Pacific Rim Tonewoods’ investment in two new band sawmills helps ensure a long-term supply of instrument-grade woods.
By David Schmidt
Today’s tonewood trees aren’t as big as they used to be.
Years ago, when mature, large-diameter trees with minimal knots were readily available, suppliers to the luthier trade could easily buck logs into rounds, split these into large blocks, and then cut them into boards. These boards, once dried and re-sawn, could then be book-matched to create two-piece tops and backs for guitars and other stringed instruments.
Recent years, however, have seen the supply of tonewood trees diminish from a position of abundance to one of increasing scarcity. “It’s as old as humanity,” said Steve McMinn, Pacific Rim Tonewoods co-owner. “We tend to deplete our resources, and this has been the history of forests. That’s why we are investing in growing our own koa and
maple trees.”
To fulfill the market’s need for sustainable wood products, PRT also invested in two new, state-of-the-art band sawmills. This technology will help the forward leaning company ensure a supply of
high quality tonewoods—and jobs—for decades. Fabricated by Resch & 3 in Italy’s South Tyrol region, these sawmills produce sawn boards that will allow PRT to capture more value from today’s younger, smaller circumference logs.
“Younger trees are almost always knottier than mature trees,” said McMinn. “The big difference between our old methods and the new sawmills is that cutting long boards, rather than short, enables us to dodge defects, increasing the yield and often the quality of our components.”
These sawmills use modern technologies to efficiently mill wood at scale and also offer ergonomic advantages for PRT’s employees.
The first of PRT’s new sawmills was installed at the company’s Concrete, Washington headquarters in February 2025. The second was shipped to
Siglo Tonewoods (a joint venture partnership on the island of Hawai’i), where it will be installed sometime in 2026.
While PRT’s new sawmills cut logs with laser precision and efficiency, the road to installing the first unit in Concrete wasn’t linear or quick.
McMinn discovered Resch & 3 while attending the 2014 LIGNA woodworking and wood processing trade show in Hannover, Germany. “They build lovely sawmills that are robust and precise,” he said. “I consider them to be a wonderful value for their size and scale. I think they make the world’s best 48” band sawmill of its type.”
Back in 2014, however, PRT still had better access to larger timber that could easily be processed on their existing equipment. Still, McMinn kept in touch with Resch & 3, and—as available log supply started changing—he knew that it was time to advance the conversation.
So, at the end of 2022, McMinn travelled to the Resch & 3 factory in the small town of Blumau, which is situated in the foothills of the Dolomites in the Italian Alps, to learn more.
A family business goes global
Resch & 3’s story began in the aftermath of World War II.
The Resch brothers lived in Steinegg, a small village above Blumau, at an altitude of around 1000 meters. It was only in 1991 that the Resch company moved down into the valley to the village of Blumau due to better accessibility.
Brothers Johann and Ignaz Resch, who lived in Steinegg, needed a way to mill nearby timber without hauling their logs down the valley to the region’s capital city of Bolzano. So, they invented and built their own band sawmill, which they first powered-up on February 14, 1955. The two began producing high-quality sawmills, and the Resch brand enjoyed a half-century of success.
In January 2006, the brothers transferred ownership of their company to three long-term employees (hence the company’s moniker). This triumvirate included Rudolf Lantschner, who, at the age of 15, began working at the company in 1981 as a metalworker and whose family has lived in the same village close to the company Resch. (The Lantschners have family records in this location, dating to 1700). Rudolph, along with his son Fabian, installed PRT’s first Resch & 3-built sawmill in Concrete and then trained PRT’s staff to use the equipment. The father-and-son team will install PRT’s second sawmill on the island of Hawai’i next year.
While Resch & 3 are modern in many ways, they still hand-fabricate their sawmills and have preserved the company’s tight-knit culture. For example, most employees live near Blumau, and the whole staff walks to a restaurant next to their factory for lunch every day. There is a similar culture at PRT, where lunch is often shared around a pot-bellied stove in winter, and at communal tables in summer.
“Resch & 3’s sawmills incorporate a mix of modern electronics and automation with old-fashioned steel,” said McMinn. These sawmills, which McMinn described as “diamond cutters,” are produced by around ten employees (plus the three partners). “They buy laser-cut steel and electronics for some components, but they do their own welding, fabrication, painting, and assembly in Blumau. They buy some parts commercially, but they will mill special gears on their Japanese CNC machine when needed.”
McMinn was impressed with what he saw on his initial visit, but acquiring the sawmills wasn’t easy. Resch & 3 have a limited annual production run, and they had a multi-year waiting list. Also, said McMinn, Resch & 3 was initially wary of selling to the famously litigious North American market. Fortunately, however, PRT’s lawyer produced the right waivers, and McMinn was able to order.
More precision with less waste
Resch & 3 band sawmills are composed of two major components: a stationary guideway, where the log rests, and a moving sawhead.
Once the log is positioned, the sawhead travels longitudinally along the guideway as its horizontal bandsaw blade slices boards. An operator rides in a cab, which is adjacent to the sawblade, and manages operations via two proportional control joysticks. This vantage point—plus the sawhead’s pressure guides—helps to ensure accurate cuts
The sawhead includes dual precutters that score the log where the blade will travel to create a clean entrance and exit for the bandsaw blade. The sawhead’s crosscutting and ripping attachment can precisely cut individual boards to a desired length or buck-out knotty sections on the fly.
All told, McMinn said each sawmill costs around $500,000 to purchase, ship, and install. One million dollars is a significant investment for any small business, but McMinn said that he sees big upsides, both for PRT’s headquarters in Concrete and for their facility on the island of Hawai’i. “You can position the log really exactly, and you can get just the cut you want,” said McMinn. “We’re not a commodity mill; we always cut for precision and value.”
In addition to allowing PRT to optimize their cutting, the new sawmills create less waste. Better still, they give PRT more options. While larger logs can still be split and sawn into two-piece guitar tops as PRT has traditionally done, the new sawmills can efficiently cut skinnier logs into four-piece sets and get more utilization out of figured koa and maple logs.
Sustainably milling wood for the future
PRT’s operations on the Big Island of Hawai’i are a unique story.
There, in partnership with Taylor Guitars and another individual, PRT has been working for years under the Siglo Tonewoods name to establish a working forest of native Acacia koa. While McMinn said that these trees won’t be harvested for guitars and other stringed instruments until 2045, PRT has longstanding stewardship conservation arrangements with other local landholders. These arrangements allow PRT to log existing koa trees to meet current market demands.
This is where PRT’s second new sawmill will create another important opportunity.
“We’ve shipped koa logs from Hawai’i to Concrete, Washington, for years,” McMinn said. “This will allow us to mill wood locally, keeping more value, and jobs, in the local Hawaiian economy.”
The throughline to all of this is sustainability, which has long been a priority at PRT. This focus on good forestry includes:
- Harnessing renewable energy sources
- Propagating and growing figured maple trees in the Skagit Valley in Washington State
- Restoring and growing disease-resistant koa trees on the Big Island of Hawai’i
- providing solid employment opportunities to local communities
- making smart investments at opportune moments
“The business is profitable, and we’re in a stable place,” said McMinn. “We believe that these sawmills and other recent investments in machinery and infrastructure will contribute to a strong future without us having to constantly tweak our business model.”
For example, PRT recently constructed new buildings and open-sided canopy sheds at their headquarters; ramped-up power supply (read: higher-voltage cabling and transformers) in Concrete, and added rooftop solar panels atop PRT’s buildings in Concrete and at their off-grid facility in Hawai’i.
Additionally, PRT has installed two specially adapted robots in Concrete for turning wood bowls using offcut sections of logs that—while not acoustically viable—are visually stunning. “It’s another value-add to our business and an opportunity to utilize all the wood we bring to the mill,” McMinn said of the bowls. Seventh String Bowls will be available to consumers and retailers sometime in 2025, along with kiln-dried cores made specifically for bowl turners.
Most importantly, however, as the physical characteristics of available tonewood logs changes, PRT’s forward-thinking approach will ensure that instrument manufacturers, guitarmakers, luthiers, and players have a reliable supply of sonically superior, beautiful woods for decades to come.
