If you were to visit our shop in Oxford, North Carolina, you would see three Tannewitz bandsaws.

By most standards, these are antiques – tools from a bygone era. Each of ours is over 50 years old.

Yet this tool is the anchor of our shop at Tar River Timber Works. It’s probably not how most people would set up a timber framing shop today. It would be like choosing vinyl records over Spotify streaming or a fine Japanese paring knife over an electric food processor.

But it’s how we do it.

This doesn’t mean we’re opposed to the latest technology. We like a five- or six-axis CNC timber machine as much as the next. But the bandsaw, in the hands of an experienced craftsman who knows how to operate it, is a competitive advantage in timber works. It sings.

And we have one of the best bandsaw operators you’ll find. Lebit Arenas has been working the bandsaw since 2009. One pass, perfect cuts.

There's something profound about watching someone who has mastered a tool. In this case, using a 50-year-old bandsaw to outperform a computer-controlled machine worth 100 times as much. It challenges assumptions about progress itself: that newer is always better, that efficiency always trumps craftsmanship.

Sometimes what sets you apart is a deep mastery of the fundamentals.

Which is why the soul of our company is linked to the bandsaw, and why we became curious about its history. What we found was a lineage and a legacy that predates even our shop’s oldest tools.

An incomplete history of the bandsaw

The bandsaw is about 200 years old. The first known patent was granted in 1809 to British inventor William Newberry, but the original concept was unworkable. His design, which relied on a continuous looping blade strung over two wheels, couldn’t produce blades durable enough to stay in a constant flexing position. Other early patents in the U.S. featured wheels as large as five feet in diameter.

Within 40 years, French welder Anne Paulin Crepin solved the problem. She developed a welding technique that produced a pliable, durable blade capable of operating in continuous motion. And by the 1870s, bandsaws were ready for timber use and timber milling.

Bandsaws eventually made their way into lumber mills, thanks to people all across the country making design improvements that enhanced blade durability, cut precision and motor locomotion. By the 1890s, after decades of refinement, the bandsaw had proved its worth to the lumber industry for two reasons: a thinner kerf (cut width) wasted less wood, and its continuous cutting action produced “perfectly sawed lumber.”

A written review of the bandsaw in 1900 characterized it like this: “It is a very versatile tool. It can cut intricate curves, like those in a jigsaw puzzle or fancy furniture, or slice a block of high-quality timber into thin sheets (veneers).

Compared to a scroll saw, it works faster and with less vibration. And compared to a circular saw, its fine blade means it uses less energy and wastes less wood.”

A history of the bandsaw written in 1910 acknowledges that there were still skeptics:

In 1909, Edward E. Tannewitz founded Tannewitz Works in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Best known for their bandsaws, Tannewitz has been producing superior saws for more than a century (some believe the company dates back to 1892).

Returning to the fundamentals

Today, we rely on our Tannewitz bandsaws for the same reasons that timber workers have relied on bandsaws for over 100 years:

• They can handle complex cuts.

• They waste less material, allowing us to preserve cut-off pieces for other uses.

• They’re safer than other saws.

• They leave an open pore texture that allows for deeper stain penetration. When a piece of wood is cut with a bandsaw, the pores of the wood are not compressed like they are by knives on planer heads or CNC groovers. Thus, bandsawn textures are ideal for penetrating stain application, which is the best way to protect timbers, especially those exposed to Mother Nature.

Most importantly, a bandsaw creates a unique “visual signature.” Its distinctive texture and pattern enable customers to identify a Tar River product just by looking at the bandsaw marks.

This is why the bandsaw remains the anchor of our shop. In a world obsessed with new technology, the bandsaw serves as both a fingerprint and a reminder that, for now at least, skill still matters. The right tool in the hands of a skilled craftsman is an increasingly rare, though powerful and efficient combination.

To work with the bandsaw is to tap into a long lineage of woodworkers who have practiced persistent refinement, generation after generation. And today, to build an entire shop around the bandsaw is to build upon foundations that others have abandoned in search of easier paths requiring less skill.

Check out some photos below of various bands, our Tannewitz bandsaws and our bandsawn work.

We offer various timber frame packages, accent products and custom orders to suit a wide range of projects—both residential and commercial.

We help architects, designers, builders and owners create remarkable spaces defined by the timeless beauty of expertly crafted timber accents and timber frames.