TURBOSAWMILL
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A life of invention. A family legacy.

RememberingCarlPetersonThe man behind the legend.

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A father, inventor, writer and storyteller. A pioneer of the portable swing-blade sawmill. Remembered for the ideas he brought to life, and for the depth, warmth and spirit of the man himself.

Carl Peterson looking through a photograph of an early sawmill, seated at home.
Carl, looking back at an early sawmill photograph.
A personal tributeBy his son, Jake Peterson
Remembering Carl1945–2026
From the family archivePhotographs, films & memories

01 / Remembering Dad

An inventive mind.
A soulful man.

To people who encountered his machines, Carl Peterson was a sawmill pioneer. To me, he was Dad. Those two parts of his life belong together: the curiosity that drove his work was also part of the person we knew and loved.

Dad could become completely absorbed in an idea. He wanted to understand things for himself, question what others took for granted, and see whether a problem could be solved more simply. He had the patience to keep thinking, and the determination to turn that thinking into something you could put to work.

But his curiosity reached far beyond machinery. He was a writer and storyteller, a deeply thoughtful man drawn to questions of meaning, spirituality and the world beyond the material. He could be intensely focused, yet warm, down to earth and easy to like.

His partner, his children, his grandchildren and the people close to him knew a life larger than any invention. In remembering Dad, we want to keep that whole person in view.

Carl Peterson seated outdoors between his two sons.
Carl with his two sons — a family moment worth keeping.

The person we remember

His ideas travelled.
His presence stayed with us.

There is a particular kind of memory held in an ordinary photograph: Dad studying an old picture, sitting beside his sons, or pausing alongside a stack of timber. These are the moments that give the story its heart.

The machines explain part of his life. His humour, sincerity, insight and connection with others explain why he mattered so much to the people around him. That is the Carl we want this memorial to preserve.

02 / In his own words

Still here.
In his own voice.

Recorded only a month or two before his passing, this conversation preserves Carl recalling his earliest mill and the adventures around it. Hearing him tell it is a treasured part of our family archive.

Play film

Personal recollections / Looking back to 1988

Carl remembers the beginning

Carl’s own account of his early swing-blade sawmill. The year in the original video title refers to that early history, not the recording date.

Watch on YouTube ↗

03 / From necessity to invention

It began with
a practical need.

In Fiji, Dad needed a way to turn logs into useful timber. His early experiment paired chainsaw power with a circular blade; horizontal and vertical cuts initially required repositioning the assembly by hand.

The upheaval of 1987 brought our family to New Zealand. Starting again in Rotorua, he developed a swinging mechanism and built with the materials he could find. Agricultural demonstrations helped turn that resourcefulness into a commercial sawmill business.

His portable swing-blade design helped change how people worked with timber. Operators could take a mill to a log and cut boards with a blade that changed between horizontal and vertical positions. It was a practical idea with far-reaching consequences.

Black-and-white archive photograph of Carl Peterson’s early chainsaw-powered sawmill.
An early chainsaw-powered mill from Carl’s archive.

A few turning points

A life that kept
moving forward.

  1. Fiji

    Necessity starts the experiment

    A need for timber prompts Carl’s earliest milling ideas.

  2. A new beginning in Rotorua

    After leaving Fiji, the family rebuilds its life in New Zealand.

  3. Late 1980s

    An idea becomes a business

    Demonstrations and commercial development bring his portable swing-blade sawmill to a wider audience.

  4. 2000s

    Father and son build together

    Jake develops automation; Carl supports the work. Their partnership leads to Turbosawmill.

  5. His memories, in his own voice

    A late-life recording preserves Carl’s recollections for the family and future sawmillers.

Carl and Jake Peterson standing beside an early red Turbosawmill prototype.
Carl and Jake with their first Turbosawmill prototype.

04 / Building together

A father’s belief.
A shared direction.

I learned in Dad’s workshop, beginning with the everyday jobs and working my way into welding, assembly and design. When I became absorbed in automation, he backed the development.

Later, we began a new chapter together: Turbosawmill. Our work explored open access around the log, a monorail layout and simpler automation. The films below preserve the experiments as well as the machines that followed.

That support is part of what I remember most. Dad understood the pull of an unfinished idea. Having him beside me meant that a difficult problem could become a conversation, a trial, and another attempt.

His contribution remains in our approach: look carefully, question the complication, and keep working towards something useful.

The work behind the ideas

Out in the timber.

The archive follows Carl into the milling day: working at the machine, maintaining the blade and seeing the timber his ideas could produce.

Carl Peterson carrying a sawn board beside an early Turbosawmill.
Carl working with timber during an early M12 milling job.
Carl crouched beside the circular saw blade, sharpening it.
Sharpening the blade — part of the work, every day.
Carl seated beside high stacks of freshly sawn timber.
Carl beside the timber from a large milling contract.

05 / The photograph archive

The history.
Held in pictures.

Early designs, newspaper clippings, recognition and another generation learning the work. Select any photograph to enlarge it, then move through the archive.

A newspaper clipping from the family’s Fiji archive.
A newspaper clipping from the family’s Fiji archive.
Early press coverage of the portable sawmill.
Early press coverage of the portable sawmill.
An early Peterson Portable Sawing Systems advertisement.
An early Peterson Portable Sawing Systems advertisement.
An early frame and milling setup from the family archive.
An early frame and milling setup from the family archive.
A collection of awards and certificates associated with Carl and Jake’s work.
A collection of awards and certificates associated with Carl and Jake’s work.
Jake with an innovation award — another chapter in the family’s work.
Jake with an innovation award — another chapter in the family’s work.
Jake with an early chainsaw-powered Turbosawmill.
Jake with an early chainsaw-powered Turbosawmill.
Quinn learning the work with a Warrior sawmill.
Quinn learning the work with a Warrior sawmill.
A United States patent certificate cover from the Turbosawmill archive.
A United States patent certificate cover from the Turbosawmill archive.

The patent photograph shows the certificate cover; it does not identify the patent number or its claims. Historical photographs document earlier machines and working practices.

06 / The moving archive

Watch the story
take shape.

These films bring together the development history and supporting videos from our original pages. Dated films are arranged by the years given in the family archive. Carl’s recorded recollections appear above.

Experiments & further memories

Every film has a direct YouTube link as well as an in-page player. Films start only when you choose to play them.

07 / What carries on

Three generations.
One enduring curiosity.

Now my son Quinn is learning the work too. Seeing him weld, assemble and operate a mill brings the family story into another generation.

What carries forward is more than a set of designs. It is the willingness to become interested in a problem, learn through doing, and make something better with the knowledge you have.

Dad’s influence also lives with the sawmillers who put his ideas to use: people making timber for a home, earning a living, or finding greater independence in their work. Each has their own story beyond the machine.

For our family, the inheritance is personal. We carry his example, his questions, his humour and the memory of being around him. There is no finished machine that can contain all of that. It lives in people.

Carl / Jake / Quinn

Ideas passed on.
New chapters ahead.

Our family’s sawmilling story continues, shaped by the man who helped set it in motion.

Circular memorial saw blade engraved with Carl James Peterson’s name, dates and tribute.
The memorial blade made in Carl’s honour. Select to read the inscription.

In loving memory

A name.
A life.
A lasting place.

“A visionary pioneer who introduced the swing blade sawmill to the world, transformed portable sawmilling, and will be remembered for his insight, depth, soul and spirit.”

Carl James Peterson
From the family’s memorial blade inscription

Remembering Dad

Thank you for the ideas.
And for everything beyond them.

We remember Carl with love and gratitude: for the work, the support, the stories, and the person he was. His place in our family, and in the history of portable sawmilling, remains.

— Jake Peterson