Steel Bookie Tools!

 Hi Everyone,

Well, fall has arrived very suddenly during this past week. There were a few cold nights where we briefly flirted with an early frost but somehow managed to narrowly escape each time. After that we went from tired green leaves everywhere to spots of orange, yellow and red. It's been so dry all summer that I don't know what effect it will have on fall foliage though, and it might end up being a bit subdued... At any rate, I always savor the warm afternoons this time of year filled with golden light and the delicious smell of decomposing leaves.

The projects continue to slowly chug along. I just need to put in two more days of work and I will be ready to send a batch of a new steel pry tool called the Oddvark out to heat treat. Steel MiniBar+ tools are next in line after those. Not too much else to report at the moment, but I will stay with it and have more cool tools coming up soon.

Today I have some New Old Stock items for you. I was going through boxes this summer and came across a batch of 10 year old Steel Bookies that I never finished. It has been a very long time since I have had any edged tools to offer and so I figured I ought to finish these up.

The concept behind the Bookie was to make a thin bookmark tool that could be kept sheathed in a journal or book. They are made of hardened 420 stainless cutlery steel with stonewashed finish and have a 2.5 inch sharpened edge. And naturally they also have a cap lifter built in. These are intended to be used primarily as a desk tool and they make for a unique letter opener. They will ship with a simple plastic edge cover and it is up to you to find the perfect book, Moleskine journal or other home for them. 

In our frenetic electronic age, it is almost becoming quaint to use pen and ink and to read a book printed on paper. But I still love doing things the old fashioned way at times, and thankfully no battery is required!

Steel Bookies will run $70 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for dropping by and I hope you are gearing up for a nice weekend.

Bookies are gone for today, thank you so much!

 

 

 

 

Roidy Tims!

Hi Everyone,

Well it sure is gorgeous outside this week. We're enjoying some of the last warm days right now, and there is not a red or yellow leaf anywhere to be seen. Usually by this time of year we have a few branches here and there showing colors, but so far there is nothing at all. Maybe the unusually dry summer and the warmer than usual nights are keeping them back. But I am sure that fall cannot be denied and we will start seeing some nice foliage in the next week or two. Generally the first week of October is when we are at the peak of color.

As I mentioned last week, the CPM 154 steel Tiny Tims did indeed make it back from heat treat, and I worked on them all weekend. These are my favorite Tiny Tim design variation so far, and rather chunky, at just under 1/4 inch in thickness. So I think they can be officially considered Roids...

The functions include 1/4, 5/16 and 7/16 hex wrenches, cap lifter, and extra leverage pry tip/screwdriver. They are 2.1 inches long compared to the earlier titanium version which was 1.95 inches long, so a little bit more working room on the pry tip end. They have a silky antique satin finish which will wear like iron. Oh wait, they ARE iron (and carbon, chromium, etc.), haha... 

I used my usual wide variety of stamps on them, and the stamps are very deep and well defined on this batch. I had some fun with them and so there are quite a few with interesting image combinations as well as some sweet understated single stamped pieces. There are a few lefties here as well.

Roidy Tims will run $60 plus shipping, no quantity limit on them, and the purchase link is below. Thanks for visiting today, and I hope your holiday shortened week is going great so far!

Sold out, thank you so much folks!

Titanium MiniBar+

Hello Everyone!

I am back. I have been taking care of an older family member for the past several weeks who has been having some emergency health issues. So I was doing a lot of driving them to the ER, many doctor visits, surgery, helping at home, etc. Everything is cool now though, all is well thank goodness, and it looks like I have my life back...health care stuff is never fun during the best of times but during this pandemic navigating everything has become a nightmare, especially for older folks.

Anyhow, my production certainly suffered during August. I did still manage to get a few things done however, and I'm happy to report that a large batch of steel Tiny Tims is coming back from heat treat today so will be finished by next week. I also just finished milling some other steel projects and so will have at least two more steel tool batches coming up for the fall. I'm thinking of cutting a brand new titanium gas wrench tool, the GasBone, this month. I do have a pile of other designs in the wings too, including brand new Prybaby designs, so as I work through my backlog of projects this fall I will look at cutting more tools.

Today I have some nifty new titanium tools finished. The MiniBar+ is based on my Stubby MiniBar design which I released a while back. I had only made 10 of those Stubbies at the time but had so many people asking for them that I decided to make a similar tool, and I ended up adding a cap lifter and second rear pry tip. As with many of my designs, it has a fun form factor with a lot of potential function in a small package.

This is the first batch, in titanium, but a second batch in steel is nearly done as I mentioned above, and will be coming soon. So if you're a steel fan and not crazy about titanium then not to worry, I will have you covered in a few weeks. And if you're a ti fan but don't like anodizing, not to worry as I have a handful of these today set aside without anodizing. So please just drop me an email if you want a plain finish. I think there are even a few without stamps and grinds if you want super minimalist.

Otherwise, this batch today is all stamped and anodized with my wide range of decorative stamps and anodized colors. Most are contrast anodized for maximum variety and I left some grind marks on these for even more subtle contrast color effects...the one thing I forgot to do on this batch was to make some lefty only pieces. Sorry about that, but there will be some lefty ones in the upcoming steel batch.

Titanium MiniBar+ tools will run $65 plus shipping, no limit on them. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you're gearing up for a great holiday weekend!

Sold Out, thank you everyone!

Groom Lake Monster!

Hi Everyone,

Hope you all are doing well and surviving this crazy summer! We had a small tornado rip through the state just south of here the other day but luckily the damage was very minor. We're bracing for that big tropical storm though and it is supposed to be quite rainy later today and windy tonight. This is a good time to freshen up the water jugs and check all the flashlights just in case...

I have been quite busy working on projects, and spent most of last week grinding tools. There are some steel and ti tools coming up shortly based on the Stubby Minibar design. I began work on some new TightWads as well. I did the prep work on a small batch of new steel pry/opener tools called the Oddvark, and now they are ready to get milled. A sizable batch of bronze QuickDraws has been cut and I am in the midst of the prep work on those so that they can be milled. A big batch of steel Tiny Tims very similar to the recent titanium ones are scheduled to be cut soon. And there are some other exotic surprises coming up as well, so please stay tuned.

Today I have something quite unusual for you...back in the 1950's the US government was looking for a location to put their new top secret air base, which would later be known as Area 51. They chose a remote dry lake bed in Nevada called Groom Lake, and sent in a team of geologists to make sure the ground was stable enough for aircraft runways. While drilling some deep test wells they came up with many core samples which were placed in storage and then forgotten about for decades. A few years ago, in a dusty shed full of rusty shelves, some crumbling boxes with faded labels were discovered containing those very core samples. Under a microscope the contents revealed what looked like egg casings mixed in with the sand. When water and special chemical brine was added in the laboratory, these mysterious eggs sprang to life and the Groom Lake Monster was revived! This new tool is a metal replica of the ancient and long extinct beast, what scientists are now calling a Cryptopode.

       

The Groom Lake Monsters are made of titanium. A compact mini pocket comb, they also feature a cap lifter, 5/16" and 3/4" wrench. They have a light bead blasted finish and are all anodized in a wide range of colors, no stamps other than name stamp and they are stamped on both sides. These little guys were quite expensive and labor intensive to produce, so the batch is small and is limited to one per customer please. They will run $65 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for dropping in and I hope you all are staying informed and being safe!

Sold out, thank you!

Titanium Tiny Tims

Hi Everyone,

We were certainly enjoying some lovely mild summer weather this week with very comfortable temperatures. But a pounding rain woke me up at 4:30 this morning... Now it looks like we're going to get high humidity and scorching temps for the next few days. I guess it must be summertime, hehe.

So, I'm gradually getting some stuff done in the shop. I will have something brand new and completely different from an undisclosed laboratory located in the Nevada desert coming very shortly....also I'm almost done getting several batches of items through my newly renovated anodizing set up. And I just finished a brand new drawing this morning for a future tool, so things are beginning to move a bit on this end.

Today I have a batch of newly redesigned Titanium Tiny Tims completed. These little guys are adorable and feature more functions that the originals, in a package that is only slightly larger. They have a cap lifter/extra leverage pry tip/screwdriver. Plus a 5/16 wrench, as well as a 12 point 7/16 wrench and 1/4 inch 12 point bit holder. These are cute as a button and have great ergonomics for such a tiny tool.

There are no lefty or righty tools here. Some have the name stamp on the "front side" and some on the "back side", with the decorative stamps on whatever happened to be the opposite side. There is a wide variety of stamps as well as anodized colors. And there are a handful of "vanilla" ones without anodizing available as well.

Tiny Tims will run $55 plus shipping, no limit on them, and the link is below. Thanks as always for dropping in folks, and I sure hope you're all staying safe and healthy this summer.

All gone, thank you so much everyone, and have a nice weekend!

Stamped Zirconium Hangmen

Hi Everyone,

Well the summer is flying by and it's hard to believe we are already in July. We had several days of rain storms here last week so the drought cycle is finally broken, much to everyone's tremendous relief, although we still need several inches of rain to get us back up to speed. The weeks of dry windy days in June took a heavy toll on my lawn which is going to need some reseeding this fall. More storms are due over much of the weekend.

I've been taking it a bit easy over these past two weeks. I needed to take a few days off to finish some projects around the house, tend to my gardens, do some careful shopping, take care of car related obligations, etc. It was good to get all those pesky errands out of the way because no doubt there will be dozens more coming up to take their place!

The constant stream of world events are so disturbing and disruptive this year that it is making it hard to concentrate on work and develop new ideas. Many creative folks have been reporting the same issues for months so it seems to be a pretty widespread problem. I do remain somewhat optimistic though and I think we will survive this dreadful period of time, somehow, but people have just got to start wising up and keep looking out for one another. Let's all keep informed and hope for the best.

Today I have some Zirconium Hangmen with stamps for you. These little beauties have my usual wide variety of stamped images and feature the traditional gray/black heat colored Zirconium finish. A second smaller group of these with a brand new sparkly and subtly colored Metal Flake Finish is also in the wings.

Stamped Zr Hangmen will run $60 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for stopping by my friends. I hope you're staying healthy and have a great summer weekend ahead!

Sold out, thank you so much folks!

 

P.S. Remembering my friend Dean today, who worked at the local post office for decades. He handled literally thousands of Atwood packages over the years, before finally retiring in 2018. Dean was a sweet and kind man, loved by everyone and he will be sorely missed. Sadly, he never really got to enjoy his retirement because of early onset dementia, and then this spring while in a care facility I'm told the Covid-19 got him. RIP my friend.  

Captain Hook 2

Hi Everyone,

Well we finally got some rain here. It has been bone dry for about a month with a few brief rain showers passing above and below us but somehow always managing to just miss our little area. Anyhow, we finally get an inch or two last week and could use some more. And now we are heading into a little heat wave as official summertime is about to begin.

I don't have too much to report on various projects because there have been a ton of distractions lately keeping me busy, but I will be heading back into the shop over the next few days and will get myself more organized for the upcoming summer. I have several tool projects coming along in both steel and titanium, as well as some beads that have been languishing for months. Too many unfinished projects that I need to get done!

Today I have the next wave of Captain Hooks finished. They are made of the same thick armor plate titanium and are about the same length but feel a little bigger overall. This version differs from the earlier Captain Hooks in that I have made them more ergonomic and also changed the wrench opening to 3/4. I also added some finger grooves and thumb scalloping  on top. These features add a lot of control and allow for more varied grip options. I'm really liking this particular setup and think it is the right direction for the design.

These hooks are plain finished like the earlier batch, and there is a wide variety of stamps. They will run $65 plus shipping and the link is below. One per customer please as the batch is very modest in size. Stay safe and healthy everyone. That virus is still out there and we need to be smart and vigilant. 

 

Sold out, thank you so much everyone!