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Photo from Professional Tool Manufacturing The Drill Doctor Handyman 250, a drill-bit sharpener manufactured in Ashland, won a retailer's choice award at the National Hardware Show in Chicago last week. The new product will be available at Eagle, True Value and Ace hardware stores. Honors for a sharp product Drill-bit sharpener made in Ashland goes national BY DAVID PRESZLER ASHLAND -- The latest addition to the Drill Doctor family is having quite a coming-out party. The Drill Doctor Handyman 250, a drill-bit sharpener aimed at the do-it-yourselfer, won a retailer's choice award at the National Hardware Show in Chicago last week and is headed for the shelves of Ace Hardware, True Value Hardware and Eagle Hardware and Garden stores around the country. "We thought it was a heck of a product," says Hank O'Dougherty, president of Professional Tool Manufacturing, formerly called Darex Professional Tools. Still, the award came as a pleasant surprise given the show's prestige. More than 3,000 exhibitors were at the event, and only 50 products received the honor. A panel of national retailers picked winners based on uniqueness of design and product potential. "The exciting part about this is that the retailers are accepting drill-bit sharpening," he says. "They are buying into that it's smarter to have sharp bits than to buy a new bit." The Handyman, which sharpens to -inch bits, will retail for around $89. It has been in development for about a year and began production this month. By next month, the company expects to be pumping out 4,000 Handymans from its Tolman Creek Road plant in Ashland. Professional Tool, which employs about 50 people, doesn't expect to add workers with the launch of the Handyman. Instead, it's banking on increased efficiency to handle the volume. The sharpeners are available through True Value Hardware and Ace Hardware stores and the company will begin shipping them to Eagle stores next month. Deals with other national retailers are also in the works. The Handyman joins the company's two Drill Doctor products aimed at small-machine shops and other professionals, the Tradesman 500 and the Professional 750. The company may still develop a smaller and less expensive sharpener than the Handyman. Darex, founded in 1973 by current chief executive and owner Dave Bernard and his father, split into two companies in 1998: Darex Industrial Corp. to make heavy-duty sharpeners, and what is now called Professional Tool Manufacturing to produce the Drill Doctor. Each has about 50 employees. Professional Tool dropped the Darex name to simplify marketing efforts. Rather than build two brands, it will build the Drill Doctor name because it's easier to associate with the products. Building a brand name isn't the only challenge. Past attempts by other companies to produce bit sharpeners have failed to meet customer expectations. O'Dougherty says 25 years' experience in making sharpeners helped overcome the hurdles to producing a good one. "We understand it better than anyone else," he says. "It's not simple. There's a reason no one else has done this." The company is counting on that expertise to withstand the possibility that a large national company will try to clone the product and undercut sales. Another challenge is changing habits. When a bit gets dull, people tend to just go buy a new one. O'Dougherty says a sharpener cuts out the hassle and expense of going to buy a new one. And working with a freshly sharpened bit makes the job easier and quicker. "What we are saying is keep your drill bits sharp," he says. "They just get dull so fast." He suspects many do-it-yourselfers have coffee cans of dull bits they haven't thrown out. "Add up the value of those," he says. "If you sharpen those, you make up the value of the drill-bit sharpener." Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA