The August weather in Atlanta last week was unseasonably cool–pleasant actually. Then IWF began.

“Check out that thing–it is the biggest waste of cash in the builiding.”

“What is it?” his friend asks.

“It’s an upside down handsaw that costs $1300 bucks–you can accurately cut wood for $20 or less.”

I had heard enough.

“Have you seen this thing work?” I asked.

“I watched videos on the internet and nobody can believe the price. The guy that invented this must be crazy.”

“Well, I’m that guy and I am crazy–but not when I work. Would you like to see it live?”

His friend steps forward and spills the two most expensive words in the English language, “I do.”

Over the next 10 minutes I demonstrated compound miters, dovetails, and showed a couple of new discoveries that I want to video in September. Then I grabbed a 1/2″ diameter dowel and asked the judgmental skeptic if he would like to try the Jointmaker Pro. He came around to the other side of the saw and I described what he needed to do to cut the dowel without clamps and to keep it from spinning in his hand during the cut.

His first cut was awkward and I stopped his cut before he could trash the blade. But the second cut was perfect, and so was the third. Right before his fourth cut his friend asked to try. His first attempt was without flaw and neither could believe the smoothness of the cuts. Both were smiling.

We talked about applications, creativity, and my thoughts about the conception and the prototype design cycle. The crowd around the saw was now five.

One of the newcomers asked, “Have you sold any of these saws to schools for the blind?”

“Not yet.”

He handed me his attendee card to swipe for follow-up information and that prompted the remaining four to fish attendee cards out of their badge holders.

After I processed all five, the skeptic asked me how long our $995.00 special would last.

“September 15th.”

As he was walking away I barely heard him say to his buddy; “My wife is going to kill me.”

-John