Schoolteacher Reclaiming Wood in Malaysia with Wood-Mizer LT15 Sawmill

Defying conventional wisdom, a schoolteacher in a rural Malaysian region dared to invest in a Wood-Mizer sawmill in order to convert underutilized trees into custom timber products. In the East Coast region of Malaysia, in the State of Kelantan, just outside of the town of Kota Bharu, Mohd Nazmie lives with his family. He’s a schoolteacher. And he’s a woodworker and sawmiller. He salvages trees that otherwise would have been burned. He produces and sells live-edge furniture for friends and local clients. Thanks to a daring investment in an LT15 sawmill, he has opened up a whole niche industry to himself. “Seven to eight years ago I saw logs that were being cut down and burned when someone wanted to clear a field, or to build some houses. They just cut it down and burned it.” "I got the idea to buy a Wood-Mizer sawmill from researching on YouTube. I talked to my wife and we agreed to contact Wood-Mizer. And now I have the LT15.” “I learned how to cut and how to operate the machine through YouTube, and Wood-Mizer’s website. And then, of course, I received training through Wood-Mizer’s agent in Malaysia.” “A local chainsaw operator told me, ‘You are a school teacher. You cannot do this. You don’t have any experience.’ So after I finished cutting a log, the man came again and asked me, ‘Where did you buy the lumber?’ I said, ‘I cut it! I lumbered it myself!’ And he couldn’t believe me!”