An initial swingblade saw concept was conceived and a patent applied in 1975 by Peter Lynn, an inventor who lived in the South Island of New Zealand. The patent application lapsed in 1980. A second, much smaller swingblade saw concept was conceived in the early 80’s by Carl Peterson, an American living in the jungles of the Fiji Islands. In 1987 Mr Peterson fled to New Zealand with his family to avoid the first Fijian military coup. Carl devised a more portable swingblade concept, initially incorporating a chainsaw powerhead as the drive, and a frame that rolled down tracks placed along a stationary log. This new version was crude but quite workable – the first ‘portable’ swingblade mill. It was much lighter than the typically cumbersome twin-bladed or bandsaw mills of the time, and more practical for the remote, hilly farms of New Zealand. He began selling them in 1989 under the brandname Peterson Portable Sawmills.
