
Garland Sagen
Proud Inventor and CEO of Sagen
Incorporated “To think that this
business is totally by accident. It just happened because
I hurt my hand.”
The sun was going down on a cold fall
day in North Dakota. Walking was tedious in the foot of new
snow and he still had one tag to fill when he spotted a nice
4 year old doe at the edge of the woods. Taking a breath
and steadying his aim, Garland Sagen dropped a nice 4 year
old doe. “This will be good eating”, Garland thought as he
made his way to the deer. But now the hard part; field
dressing the deer.
He scanned the ground but was unable
to locate a rock to pound his knife through the pelvis bone;
so once again, he had to use his hand. On the fourth try he
hurt his hand. “There has to be a better way!” Garland
remarked out loud. The next day while rubbing his bruised
hand; Garland began dreaming up a tool to cut the pelvic
bone and rib cage of large game animals.
“It has to be small, lightweight
inexpensive and tough.” he thought. Something you can
easily carry without burden on all your hunts. Something
that will quickly cut through the pelvis bone without
cutting into the guts and spoiling the meat. Sitting there
with his bruised hand wrapped around a warm cup of coffee; a
tool began to visualize. “A bone saw” he thought. “One
sharp enough to cut the hardest bone.” “With a bumper to
protect the colon and bladder.” A picture was forming in
his mind. It was 1991 and the start of a long journey to
build the perfect big game cleaning tool.
Over the next two years Garland
designed and tested hundreds of combinations of handles,
blades and bumpers. Working with his son, they tried the
tool on every road kill they could find. All this testing
paid off. They found the perfect combination; a “T” handle,
large bumper and saw teeth that cut on the up-stroke. There
in the Sagen Saw was born. Garland had his design patented
and began to sell them out of the back of his pickup and at
trade shows. “I never thought it would be this successful”
Garland says. “Everyone wanted one.” To date, over
150,000
Sagen Hunter’s Field Saws have sold throughout North America
and 7 countries worldwide. “Some hunters report using it on
50 deer and its still as sharp as the day they purchased
it.” Garland says.
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