Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Progress Report

I know it's been quiet around here for a couple of weeks but rest assured that stuff is going on behind the scenes!

I still have a few BigShots available and they continue to trickle out the door. It's kind of a nice change to finally have been able to make enough pieces of something to make everyone happy. I have a few variation pieces available as well and will be posting them soon.

In other news, the G3 Prybabies are still in the works. I am in grinding mode this week and am working on them.

I'm also working on a brand new tool, something I'm calling the NutJob. I'm nearly done grinding the first batch and I'm just about ready to post progress pics. This will be a slightly larger pocket tool than my recent offerings at 4 inches OAL and it is quite substantial. It combines the beefed up jaws of the Crawdaddy with the body of the Atwrench and adds the tail end of the Bug Out Bar. The first round of these will be SAE sizes only but I may cut a sheet of them in metric as well.

I'm still weighing my options on other projects. My specialty steel supplier, Crucible, has filed for Chapter 11. I guess their biggest customers have been the auto industry and tool and die companies and with all the economic calamities they have gotten into trouble. So right now S30v steel is not available in the thicknesses that I use. I'll be using some of the very similar CPM 154 for the next couple of projects and it sounds like S30v will again be available later this summer. My fingers are crossed. It would be a huge blow if Crucible ended up going out of business. I'm researching other possible alloys in case of such a disruption but there are many reasons for me to use the steels I have been using and it will not be easy to find a good replacement material although the old standby 440C is one possibility.

16 comments:

Aaron said...

Wow, Sounds great Peter!

Can't wait for the preview pics.

Heath said...

Thanks for the update, Peter.

Can't wait to see pics of the new NutJob!

Heath

onceuponanace said...

Thanks for the update Peter.

Look forward to seeing pictures of the Nutjob :)

McCool009 said...

Sad to hear that about Crucible, but the NutJob sounds like it'll be awesome either way!

Unknown said...

This NutJob sounds quite interesting, if it has the body of an atwrench will it have a bottle opener?

Carrie said...

Peter,
I would like to see a re vamp or another run of bottle bugs, I really like that design and i am having a hard time finding them even on the secondary market.

Peter Atwood said...

The NutJob does not have a bottle opener on it. I tried to incorporate one but wasn't satisfied with any of my drawings so I decided to make this more of a straight ahead wrench/pry tool. I figure it is likely everyone already has an Atwood tool with bottle opener... :)

Dan said...

You can sign me up for a metric one if you're taking orders already :)

^M0rk^ said...

Metric!!!
I enlist for the metric version :DDDD

Francesco, ITALY

Peter Atwood said...

Hehe, no worries folks, there will definitely be a batch of metric ones.

Easy Wind said...

Nice to see a new tool without an opener, sounds like one sturdy piece!
A useful blend of features from some prior creations, and at 4" OAL
to boot...sweetness!
Seems whenever it is raining here
you chime in with some good news :)

Sights on the G3 as well!

DB said...

Thanks for the updates, Peter. Hopefully you'll be able to continue to get the S30v later this year. Maybe until then, a few runs of titanium tools?

codec said...

Thanks for the update :)

It's pretty crazy to hear about Crucible...

lauriek said...

Surely if Crucible went out of business someone would buy the rights to make S30V?

Maybe in the short term play with some Titanium or Damascus? :D

enki said...

Nice to hear from you again Peter!


I will definatly buy the metric version! I am extremly happy you will make some metric versions, but I beg you, make enough of em, as it's the perfect tool for me, and i'm sure for alot of europeans as well, 2 dozen aint gonna cut it i'm afraid :D

wouldn't mind a damascus or Ti version either :D

Anonymous said...

I'd be in for a metric NutJob.