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Tom Jones

@welsh_thomas__

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Idiot that makes things
Based in South Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

SCS resurrection!! Cannot will not retire!!! Respect!! ✊ ⛓️🪚🙌!!!

#chainsaw #stihl #arborist #vintagestyle #arb

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Could you run a sawmill on your own?

It was one of the questions asked by Angus who purchased a second hand Peterson in Scotland. In this short clip we get a mill ready.

Practical advice, running repairs and the usual bit of banter.
OUR FULL EPISODE IS NOW ON YOUTUBE 🎉

Watch Scotland EP PT1 on National Sawmills YouTube channel: ‘Bought a second hand sawmill. Now what?’

Or hit our bio for the link.

#nationalss #portablesawmill #sawmilling #woodworking

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Ripping through and creating that sawdust!!!!

Everyone loves a slo motion and up close and personal.

#stihluk #chainsawmill #chainsaw #sawmill #sawdust

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Bardo in a pimped up low rider listening to Snoop #xxlboomstamtafels #xxlromania #milling

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Why has The Guardian written about us twice?
Perhaps because the most interesting thing about a sawmill is the connection it creates.
In Devon, a fallen oak became timber for an 18-metre community table. In London, we milled a sequoia in front of students and designers.
Different places. The same question:
How close can we bring the tree, the person processing it and the person who could use the timber?
Now we’re bringing that conversation to Bedfordshire.
The Forest of Marston Vale has spent more than three decades transform a landscape shaped by brickworks, clay pits and landfill into community woodland.
But planting trees is only the beginning.
Those woodlands mature. They need management. Some trees need thinning, and timber comes out.
Then what?
Does it become firewood or woodchip? Could some become boards, furniture or material for a local project? Who has the equipment and skills to find out? Who could use it?
That is why a demonstration here matters.
A community woodland needs more than trees to build a local timber economy. It needs connections between the people managing the woods, the people processing the timber and the people making things from it.
On 19 October, we’ll demonstrate a Peterson portable sawmill at the Forest of Marston Vale.
We’re bringing processing to the timber, so you can watch a log become boards and ask what that could mean for your woodland, workshop or project.
The people responsible for these woods decide how they are managed. Our part is to show a tool and open a conversation about what access to processing makes possible.
We celebrate planting trees. Seeing one cut down can feel very different.
If you’ve ever asked, “Why are they cutting down the trees?” bring that question with you.
Because understanding what timber can become is part of understanding why we manage woodland, value its trees and plant the next generation.

Read the full story: https://nationalsawmills.co.uk/2026/10/02/why-has-the-guardian-written-about-us-twice/
National Sawmills x Peterson Portable Sawmills 19 October 2026 | 10 AM | Free to attend Reynolds & Holcot Woods Forest of Marston Vale, Bedfordshire MK17 8BW
See you there.

#bedfordshire #forestry

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Expectation vs reality?

Achieved it.

Way beyond what I thought was possible.

I dare say it won’t be the last spectacular thing we will complete.

From that madness has lead us down a very funny path. What other bits of insanity is on the horizon?

Details of how this sequoia has found a new life www.nationalsawmills.co.uk

@welsh_thomas__ @nationalsawmillsuk @petersonsawmills

#forestry #argyll #sawmill #timber

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@notchequipment enabled us to conduct fruit warfare with the MOD using analog weapons.

Next week I’ll be uploading clips of the sexy climbing gear we’ve got.

🫡

#fruit #notchbigshot

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What a joy to work with these enormous ash slabs! 6.30 m long × 1.30 m wide × 9 cm thick!

woodlectic.hu

Music: SUHAN - @schonherz.records @zol_schnrz @li__szobastu @technodub_seance

@granberginternational @gbforestry @chainsawbarsuk @woodlectic

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Scotland has become a much bigger part of our story than we ever expect.

It started with a 5am phone call about some oversized timber and it’s turned into repeat trips north, a permanent demonstration site, ambitious milling and a growing network of people trying to make better use of timber around them.

This reel is only a small glimpse of what we’ve been upto.

We’re heading back!

If you’re wondering why @nationalsawmillsuk has such a strong connection with Scotland, we’ve finally put out story into words.

Read what we’ve achieved so far here -

https://nationalsawmills.co.uk/2026/04/10/from-unusable-to-educational-legacy/

See you next week in Scotland.

@welsh_thomas__
@petersonsawmills

#forestry #argyllandbute #scotland #ukforestry #britishtimber

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Another step forward by going back to where it began?

Tom has conquered the Westmorland show this week and together next week we’re back in Scotland, where this wacky journey began.

For me this series has been a mixture of things -
Learning to operate the valmet with no tuition.
Critical thinking of how these lessons are just reflections on our business and how it’s developing.
An ability to look back to see how things are changing with an idea of what we could’ve done better.

What makes this all possible? People.
It’s never been just us. We’ve had so much help.
You know who you are, little or a lot, thank you.

Business and its growth is people. Business is people. People and how you can help others is how it grows. If your end goal is to simply generate monetary gain then it isn’t something that will outlast your lifetime. Very much the same as farming or forestry.

Biggest lesson whilst I’ve grown and built 4 businesses (some unsuccessfully!) - nobody builds anything worthwhile alone.

See you in Scotland!

The apprenticeship continues.
#business #timber #woodland #smallscaleforestry #scotland

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A long day, a job well done!
@granberginternational @chainsawbarsuk

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IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW…

#pain #chainsawmill #woodcraft #iykyk #liveedge

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