One operates PockeTweez like any other tweezer. But because the tip is so sharp, its inventor, Rick Francis, also developed an attached sheath that it can be snapped into.

Like most homebuilders and construction workers, Rick Francis spent much of his career somewhat unsuccessfully fiddling with tweezers or needles when a piece of wood splintered into his skin.

Then, 15 years ago, a man at one of Francis’ work sites handed him a makeshift tweezer a group of millworkers had forged using leftover steel from planer blades. Workers who dealt with wood all day needed a heavy-duty tweezer to help manage the droves of splinters constantly finding a place in their hands, Francis said last week at his southwest Bend home.

To say the least, this new type of tweezer worked.

“It’s like gold,” Francis said.

Francis hopes that is true. Fifteen years after he first saw the needle-nosed device, the 60-year-old has begun to mass-produce and sell the tweezers under the name PockeTweez.

Francis’ decision to make a business out of PockeTweez three years ago is not uncommon among former homebuilders, who have looked for new careers as construction slowed.

“We were looking for a change,” Francis said about he and his wife, Bev, starting PockeTweez.

After investing more than $120,000 and a couple of years of research, Francis is now selling PockeTweez online and at five Central Oregon locations for about $25 each. They built the price around the intricate process required to assemble each one, as well as the cost of comparable tweezers.

“It’s a unique gift, especially for someone who has everything,” said Bev Francis, 61.

The road to developing a product that could be sold in mass was long, Rick Francis said, adding that the couple used multiple local resources along the way. They took business and technology classes at Central Oregon Community College and WorkSource Oregon, developed a business model with the help of counselors at the Central Oregon office of SCORE, a nonprofit group that provides information and advice to businesses, and got involved with the Central Oregon Inventors Group, whose members helped the Francises with the process of patenting PockeTweez.

There’s currently a patent pending on the device, Rick Francis said.

Whereas most tweezers’ bodies are thin from top to bottom, the PockeTweez has a thin base that leads to a larger, rounded head. It is capped off with a pinpoint nose, which helps the tweezer dig into the skin and grab the invading object, Francis said.

“It’s like an extension of your fingernails,” which gives PockeTweez its dexterity, he said. The problem with most tweezers, Francis said, is that “people have such low expectations for them that they don’t get very excited.”

Francis is excited and has begun more heavily marketing his device after soft-selling it for more than a year. So far, he has sold about 500. He doesn’t have plans to try to sell the rights to the device or market it through a large distributor quite yet, but that could happen in the future, Francis said.

For now, Francis plans to work out the rest of the kinks of PockeTweez, develop other potential models and potentially bring down the manufacturing cost.

As it is, PockeTweez has a complicated manufacturing process. The tweezer itself, along with a connected sheath, are manufactured in Wisconsin.

Once forged, the pieces are sent to Francis, who then passes them to a company in Portland for heat treating. When the pieces return to Francis in Bend, the Francises use a machine to cut the pieces into proper dimensions and drill holes to attach the sheath.

“It’s funny how it just kind of evolves,” Rick Francis said about the process of developing an idea into a business.

Miller Lumber on Greenwood Avenue in Bend is one of five locations that sells PockeTweez. Charley Miller, a co-owner of Miller Lumber, said he was initially skeptical about the possibility of a $25 tweezer selling.

Miller said his employees have received positive feedback from customers, who say the product works well.

“It’s actually been a good seller,” he said. “Before we knew it we were out, and we’ve restocked a few times I think.”

Before beginning to manufacture PockeTweez, Francis said he tried to track down the people who built the first one. After an extensive search, he found no leads and began work on developing the tweezer.

The device, formerly named the SliverGetter, isn’t only for slivers. Francis said it can be used to deal with ingrown hair and ticks, and doctors have even used it to remove small objects, thus avoiding surgery.

“There’s all kinds of uses,” he said. “In a way, it could be a micro-plier.”

Since joining the Central Oregon Inventors Group, Francis has become the president. He said he wants to broaden the group, having events and guest speakers who can assist the many Central Oregon inventors throughout the process of turning an idea into something tangible.

If people can create a business out of an invention, it could help deplete some of the rampant unemployment in the area, he said.

“We’re trying to make it a resource for these people that have all these ideas and don’t know what to do with them,” Francis said. “Our goal is to affect the economy in Central Oregon.”

Get PockeTweez

Find PockeTweez online at www.pocketweez.com or in Central Oregon at one of five locations: Bend’s Miller Lumber, Trade-N-Tools, Hoyt’s Hardware & Building Supply, High Desert Ranch & Home, The Renaissance Revival.

It retails for $25.