Langdale entrepreneur invents 'saw horse' (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Langdale entrepreneur invents 'saw horse'

1:47pm Monday 30th April 2012 in Business By Helen Perkins, Reporter

A BUILDER with a bad back has invented a nifty ‘saw horse’ that cuts out the heavy lifting involved in cutting logs.

Little Langdale entrepreneur Richard Bowness has patented his design, called the Truncator.

It holds wood while it is sawn and allows heavy logs to be tipped into a container or held without hitting the ground.

Mr Bowness, 60, hopes to sell his back-saving design to farmers and forest managers to make their jobs easier and safer.

The retired building contractor said his 1.8 metre design, which weighs 40 kilos, was developed by him in his workshop.

“I‘ve been in building since I was 14 and I couldn’t pick the logs up off the floor any more.

“I had only made this design for myself – I put it together out of plywood. I didn’t think anything of it.”

Mr Bowness said retired painter and straight-talking friend George Wilson, of Ambleside, convinced him his idea was worth developing.

“I was cutting logs in my workshop when he came down for a chat. He is a hard man to please and I thought if he thinks this is a good idea then it must be.

“It removes the work – now with a chainsaw you can cut 60 logs in 60 seconds.”

After generating a more sophisticated, adjustable design, with a high quality wooden trestle and plastic and metal parts, the former owner of builders AW Bowness, patented version 11 of his design.

Now he hopes his first batch of 500, constructed in Little Langdale, will win over agricultural workers, farmers and forest managers.

“They are a hard market to impress and if we can satisfy them then the model will be set for anyone who wants to take down a tree easily or cut up wood to fill up their log burner,” he said.