A Versatile Sawmill for a Versatile Builder

The Ozark National Forest spans 1.2 million acres and is located predominantly in the Ozark Mountains in northern Arkansas, USA.

Just a few miles south lives Henry C Johnson with his extended family. Henry grew up on a 30 acre farm in the foothills of the mountains with Pine, Red Cedar, Black Walnut and Oak all around. Henry bought the farm land from his father and still lives on it.

As a child Henry enjoyed building things out of wood, and from an early age he wanted to become a carpenter. Henry remembers that time well: “We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had all we needed. I milked a cow every day when I was 13 years old. I also hauled hay bales on neighbouring properties and was paid 2 cents a bale. I managed to save $225 that summer! My favourite job though was building houses. I learned how to work hard and enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done”.

It is no small wonder then that Henry ended up as a professional builder. Among his best achievements to date, Henry, now 70 years old has built his own house and houses for four of his seven children.

The buildings are based on their own designs.  Although some of the wood used in building them was purchased from the local lumber stores, wherever possible (to save money) they used lumber sourced from Yellow Pine, Eastern Red Cedar and Oak grown on their farm.

Henry started looking for a sawmill that was economical to use and that could cut logs accurately into rough sawn lumber. After researching thoroughly he decided to get a swing blade sawmill: “It seemed to me that swingblade sawmills were much less work than bandsaw mills. It’s easier to sharpen 6 teeth than 60 or however many a bandsaw has.” To decrease downtime, the Peterson blade can be sharpened while it is still on the mill, in less than 10 minutes, and without having to remove any guards. Every new swingblade sawmill comes with a diamond-coated sharpener.

Henry: “To me Peterson is by far the best swingblade sawmill on the market. While I don’t use my sawmill every day, it’s always ready for me when I need it. Even though I use the saw mostly in the same place it’s always good to know if I need to move it, it’s fairly easy to do so.”