Need a log lift? Just pinch it
DAVID COLE/Staff writer | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years AGO
<p>The PINCH-A-LOG tool, created by Daniel Considine of Rathdrum, owner of Northwind Tools, is a new product designed to alleviate the strain of moving logs. Pinch-a-log can be purchased at local businesses including Black Sheep in Coeur d’Alene, Andy’s Heating and Cooling, the Hayden ACE Hardware, Specialty Gas Service Fireplace Center in Rathdrum, Rathdrum Trading Post Hardware, Old West Hardware in Spirit Lake, and Bonner Saw & Power Equipment in Priest River.</p>
<p>The PINCH-A-LOG tool, created by Daniel Considine of Rathdrum, owner of Northwind Tools, is a new product designed to alleviate the strain of moving logs. Pinch-a-log can be purchased at local businesses including Black Sheep in Coeur d’Alene, Andy’s Heating and Cooling, the Hayden ACE Hardware, Specialty Gas Service Fireplace Center in Rathdrum, Rathdrum Trading Post Hardware, Old West Hardware in Spirit Lake, and Bonner Saw & Power Equipment in Priest River.</p>
RATHDRUM - Pinched nerves from over-exertion could be a thing of the past with the new Pinch-a-log product.
You can almost hear the commercial now:
No straining.
No getting dirty.
No deep bending.
Proudly made in the U.S.A.
Pinch-a-Log, from Rathdrum-based Northwind Tools LLC, allows users to pick up firewood - ranging in size from 6 inches to 26 inches long - by just grabbing the handle, hooking the log and lifting.
Firewood, whether split or whole, can be thrown or stacked, usually with one hand.
Demonstration videos are posted on the company's website: www.northwindtools.com.
Jeanne Spriggs, product development manager at Northwind, said more than 200 have already been sold nationwide. It was invented last year by her brother, Daniel Considine.
"He had to get firewood into his shop, and he has arthritis," Spriggs said Tuesday. "He just couldn't do it. Period. He couldn't bend that far."
Necessity being the mother of invention, he gave man birth to the Pinch-a-Log.
"He went through several prototypes to come to the final one," she said.
Its retail price is $34.99. Old West Hardware in Spirit Lake was the first to sell it.
Considine, who retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1995 and is a Gulf War veteran, has invented other tools as well.
"He would just wake up in the middle of the night with ideas," Spriggs said. "He has several hand tools that are so innovative you just have to see them."
Northwind Tools has several patented tools that include multi-functional hand tools for professional mechanics or tool enthusiasts, and a drive shaft bicycle. More inventions are in development.
All the Pinch-a-logs are made in his Rathdrum shop.
Spriggs, in case readers are wondering, is responsible for the name.
"I wanted it to be catchy," she said.
"Logs are tough picking up with just your hands alone," said Austin Turpin, who works as a "floater" on the sales floor at Black Sheep Sporting Goods. The popular store is one place to buy a Pinch-a-Log.
"It's ingenious. Definitely ingenious," Turpin said.
Pinch-a-Log tools also are available at Ace Hardware in Hayden, Andy's Heating and Cooling in Coeur d'Alene, Specialty Gas Service and Fireplace Center in Rathdrum, Bonner Saw and Power Equipment in Priest River, and Rathdrum Trading Post Hardware.
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