E.P. Armstrong

Serving Saw Filers & Sawmillers for 100 Years

The filing room has often been called the heart of the sawmill. It is the area where skilled craftsmen keep the saws in proper cutting condition. Although it is often tucked away in a loft above the band mills, what goes on in it can mean success or failure for the entire mill. The head filer and crew must properly prepare each saw for the type of cutting it will perform. This requires expertise and the proper tools and equipment. Serving the filer’s needs is Armstrong's sole activity.

The filing room, where saws are kept in proper cutting condition, is often called the heart of the sawmill.

When E. P. Armstrong started manufacturing swages and shapers in l902, he was faced with both an opportunity and a challenge. He was a saw filer, and a good one, and had worked in mills from Connecticut to Oregon. The tools the saw filer had available then had not changed for years.

By the time E. P. Armstrong reached Portland, Oregon, around the turn of the century, he had decided he could make a better swage and shaper than he could buy. He proceeded to make tools in his spare time in a small workshop at home. Other filers soon noticed those early Armstrong swages and shapers, and asked E. P. to make tools for them. He drew out his ideas on lunch bags and napkins and scraps of paper.

The original Armstrong factory in Portlan'ds "Old Town".

This was the beginning of what was to become Armstrong Manufacturing Company. The first building was located at Nos. 2-4 Second Street (2nd & Ankeny) in downtown Portland’s “Old Town”. The small manufacturing shop would fit nicely into one corner of the present factory. At that time, there were 30 sawmills along the Willamette River within the Portland City limits.

The challenge came in competing with the old established lines. He had to build measurably better tools, control costs, furnish spare parts that would fit, and deliver them on time. He succeeded on all points and the fledgling business grew rapidly. By l908, he had begun a full time manufacturing operation and the company was incorporated.


Left: The new factory at 2135 N.W. 21st Avenue was built to accommodate the expanding business. Right: The office staff and shop workers of Armstrong.
In 1932, the company moved to the current site on Northwest 21st Avenue. All aspects of sales, accounting, production control, engineering, assembly and the machine shop occupied a single story. The second floor was built in 1949 to accommodate sales, accounting and the president’s office. The company occupied a temporary office at N.W. 20th Avenue while the second floor was being built. The assembly department and tool room were added in 1956. The one-story concrete and concrete-block structure increased space by 50%. The latest addition which houses the CNC machines, along with the shipping and painting departments (an additional 14,000 sq. ft.), was added to the south side of the building in 1986. The offices were also extended out into the old machine shop area and a separate engineering department was built. The fabrication shop was added a few years later.

The office moved to temporary space down the street from the 21st Avenue factory while the second story was being built. Lloyd Armstrong (top left) was president of the company. Elmer Briggs (top right) and Lloyd's daughter Laurel Reed (center) handled the sales and administration duties of the company. Arliss King (front) worked in accounting for many years.


E.P. Armstrong started Armstrong Manufacturing Company with a single drafting table at his disposal. His tool designs were often drawn on napkins or any scraps of paper at hand. In this picture, taken in the early 1950's, three draftsmen were required to keep up with the ever expanding demand for new machinery and tools. Machines were motor driven, simply designed and built tough. Today, a team of engineers focuses on high tech CNC machines for the filing room. Prototype machines are built, tested and refined in Armstrong's research and development area.


In the late 1950’s to early 1960’s, the machine shop and assembly department were contained in one area.


All parts for Armstrong machines and tools were manufactured in the single factory in Portland, Oregon as they are today.


The parts warehouse and shipping department occupied a small area of what is now the research and development lab.


Once a machine was finalized in assembly, it was painted and crated before shipping.


The downstairs reception office (as shown here in the 1950's) is located in the same spot today. The current offices were remodeled in the late 1980's and again in the 1990's.


The shop saw few changes until the expansion in 1986.


Number 54 Circular Hand Sharpeners are lined up for final assembly work.


Left: 14,000 square feet was added to the factory for the assembly and shipping departments in 1986. Right: Machines were once assembled in multiple batches in 3 different stages - first the frame pieces were put together; then the common parts were added; and finally the customers custom items such as cams, grinding wheel and other options finished the machines.

E. P. (Edward) Armstrong was a remarkable man. With only a second grade education, Edward was self-taught in most every field, including reading and writing. Yet he wrote every word of several publications during his lifetime. E.P. edited and published for five years, The North American Filer, a journal for the lumber mill. For over 25 years, he compiled and tabulated The Saw Engineering Bureau, the first authoritative set of instruction books on the operation and care of wood cutting saws. He also prepared and published a set of mechanical books on the same subject. His ideas were well ahead of his time. Even though his books were published prior to 1931, many of the basic skills he set forth are still current.

Edward Armstrong’s brother, William who was working in a sawmill in Michigan, sent this postcard, dated February 10, 1916 to E.P. at The North American Filer. William writes Mill #1. This is the mill I am working in 12” Band 10” Resaw and shingle mill. Hermansville, Mich Feb 10 - 1916.

The Saw Engineer, the first monthly magazine ever written on filing saws was first published in 1931, and had a mailing list of about 3,500. In that first issue, E.P. Armstrong said "The care of saws, with the many problems and difficulties, has become an 'engineering science' of vital importance to the lumber industry." This thinking prompted the name of the magazine. By the 1950's, over 11,000 copies of The Saw Engineer were sent around the world. Issues were printed in both Spanish and French in the late 1990's. The Saw Engineer magazine continued to be published two to three times a year until the final printed edition (#156) in March 2000. Sawmills and the advances they made in their filing rooms were among the regular features of the magazine. See how the feel and flavor of the magazine changed over the years in the excerpts shown below. The tradition continues with Armstrong's internet website: www.armstrongblue.com.


1931	1940's	1950's	1960's - 1970's	1980's	1990's - 2000

Armstrong published many other books on saw filing techniques since the Saw Engineer began. The Armstrong Saw Filer’s Handbook, written by Phil S. Quelch of Vancouver, BC was published in 1962. A definitive work as a reference manual and training text, the handbook drew on Phil’s many years of saw filing experience. The handbook was translated into Spanish in 1962 by Sr. Edgar Rodriguez Kraftt of Talleres Bolivar, S.A. of Mexico and became Manual del Afilador. In 1964, Phil followed with Sawmill Feeds and Speeds, which offered formulas and pre-figured charts to determine the most efficient feed and speed for both band and circle saws of varying sizes, operating under a variety of conditions. Saga of the Saw Filer, a fictional account of the life of a saw filer in the early 1900’s, was written by Stewart Holbrook in 1952 on the occasion of Armstrong’s 50th anniversary and distributed as a memento to saw filers. In 1978, when technology began to change and new cutting edge materials began to immerge in the sawmill, Jeff Hewitt wrote the Carbide Filer’s Handbook. The book was revised in 1986 and offered as Armstrong’s Stellite and Carbide Filer’s Handbook. Jeff drew on his vast knowledge of cutting edge materials from his saw making and saw maintenance experience. E.P.’s original writings, as well as those publications that followed, became important tools of the trade and are still often requested; though most are out-of-print.
E. P. Armstrong's wife, Fannie Mae, and two sons, Lloyd and Harry were actively involved in the business. Their daughter Twila chose other endeavors. Fannie Mae served as Secretary/Treasurer of the company for many years. E.P.'s oldest son, Harry, served his apprenticeship along side his father, and became head filer at the Standard Box and Lumber Company in Portland, Oregon from 1909 until the mill burned in 1915.
	Mrs. E.P. Armstrong (Fannie Mae) was Secretary/Treasurer of the company for many years.
Harry then came to work full-time with his father at Armstrong until he accepted a head filer position at Weyerhaeuser Company in Longview, Washington. After 32 years filing saws, Harry retired in 1961, but never packed away his tools permanently. He continued to act as a trouble-shooter and pinched-hit for vacationing filers. Younger son Lloyd, who had served almost twenty years as Vice President, became President after his father's death in 1942. Lloyd perpetuated the principles E.P. had always lived by. He was a saw filer, and like his father, knew what others in the trade needed to turn out better saws. Under his direction, the company grew to become a leader in the field, with a worldwide market. Lloyd retired from the company in 1975.


Lloyd Armstrong was elected President of Armstrong Manufacturing Company after his father's death in 1942.
During World War II, the War Production Board doled out contracts to local machine shops (often over a card table) to make items for the war effort. Armstrong received a contract with Remington Arms to make chambering reamers for 40 mm ship-mounted cannons. Ted Andrianoff, who was shop superintendent at the time, and another machinist from the shop, also took a contract for making horns for submarines, which were made exactly to the engineered specifications. But the designers had neglected the mechanism that made the horns make a noise. They laughingly referred to them as Andrianoff and Nelson's "noiseless horns".

Many Armstrong employees were called to serve in the military during World War II and Korea. The company supported the war effort through special manufacturing contracts and war bond drives.
Ted Andrianoff, who was named General Manager in 1953, bought the company from the Armstrong family. Ted was born in April of 1913 in the remote fishing village of Petersburg, Alaska. In his early teens, Ted migrated to Portland, Oregon for schooling. He joined the company in l936 at age 22 as a temporary employee to develop the procedure for making stretcher rolls. Ted insisted on being paid 95 cents per hour, which was standard pay for master machinists at the local shipyards then. The foreman of the 15-man shop was only earning 75 cents per hour.

Young Ted Andrianoff (left) began work at Armstrong as a temporary employee. He is shown here with Lloyd Armstrong.
Ted took pride in his work and wanted filers to know that he ground their stretcher rolls precisely. He started putting his initials "T.C.A.", for Theodore Constantine Andrianoff, and an identifying serial number on each set of rolls he ground. Although the "TCA" numbering system has changed, stretcher rolls are still made to Ted's exacting standards.

Ted Andrianoff was named General Manager in 1953 and bought the company from the Armstrong family.
During the years that followed, Ted was largely responsible for extensive innovations in both production and engineering. His influence was evident in refinements of existing machines and in new production. Clean and innovative designs became his trademark. As President, he enlarged upon the straightforward business policies for which Armstrong had always been known. Business waxed and waned during those years, as the timber industry was up and down. In 1980, the same year that Mt. St. Helens erupted, the shop was down to only 16 people. In early l982, Ted Andrianoff was incapacitated by a stroke. He died in 1984. His son, Fred, succeeded him as President. Fred grew up with Armstrong and joined the organization on a full-time basis in 1963. Prior to that time, he worked at Armstrong during summer vacations while in high school and college. He was active in all areas of the company: engineering, production, and sales. Fred was responsible for automation in both the production facilities and product lines. Fred served as 2nd Vice President for the company from 1976 until 1984, when he became President. Under his vision and leadership, Armstrong grew to be a highly valued industry leader. In August 1997, Fred accepted an offer from Simonds Industries, making Armstrong a wholly owned subsidiary of Simonds. Simonds is one of the world’s largest makers of high quality saws, knives, and files. Armstrong is now part of a company with worldwide sales and a 165-year tradition of serving sawmillers. Simonds is a privately owned corporation with headquarters in Massachusetts and manufacturing facilities in the USA, Canada, and Europe.

Fred Andrianoff succeeded his father as President, when Ted was incapacitated by a stroke.
Just as E. P. Armstrong never forgot the importance of providing products and services that benefit the saw filer and the lumber industry, each change of leadership has been vigilant in maintaining the basic principles that have made the company a success. There can be no compromise where either quality or service are concerned. The Armstrong line of equipment for the filing room includes tools for swaging and shaping the saws for proper clearance in the cut, stretcher rolls and related equipment for tensioning and leveling the saws so they will cut a straight line, and sharpening machines to keep the saws producing efficiently. The line includes standard mechanical machines as well as computerized equipment for the most sophisticated operations. Armstrong markets have become worldwide. You will find "Armstrong Blue" equipment in Australia, New Zealand, Africa - in fact, wherever lumber production is an industry. It is our responsibility to serve both our domestic and international customers well. We do that best with a few well-trained distributors with proven track records in the industry. Our seventeen Stocking Distributor / Service Centers carry a sizeable inventory of spare parts for all Armstrong machines and tools. They receive specialized training (both in-class instruction and hands-on training) at the Armstrong factory in the operation of all Armstrong equipment. In addition, representatives from our Stocking Distributor / Service Centers have participated in several schools dedicated to rebuilding second-hand Armstrong equipment. Working with the tools of the trade, under filing room conditions gives the seminar participants a better understanding of the saw filer's perspective.

Armstrong Manufacturing Company's network of Stocking Distributor / Service Centers provide factory support worldwide.
Technical training at the factory was not limited to our Stocking Distributor / Service Centers. Many workshops have been conducted at Armstrong for filers wishing to "fine tune" their sawing programs as well as the performance of the machines in their filing rooms. Filers from as far away as New Zealand, France and Australia, as well as Canada and the USA, have been invited to participate and share their ideas, techniques and unique solutions. Workshops are not limited to head filers or head saw doctors. Some filers with over 20 years experience work side by side with some that have been filers for only a few months. These filers report they have learned more because of the diversity of their background and the wealth of their combined experiences. The "factory" workshops were expanded to individual mills seeking additional training on some of the more sophisticated machines. Representatives from Armstrong have prepared company workshops for both hardwood and softwood mills throughout the USA and Canada. Other leading filers in the industry shared E.P.'s early beliefs about filers exchanging ideas. The first Saw Filer's Educational Association was formed in British Columbia, Canada in 1950. Increasing attendance and interest at this meeting prompted the addition of the Western and Intermountain Saw Filer's Associations. Today, at least sixteen associations are in existence in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. E.P. and Armstrong's succeeding leaders have remained dedicated to maintaining an active participation in these annual meetings.

Shingle saw filers attend a conference in Chehalis, Washington in May 1922. E.P. Armstrong (far end of back row) was a regular attendee.


The saw filers congress meeting (held in Eureka, California in November of 1949) was a forerunner of the saw filers education association meeting held today.

The first governing board of the Western Saw Filers Association, organized in1961.
Presentation of the saw filer's gavel to the outgoing president of each association has been an annual tradition at Armstrong. Harry Anthony, head filer at Westfir Lumber Company of Westfir, Oregon originally handcrafted the gavel in the shape of a crosspean hammer. The history of the gavel goes back to 1947 when Harry made a special saw hammer as a gavel to be presented to Matt Smith, then head filer at W.A. Woodard Lumber Co. (now Weyerhaeuser Co.), Cottage Grove, Oregon, when Matt became Master of his Masonic Lodge. Fred Nelson, who figured so prominently in the growth of the filer's associations, did the honors at the first presentation. When his term as saw filer to become Master was over, Matt presented the gavel to the next Master of his lodge. The idea of transferring the gavel from filer to filer developed and by-laws were drawn up for it. Through the years, the gavel traveled across the United States, to Canada and New Zealand, each Master adding something to the travel case until it came to rest back at Armstrong.

Armstrong's Earl Howey (left) presents the Saw Filer's Gavel to Laverne Stratton, Secretary of the Southern Saw Filers' Educational Association in 1973. Armstrong traditionally presents the Myrtle wood gavel to the outgoing President of each association, signifying a job well done.
The new saw filer's gavels are also carved in the shape of a crosspean hammer. Harry first used the wood of the rare Myrtle wood tree for the gavels, having chosen it for its fine texture, hardness, and beauty, with tones varying from silvery grey to vivid browns, tans and black. Oregon Myrtle wood is remarkable in that it is found only in Oregon and Northwestern California. First designed by Harry for the Masonic Masters and now presented to outgoing Saw Filer Association presidents, the saw filer's gavel symbolizes appreciation for a job well done. Armstrong equipment is a specialized line, and in the 100 years the company has been in operation, it has achieved a unique reputation for precision equipment, designed and manufactured with the user in mind, and careful, prompt service. We are proud to serve the industry for these past 100 years and look forward to continuing that partnership in the future.