Page 16 - CMA PROfiles Spring 2020

ASSOCIATE OF THE QUARTER: COLONIAL SAW

Hans Rudy Stalder testing a Striebig vertical panel saw.

patience with repeatedly damaging his a new option for cabinetmakers in the
panels while pushing them through the early 1950s. Lamello tells the story on its
“Lamello invented the biscuit power saw on his horizontal table saw. website: “Bedridden with a winter fever,
joiner, and we introduced it to It dawned on him that it would be much he concentrated on the problem until a
America. It’s their milestone, easier if it was the saw blade that moved solution came to him as he stared at his
but there’s so much history while the panel remained stationary. shutters: cut small opposing grooves
and respect for each other He ran with this idea, building a into the panels that wouldn’t weaken
that we did feel like it was our prototype that fellow cabinetmakers the chip board and connect them using
anniversary, too.” then asked him to manufacture. In 1961, small wooden biscuits. Simple, yet game-

— Dave Rakauskas “the Striebig Company began producing changing. … Steiner shared his revolution-
ary idea with other cabinetmakers who
the world’s first vertical panel saws with faced the same issues, and the biscuit
a specially designed, pivoting saw head
attached to a rolling beam,” the company approach caught on.”
ownership,” says Rakauskas, who joined recounts on its website. Lamello was created in 1955, with its
the company in 1995 after working as a “For the first time in the world, all cuts name taken from the German “lamelle,”
CPA at Deloitte & Touche for five years. could be made with the panel stationary. the word for a shutter slat.
“It’s a true family business, owned and From 1961 until today, the Striebig SELLING QUALITY
run by two people.” Company has kept Ludwig Striebig’s tight “Both of our products for the woodwork-
focus – to manufacture only vertical
INVENTING SOLUTIONS ing industry are the top of the line in their
Both of the product lines that Colonial panel saws and to make them the best in specific class,” says Rakauskas. “They also
Saw has been selling for decades began as the world.” cost the most. The people who know
the result of woodworkers’ frustrations Lamello had a similar start. Hermann them respect and value their quality;
with day-to-day problems. In 1958, Steiner’s frustration was the challenge our job is ensuring that everyone else is
Swiss cabinetmaker Ludwig Striebig lost of joining chip board panels, which were familiar with them.

14 PROFILES SPRING 2020