Our Kiwi brothers are a surprising and innovative lot, but one invention stands out from the rest.
Peterson Sawmills is located in Rotorua, a smelly town sated with sulphur dioxide, in clean-green New Zealand. It has not curbed the enthusiasm nor invention by the Peterson family, now celebrating thirty years of service across the world. According to an American reviewer on their elaborate website, Peterson portable sawmills are as robust as any other but its engineering and longevity, is a cut above the rest.
“Copying is the greatest compliment but try as they might, copycats still cannot replicate our machinery nor its versatility,” says, Maurice van Liempd, Peterson’s marketing specialist.
The portable sawmills use circular tungsten blades, which last longer than band saw blades. They get about six years out of a blade and they can be sharpened quickly, without removal from the mill; handy when you are deep in a forest.
Carl Peterson started the ball rolling in 1989 with an innovative lesson for fixed machinery, by releasing ‘the world’s first commercially available portable sawmill’, according to Maurice. They may have won their share of awards but quality, service and versatility remain the hallmarks of Peterson’s success. When Carl retired and handed the reins to daughter Kerris and her husband Chris Browne, competition was fierce.