Thursday:
“You must be Dave Boyt,” said fellow sawyer and Norwood ambassador William Prophett, who introduced himself with a hearty handshake almost before I got out of the car at Norwood’s new facility in Barrie, Ontario. Though the actual Open House event was still two days away, I had been invited to join a half-dozen other YouTube personalities in a round table discussion with Norwood’s CEO and a team of engineers, designers, and customer support staff. Even though most of us had never met in person, it took no time at all to jump into a lively discussion, fueled by our common passion for sawmilling and, of course, the initiation ritual of having built our own sawmill.
We discussed how Norwood could help us, both as sawyers and as YouTube & Instagram ambassadors, to have the tools we need for our sawmill operations and in getting the word out about Norwood. I’ve never seen such brand loyalty, even among us Husqvarna chain saw owners! We swapped ideas about cameras, video editing, which blade works best in spruce, the pros and cons of diesel, gasoline, and electric power, and new products we’d like to see.
After lunch, we headed over to the R&D area. Lockheed’s “Skunk Works” has nothing on these guys! Some of the projects are in early development, so I can’t write about them at this time, but the PTO-powered wood chipper, new line of sawmill blades, and the automated blade sharpening/ setting system are a few that have gone from the drawing board to production. This much I will say about this inside tour—Norwood has a vision for the future. Other sawmill companies will soon be wondering “why didn’t WE think of that?”. I’m proud to be part of it!
From there, we visited the tech support call center. It is a great example of the teamwork at Norwood. The team is clustered together in an open area and any of the staff can consult with a colleague if they need help with a problem. I had to resist the urge to join them and take a few calls myself. And here’s an interesting piece of trivia about Norwood: every employee—from sales staff to tech support, even accounting-- starts out by assembling a sawmill! Not only does this give them first-hand experience, but they are also requested to note any area where the instructions could be improved.
Friday:
A dozen or so people had signed up for a day of sawmill instruction. The weather was perfect! I spent the morning demonstrating sawmilling techniques on a manual HD36v2 sawmill. We went through log handling, reading the log scale, milling live edge slabs and cutting and edging dimension lumber. In the afternoon, I ran an advanced class on the HD38 Max with full hydraulics, power feed, and computer-controlled setworks. What a difference! I’m used to just running the mill solo, and if there are going to be any glitches, it will be when people are watching. Fortunately, a sharp-eyed sawyer noticed that the log stops looked too high for a cut, and I lowered them to avoid demonstrating what happens when the blade tries to cut through metal! After covering the basics, I showed off the machine's capability to quarter-saw a 25-inch diameter pine log, and wound up with some beautiful lumber that I wished I could get in the overhead luggage area for the flight home.
That night, Norwood treated employees and ambassadors to a terrific dinner. Unfortunately, this ol’ dude was too tuckered out to join them. Just as well, as I later learned that the festivities lasted until around 1:00 the next morning.
Saturday:
“Game changer”. Those words floated through the air with the sawdust, enthusiasm, camaraderie, and aroma of grilled chicken. I spent most of the day doing sawmill demonstrations, talking with people, catching up with some of my friends from the “old days”, and meeting some new friends. A lot had changed in the five years since the previous open house, but it was good to be greeted by the 20-foot tall inflatable Norwood lumberjack… but where did all those yellow sawmills come from?? I was aware that Norwood had a line of lower-priced small sawmills under the “Frontier” name, but these were solid, well-built mills, ranging from small manual mills to full-size mills capable of handling 35-inch diameter logs—one even had hydraulics on it!
Sawmills weren’t the only game changers at the show. Norwood is also taking care of getting the logs to the mill with their hydraulic logging winch, log arch, and three-point skidder. The new PTO-powered wood chipper also got a lot of attention, especially considering the concern about logging residue contributing to the spread of wildfires. The open house included a big sale, and people were carrying out boxes of sawmill blades, spare parts, and Norwood “merch” including shirts, sweaters, coats, and hats.
As much as I love sawmills and everything that goes with them, the REAL game changers are the people who work at Norwood. Everyone—sales staff, tech support, customer service, engineers, and top business executives went all-out to set up the open house and make everyone feel welcome. Master sawyers Trevor Greenhalgh and Brian Shellswell demonstrated mills, kept the machines fueled up, moved stacks of slabs and lumber and, in general, made sure the demonstrations were going smoothly. Kelly Rogers was absolutely everywhere with irresistible enthusiasm, good humor, and distinctive “Aussie” hat. Even the Norwood CEO and CFO rolled up their sleeves to grill up and serve more chicken and hot dogs than we could possibly eat while we enjoyed lively banter and live music. Naturally, the lunch had to be interrupted by speeches, and I was presented with a certificate of appreciation and “Tough Duck” Norwood merchandise. I was asked to say a few words but, truth be known, I was so overwhelmed that I still have no idea what I said.
By the end of the day, Norwood had sold EVERY sawmill on display, except for a fully decked-out HD38. I was just starting to help fold up chairs and clean up when Trev tapped me and asked me to bring the new owner up to speed (in less than an hour!) on that very machine. So, we threw another log on the mill and went through the basics. By the time we were finished I was more than ready to call it a day.
A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped make the open house a true celebration, and welcome to everyone who attended. This event was a real high point in my life, and I can’t wait to see what new possibilities open up at next year’s open house! Wherever you are on your sawmill journey I wish you joy and health.
By the way, here is a list of the ambassadors’ YouTube channels. Be sure to visit them, give a thumbs up, and subscribe. There are many other YouTube content creators who show off their Norwood sawmills, so support them, as well. I expect some of them will be recognized as ambassadors. If you are posting your Open House experiences to social media, thank you for sharing!
- William Prophett, Pirate Solutions Forestry
- Tony’s Tractor Adventure Homestead
- Sawdust Society
- Red Tool House
- Pop’s Barn
- Bearwoods Northwest, Custom Millworks
- Josh Watson