A new style of racing saw designed in Masterton has been blowing up the sawdust on the world stage.
Grant Fawcett of Tuatahi Racing Axes and Saws took his newly developed "peg and raker saw" to compete against the best from Australia and America at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and
came away with two top five placings ? a fourth for team mate Faavae Sefo in the single saw world championships and a fourth in the double saw world championships for himself.
The saw took Mr Fawcett nine months to develop and is made especially to saw through hard woods such as those found in Australia.
"It has a different type of tooth ? I decided to base this one on a serrated knife and worked on it from there.
"This was the first big competition we'd taken it to, so fourth was pretty good for a first time saw," he said.
The saw also attracted a lot of interest from other competitors and saw makers, and Mr Fawcett said he could have sold his model seven or eight times over if he had wanted.
As far as exporting his new saw, Mr Fawcett is unsure.
"The American saw makers were all there, they'll be making it next year, but they may not be able to make it the same."
At a cool $1800, it's not the kind of saw the everyday backyard firewood gatherer will be after, but for a competitive axeman this saw is the business, proving to be the best performing saw for the New Zealand team at the Easter show.
Mr Fawcett has hardly had time to relax and reflect on the saw's success, having to return to his busy specialist saw and axe business and catch up on the backlog of orders.
But he's hardly complaining.
"I've got 10 months of saw orders and four months of axe orders, so yeah, things are pretty busy at the moment," he said.
