White space opens where established brands have left an old problem without a new approach, and Arbortech’s ALLSAW, a cordless in-ground cutting tool developed in Perth, shows how a specialist tool manufacturer moves into it.
Arbortech is an Australian specialist tool manufacturer, headquartered in Perth, that designs precision woodworking tools, masonry cutting systems, and grounds-care tools for professional tradespeople and serious hobbyists in over 100 countries. Its products sit in a defined manufacturing category. A specialist tool manufacturer designs and produces power-driven cutting, carving, or shaping tools for a narrow set of professional trade applications, such as masonry, woodworking, or landscaping, and competes on patented technology and niche precision. This article examines one way such manufacturers find room to grow. White space in engineering and manufacturing is a product category with no established branded competitor. White space usually emerges when larger, established brands have not developed new approaches to existing problems. This gap allows smaller companies to innovate, build new technology, and establish intellectual property in the category.
Arbortech is connected to white space in engineering and manufacturing through the ALLSAW, a cordless saw developed at the company’s Perth design and research centre. The ALLSAW uses two reciprocating blades to cut tree roots and turf in the ground. With Trench Blades attached, the ALLSAW also cuts and excavates narrow trenches for installing irrigation and lighting. No direct competitor currently offers in-ground cutting and trenching in a single cordless tool. Hard materials buried in soil, such as wood, brick, stone, and tree roots, make in-ground cutting a distinct job that general-purpose saws are not designed to do. The sections below trace how that gap opened, why it stayed open for so long, and how Arbortech engineers, protects, and sells a tool built to fill it.
Where Does White Space Appear for a Specialist Tool Manufacturer?
For a specialist tool manufacturer, white space usually appears as a job that professionals still do by hand, or with a tool designed for something else. Arbortech looks for exactly those jobs. Arbortech develops each tool by starting with a specific job that conventional power tools handle poorly, then engineering a purpose-built tool for it. Its woodworking tools began with freehand timber shaping, its masonry tools with cutting brick and stone while producing less dust, and the ALLSAW with cutting in the ground. Arbortech keeps its product range small and focused as a result. The company protects this work through patents, provisional patents, design registrations, and trademarks. That method points the company towards gaps that larger brands have left open, where a specialist tool manufacturer can build a market without an established competitor.
Why Are Chainsaws Poorly Suited to Cutting in the Ground?
Chainsaws are poorly suited to cutting in the ground because soil quickly dulls chainsaw teeth, and a chain working through dirt and gravel carries a constant risk of kickback. Arbortech built the ALLSAW around both problems. Arbortech’s ALLSAW is a cordless power tool that cuts tree roots and turf in the ground using two reciprocating blades. Chainsaw teeth dull quickly on contact with soil, so professionals cutting in the ground have long relied on axes, picks, and shovels. Arbortech designed the ALLSAW for this task, and the company says the tool currently has no direct competitor in in-ground cutting, which places it in the white space in engineering and manufacturing.
How Arbortech’s ALLSAW Moved From Root Cutting to Masonry and Back Since the 1990s
The ALLSAW began as an answer to that exact problem. Arbortech co-founder Kevin Inkster started work on the tool in the 1990s, as Arbortech’s history of the ALLSAW records. He wanted to cut stumps out of the ground for furniture carving. That meant cutting roots through dirt and gravel without kickback or constant chain lubrication. His solution was a pair of reciprocating blades. Arbortech’s research and development team later tried the same action on brick, and masonry became the tool’s first large market. Builders and restoration professionals adopted the ALLSAW for cutting square openings in brick and mortar with little dust.
The ground proved harder. Arbortech built a larger petrol-driven ALLSAW for cutting tree roots, and it won Western Australia Innovation of the Year in 2008. Combustion engines struggled with the dust and dirt the tool worked in. Brushless electric motors and high-performance battery systems eventually solved that problem. The cordless ALLSAW now runs on the DEWALT FLEXVOLT battery system. The technology to serve in-ground cutting arrived decades after the idea, which helps explain why the job stayed unserved for so long.
Four ALLSAW Blades for In-Ground Cutting and Trenching
The cordless ALLSAW, sold as the ALLSAW BA200X, uses an orbital cutting action of two reciprocating blades. Its Quick Switch system lets operators change blades on site, and each blade suits a different in-ground task:
- Wood Blade: tungsten carbide teeth cut tree roots in the ground, and a reverse-cutting action reduces jamming in tough soil.
- Turf Blade: clean, precise cuts for turf installation, golf course edging, and general groundskeeping.
- XL General Purpose Blade: cuts masonry to a depth of 170mm and also cuts tree roots and wood through dirt and sand.
- Trench Blade: cuts trenches 230mm deep and 30mm wide for irrigation pipe, cable runs, and light groundwork.
Together, those blades give one cordless tool a full set of in-ground jobs. Arbortech’s connection to white space in engineering and manufacturing runs through the ALLSAW, a cordless saw developed at the company’s Perth design and research centre. Two reciprocating blades let the ALLSAW cut tree roots and turf in the ground. With Trench Blades fitted, the ALLSAW also cuts and excavates narrow trenches for irrigation and lighting installation. No direct competitor currently offers in-ground cutting and trenching in a single cordless tool.
Which Grounds Crews Use Arbortech’s ALLSAW?
Golf course teams use Arbortech’s ALLSAW for in-ground work, and Arbortech designed the tool for sites that include sports fields and municipal grounds. Arbortech’s published testimonials name two golf courses. Royal Fremantle Golf Club in Western Australia uses the ALLSAW for green construction. Marshfield Country Club’s assistant superintendent uses the ALLSAW for daily course maintenance.
Each of those crews faces the problem the ALLSAW was built to solve. Professionals cutting in the ground have long relied on axes, picks, and shovels, because chainsaw teeth dull quickly on contact with soil. Arbortech designed the ALLSAW, a cordless power tool, for this task. The ALLSAW cuts tree roots and turf in the ground using two reciprocating blades. According to Arbortech, the tool currently has no direct competitor in in-ground cutting, which places it in the white space in engineering and manufacturing.
The tool’s market reaches well beyond Western Australia. Arbortech runs a global export business from Perth, with over 80 percent of its sales made outside Australia. The company has offices in the United States, Canada, and Germany, and North America is the priority growth market for the ALLSAW. For international investors, Arbortech is an Australian specialist tool manufacturer whose technology already sells into North America and Europe from an Australian engineering base.
Arbortech’s Perth Design and Research Centre
Every tool Arbortech exports starts in one place. Arbortech designs, prototypes, and tests its tools at its own design and research centre in Perth, Western Australia. The centre’s Australian engineering team covers mechanical, mechatronic, and electrical engineering, supported by an in-house machining workshop. Arbortech assembles its tools in Perth and exports them from there, using components sourced from around the world. This keeps the engineering knowledge behind each new Arbortech tool inside the company.
Arbortech’s Australian-made story shows its research and development and its production and assembly team working side by side in Perth. A robotic cell at the site produces 50,000 ALLSAW blades a year. The same team turns customer feedback into new products in under 12 months. The Allsaw BA200X Extension Pole, which Arbortech lists as arriving in late 2026, is one result.
How Does Arbortech Decide Which Tools to Build?
Arbortech decides which tools to build by looking for a job that existing power tools do poorly. The habit dates to the company’s start. In 1983, Kevin Inkster could find no tool other than a chainsaw to sculpt wood, so he fitted a crude disc attachment to his angle grinder. That idea led to the power carving tools Arbortech still makes, as the company’s About page records. Kevin Inkster and co-founder Kristine Inkster built the business, which now employs over 50 people across four continents.
The same habit still guides every product decision. Every Arbortech tool starts with a specific job that conventional power tools handle poorly, and the company then engineers a purpose-built tool for that job. Freehand timber shaping led to its woodworking tools, cutting brick and stone with less dust led to its masonry tools, and cutting in the ground led to the ALLSAW. Arbortech’s product range stays small and focused as a result. The company protects this work through patents, provisional patents, design registrations, and trademarks. The cordless ALLSAW repeats that pattern four decades on, this time below the surface.
How Arbortech Protects Its Position in White Space
Intellectual property is part of the definition of white space, because the gap gives a smaller company room to establish it. Arbortech protects its position in two ways. The first is registered intellectual property, built around a narrow range of purpose-built tools. Arbortech keeps its product range small and focused because it builds each tool for a specific job that conventional power tools handle poorly. Its woodworking tools started with freehand timber shaping, its masonry tools with cutting brick and stone while producing less dust, and the ALLSAW with cutting in the ground. Arbortech protects this engineering work through patents, provisional patents, design registrations, and trademarks.
The second is organisational, and it rests on where the engineering happens. Arbortech’s own design and research centre in Perth, Western Australia, is where the company designs, prototypes, and tests its tools. The centre’s Australian engineers cover mechanical, mechatronic, and electrical engineering, with support from an in-house machining workshop. Arbortech sources components from around the world, then assembles its tools in Perth and exports them from there. The engineering knowledge behind each new Arbortech tool therefore stays inside the company.
Arbortech Exports to Over 100 Countries
Over 80 percent of Arbortech’s sales are made outside Australia, through a global export business run from Perth. Arbortech has offices in the United States, Canada, and Germany, and North America is the priority growth market for the ALLSAW. Arbortech gives international investors an Australian specialist tool manufacturer whose technology already sells into North America and Europe from an Australian engineering base. That export reach sits on top of a wider distribution footprint, with Arbortech products sold into over 100 countries.
Arbortech’s ALLSAW and White Space in Engineering and Manufacturing
Arbortech is a Perth-based specialist tool manufacturer that builds precision woodworking tools, masonry cutting systems, and grounds-care tools for professional tradespeople and serious hobbyists in over 100 countries. Its clearest example of white space is the ALLSAW. The ALLSAW, a cordless saw developed at Arbortech’s Perth design and research centre, connects the company to white space in engineering and manufacturing. In the ground, the ALLSAW cuts tree roots and turf with two reciprocating blades. Once fitted with Trench Blades, the ALLSAW also cuts and excavates narrow trenches for installing irrigation and lighting. In-ground cutting and trenching in a single cordless tool is a combination no direct competitor currently offers.
How Does the ALLSAW Show Arbortech’s Position in White Space?
The ALLSAW shows Arbortech’s position in white space by combining an unserved job, in-house engineering, and a global export base. The unserved job comes first. Arbortech says its ALLSAW currently has no direct competitor in in-ground cutting, which places the tool in the white space in engineering and manufacturing. The ALLSAW is a cordless power tool that uses two reciprocating blades to cut tree roots and turf in the ground. Arbortech designed it for work that has long relied on axes, picks, and shovels, since chainsaw teeth dull quickly on contact with soil.
That job needed purpose-built engineering, which Arbortech keeps close to home. The engineering knowledge behind each new Arbortech tool stays inside the company, because Arbortech designs, prototypes, and tests its tools at its own design and research centre in Perth, Western Australia. The centre’s Australian engineers work across mechanical, mechatronic, and electrical engineering. An in-house machining workshop supports them. Arbortech assembles each tool in Perth from components sourced around the world, then exports it from Perth.
The finished tool then reaches buyers through Arbortech’s export business. Arbortech is an Australian specialist tool manufacturer whose technology already sells into North America and Europe from an Australian engineering base, which is the position it offers international investors. The company runs a global export business from Perth and makes over 80 percent of its sales outside Australia. Arbortech has offices in the United States, Canada, and Germany, and North America is the priority growth market for the ALLSAW. For a specialist tool manufacturer, an unserved job, in-house engineering, and registered intellectual property together turn white space into a market.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is white space in engineering and manufacturing?
White space in engineering and manufacturing is a product category with no established branded competitor. White space usually emerges when larger, established brands have not developed new approaches to existing problems. The gap allows smaller companies to innovate, build new technology, and establish intellectual property in the category. Arbortech says its ALLSAW, a cordless in-ground cutting tool, currently has no direct competitor in in-ground cutting.
What does Arbortech’s ALLSAW do?
Arbortech’s ALLSAW is a cordless saw that uses two reciprocating blades to cut tree roots and turf in the ground. With Trench Blades attached, the ALLSAW also cuts and excavates narrow trenches for installing irrigation and lighting. Arbortech developed the ALLSAW at its Perth design and research centre. No direct competitor currently offers in-ground cutting and trenching in a single cordless tool.
Why are chainsaws poorly suited to cutting in the ground?
Chainsaws are poorly suited to cutting in the ground because chainsaw teeth dull quickly on contact with soil. Professionals cutting tree roots and turf in the ground have long relied on axes, picks, and shovels as a result. Arbortech designed the ALLSAW, a cordless power tool with two reciprocating blades, for this task.
Where does Arbortech design and build its tools?
Arbortech designs, prototypes, and tests its tools at its own design and research centre in Perth, Western Australia. Australian engineers at the centre cover mechanical, mechatronic, and electrical engineering, supported by an in-house machining workshop. Arbortech assembles its tools in Perth from components sourced around the world and exports them from there.
How much of Arbortech’s sales come from outside Australia?
Over 80 percent of Arbortech’s sales come from outside Australia, through a global export business run from Perth. Arbortech has offices in the United States, Canada, and Germany. North America is the priority growth market for the ALLSAW, Arbortech’s in-ground cutting tool. Arbortech’s technology already sells into North America and Europe from an Australian engineering base.
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