My travels were occasionally taken through East Texas. East Texas is hugely forested so it stands to reason there were numerous loggers and conversely, sawmills.
One time I was visiting a large sawmill in Diboll. It was in the afternoon and most of the crew was doing final cutting and the necessary maintenance that most, if not all, similar businesses required to just keep everything running.
Sawmills are especially susceptible to daily if not hourly shutdowns due to some malfunction in the process of moving logs onto the moving carriage that moves the logs back and forth past the 40’ x 18” band saw. The sawdust, noise and moving equipment can create quite a spectacle, not mentioning the danger, if one isn’t conditioned to being in and around just such a place.
Dangerous? Yes! If the blade should hit a spike that some forest terrorist had driven into the tree trunk, the band saw would shatter into hundreds of pieces and spew saw blade shrapnel all over the area.
Breakdowns? Oh yes, from the Pillow Block bearings on the loading frame carriage to the breakage of the green chain cut lumber unloading conveyer. Also, the crew has to change out the huge band saws periodically as they become dull.
The green chain is the name of the conveyer that moves the cut lumber away from the cutting area to a sorting area where the cut lumber is offloaded onto stacks of other cut lumber that match the sizes being cut. It’s green cut lumber that needs to go into a kiln to cure; dry out. As a log is cut, it can create pieces of lumber from 2×1”s up to 12×12” pieces. The finished cut lumber size is based on the size of the log being cut. Obviously one can’t cut 12×12” pieces if the log is only 12” in diameter to start with.
Yes, I know this is probably more information than you ask for but just wanted you to get an idea of the process so I can tell you how my Fish Grabber came into existence.
Back to my visit. As I said, it was afternoon and I was chatting with the sawmill foreman. I noticed his hands were all cut up and looked very painful.
“What did you do to your hands? Put them too close to the saw blade?” I asked.
“Nah, nothing like that,” he said, “I was fishing this weekend on Toledo Bend Lake and caught over a hundred bass”.
“Okay,” I replied, “but what did you do, catch them with your hands? You should have worn gloves.”
“I did but after about 20 fish, the teeth start to wear through.”
“Sounds like you should have used a pair of gloves you get with your chain saw, metallic and I’m pretty sure the fish teeth wouldn’t penetrate. Did you consider a pair of those gloves?” By now I was shaking my head at his reasoning.
“No, nothing like that, and yes, I did get cut from their teeth but it was due to holding them down on the boat seat and filleting them as I caught them but not wearing my chain saw gloves as they are saturated with chain saw oil. I wasn’t looking forward to eating bass that tasted like 30 weight chain oil.”
“Come on” I questioned, “Haven’t you seen or ever used one of those filet boards they sell, the ones that look like a fraternity paddle.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen and even tried one once but that clamp that supposed to hold the fish while you scale or filet aren’t strong or tight enough to hold the fish’s head, they just slip out.
“Okay, if that type filet board doesn’t work, why don’t you make one that would?”
“Like what? He queried.”
“I don’t know; surely there must be some way to hold a fish stable while you do what you want to do.”
A sawmill, like many manufacturing places, have all sorts of loose material sitting and laying around. I looked in some adjacent tool racks and then found a piece of leather strap on the floor. I got two pieces of 2×6’s and one of the mill hands cut them 15” long. In the racks, I found a used hacksaw blade.
The foreman took me into his less noisy, less dust filled office and I proceeded to nail the two straps onto the bottom of each end of both 15” boards making pseudo hinges. When placed end to end with the strap hinges attached, it left approximately ½” gap. I folded the board onto each other and then cut a groove on each exposed end. Once the groove was cut, I cut the hacksaw blade into two 6” lengths and fitted them into the grooves I’d cut in the ends.
Once the hacksaw blade was then press fit into the grooves with the teeth exposed, I unfolded the two pieces and said, “There, here is a fish filet board that could work.”
“Are you kidding me, what makes you think this would work?”
I took the challenge and found a piece of paper on his desk. I put the paper between the opened end and inserted the paper between the hacksaw blades, unhinged the two boards so the hacksaw blade teeth were contacting the paper. The blades had been inserted so they were a ¼” apart so the paper was crimped between them.
Now with the boards unfolded, the paper was held tight.
“You sure that’s going to hold?” he asked.
I gestured to the board lying on his desk and said, “Try it. Pull the paper and see if it holds.”
He did and the only way to remove the paper was to refold the boards or tear the paper.
“Dag nab it, that really seems to work. Do you think it will hold a fish?”
“You’re going fishing this weekend aren’t you?”
“Dang straight I am, the bass are really biting and I never miss an opportunity to fish.”
“Good, try it out and see if you can’t protect your hands better.”
I left and returned to Houston.
On Monday week I received a phone call.
“Hey Ron, I went fishing like I told you and used your fish contraption. It really worked. My hands are great. I filleted about 80 fish with no problems. ”
“That’s terrific, I’m glad I could give you a solution.”
I was ready to hang up as fishing to me is like watching paint dry and I’ve never been an aficionado of that endeavor either.
“That’s not all”, he went on, I was filleting and several others saw me using your device and they wanted one.”
Laughing I said, “You’re kidding, you saw me make it, make one for them too.”
“Nope, if they want one they can make their own, I have mine. Thanks. When are you coming through here again? I do owe you a beer.”
“If I was a drinking I’d take you up on that but I’ll settle for a cup of coffee. I should be in Diboll in 3 weeks. I’ll stop in then.”
We hung up and a week later I got to thinking, if someone wanted a jury-rigged fish filet board and maybe would be willing to pay for it, why don’t I explore the possibility.
Not being even remotely interested in fishing and not willing to spend more than incidental time and money on this project, I purchased a piece of lumber 8” wide and 36” long at the nearest Home Depot. I cut it into two pieces; bought a hacksaw blade, two metal hinges and 4 rubber toilet seat bumpers.
The speculative product was assembled on my kitchen table much to the chagrin of my wife and 2 children.
“What’s that for,” my son asked.
“Your making the table dirty,” my daughter piped in.
“It’s a fish filet board,” I dutifully responded.
“Take it out to the garage to do that,” my wife demanded. “Besides, I know you have never fished and I just don’t seeing you doing that now.”
I moved to the garage.
I’d already experienced the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat on creating other new products and the immense amount of time, effort and money it takes to bring a new idea, item or product to market. I wasn’t going to keep doing the same thing over and over and wanting to expect a different result so this time I decided to try a new route.
Parade Magazine used to be an insert in the Sunday newspapers. There was a column in that Magazine that was called Parade of Progress. It featured new items and products that people throughout the country submitted for consideration.
How does Parade Magazine fit with my now named Fish Grabber filet board?
After I completed my Fish Grabber, in the garage, I bought a large fish at the nearest supermarket and mounted it on my filet board with the fish locked between the hacksaw blades. I then attempted to filet the fish. It was and is the only time in my life that I’ve ever even attempted such a thing.
Along with the photo I concocted a paragraph that read:
FISH GRABBER, fish filet board.
Can hold fish up to 18”
long while you scale or filet.
$8.25 PO Box xxxxx
Houston, TX 77282
Six weeks later someone was pounding on my door. It was early on a Sunday morning and I’d been out late with my family to the Symphony so was sleeping in.
“What do you want?” I barked at my friend as he was excitedly thrusting the Sunday morning paper in my face.
“Did you see it, did you?”
“See what?” I demanded.
“Here, look at this.” He’d removed the Parade of Progress section from the paper and was scrambling to get it open to a page he was adamant I look at.
Wow, there it was, the picture I’d taken of my Fish Grabber. Even the wording on the page was verbatim.
“Oh my God”, I thought, what do I do if someone actually orders one.
No, my fears didn’t just set on one, in the next 30 days I got over 10,000 orders with cash, checks and money orders for my non-existent Fish Grabber. Add another 10,000 in the following weeks and I knew I was in deep trouble.
Come on, I’d made a total of two fish filet boards and now was expected to make thousands.
I had no inventory, no manufacturing facilities except for my kitchen table, no wait, my garage and not even any raw materials. I was in serious trouble as I’d solicited commerce via a national publication and accepted funds in that endeavor. Not even considering that it was done via the U.S. Postal Service.
My vision of spending time at Leavenworth for a Federal Crime was overpowering.
What to do, what to do?
My first inclination was to return all the funds I’d received but calculated that would cost me thousands of dollars to even do that with postage at $.45/each at the time.
Second on the list was to hit Thomas Register to no avail.
Prior to the internet, I’d live in the Thomas Register and here I spend hours searching for a solution.
Divine Providence has shown down on me one more time. This time it was a double blessing in that I’d gotten one day away from visiting the Post Office to buy 15,000 stamps when I accidentally knocked the Yellow Pages off, again my kitchen table, and they hit the floor open to a page that listed a wholesale lumber company.
I immediately called them.
“Yes, I believe we can help you Sir. We just happen to have a boxcar of pre-cut Oak blanks that were manufactured for a skateboard company but they determined that Oak was too rigid and canceled the order. They are 36” long and 8” wide. We have 50,000. Do you think you could use those?”
I wanted to say, “Do birds fly?” but left it at, “How much and when can I get them?”
“The boxcar is in St. Louis on a siding and if you can give us a delivery location, I can get you a quote.”
“I’ll call you back within a couple of hours”, I said, “Please take my credit card for $1000 to hold the sale for me.”
“Yes Sir, I can do that.”
Since the Yellow pages were so good to me this time, I rustled through them as I was seeking a wood and cabinet shop that could do the manufacturing for me and had a railroad siding, preferably.
The year had been hard on wood and cabinet shops as there had been a critical downturn in the new home building. I found a large cabinet manufacturer in East Bernard. A visit to their facilities proved to be my answer for a manufacturer as they had more than adequate capacity to do my job for me.
I called the company that that the boxcar of Oak blanks and said, “I have a location to transport my boxcar. It’s in East Bernard, Texas. How much do you want for the entire boxcar load, FOB the East Bernard, Texas manufacturing facility?”
“We’ll charge $.35 each which is $17,500.00 and deliver it within 14 days.”
I gulped and said, “Will you invoice me or do you need some additional funds to ship?”
“No problem Sir, we have your order and deposit, we’ll invoice the rest; payment in 30 day.”
“Done,” I said. “Ship it!”
Now my additional problem, component parts; i.e. hacksaw blades, hinges, rubber grommets and packaging. The manufacturer agreed to do what needed to be done to make the Fish Grabber ready to drop ship to the purchasers but I had to provide all the needed and necessary parts.
Trying to buy bulk quantities of each of the needed components were way out of Home Depot and Lowes inventory ranges. In fact, I found I was able to source and get the same items offshore at fewer prices in just the same amount of time it would have taken Home Depot and Lowes to call in inventory from all of their stores.
Buying items offshore, at that time, required huge orders. This worked for me and I got myself into the Import business and negotiated the purchases. All components plus the boxcar with the wood panels were shipped to East Bernard.
The manufacturer quoted me an assembled price ready for pickup at his location of $3.15 each.
The last of the first month order of 10,000 Fish Grabbers were shipped by day 37 of the buyers’ initial orders and payment. Whew, saved myself from Federal Postal fraud and interstate charges.
The next couple of months saw about half of the boxcar load of 50,000 Oak panels left. What to do with the rest? The boxcar had to be unloaded and made ready for removal within 10 days of its arrival so now I had 25,000+ Oak blanks stored in the manufacturer’s warehouse.
That lead to my trade show escapades. From McCormick Place in Chicago, Mclaren Place in Los Vegas; Astro Dome in Houston to Georgia World Congress Center, all were soon contracted for me to market my Fish Grabber.
Trade shows are awesome, the first time. From then on they become very tedious and bone-tiring.
A 10’x10’ cement floored booth with a draped table and back curtain plus two chairs costs $1000.00. Electricity and any other incidentals are extra.
The Fish Grabber was but one of the products I’d be leasing a booth for over the ensuing years. Some booths were even contracted for in other countries.
Yes, I get bored quite quickly so after a year of traveling the U.S. to promote and sell the Fish Grabber, I jumped on the first offer to sell my interests, inventory and any and all rights to it.
Of course, I was off to new ventures before the purchasers check cleared the bank.
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