After a two-year wait, Springfield resident and inventor Sean Denny has received the patent for a new device called the grout bag (a catchier name is likely forthcoming when it goes to market).

“I had wanted somebody to tuckpoint just the front part of my house and they wanted $8,000 for it,” said Denny. However, when he attempted to apply the cement himself, he found it more diffi cult than expected. “It felt like it was going to take me a month!” A light bulb soon went on over his head. “I went in the garage and made this thing, and it worked really good. I made the bag so you can use a lever, which is a ratchet, on it . It’s real simple, it could have been made a hundred years ago. But it wasn’t.” Friends who did tuck-pointing professionally told him he was onto something. When he received the patent pending for the grout bag, a meeting with higher-ups at Kraft Tools in Kansas City proved disappointing. After praising the invention at length, the company reps offered to either license it or purchase the design outright. “Long story short, they wanted to steal it. I told ’em to stick it up their ass.” Denny is currently looking for investors.