joinery as well as quarter-sawn material for furniture.