Monday, July 30, 2018

Metric Crawdaddies

Hi Everyone,

Hope your weekend was great! We've been having some very unsettled weather here all last week, with frequent intermittent downpours, followed by bits of sun and much higher humidity than we've seen so far this summer. It was starting to get rather sticky out there but right now things are back to being more reasonable.

Updates: All last week I got thoroughly caught up in a several day long fun family event that took up a lot more time than I anticipated. Ended up being sort of an impromptu vacation week which was nice, but I am back to work now and trying to get things moving again. Tools are slowly moving along and I just got a super cool brand new idea this weekend that I am going to get started on right away, details coming shortly.

Today I finally have some of the CPM 3v Steel Metric Crawdaddies done! These took seemingly forever and there are still more that I'm working on in the shop, but I have enough finished for a sale today. The Metric Crawdaddies are an open ended wrench/multi tool featuring metric spanner sizes 7,8,9,10,11 and 12mm. In addition the tool holds a captive phillips bit with separate 1/4 hex bit opening and the rear sports a straight screwdriver/pry bar in my usual arrangement.

These guys are a bit beefier than prior Crawdaddy versions at nearly 3/16 thick. The finish is slightly matte, rugged looking and perfect for a working tool. I didn't oil these so you will want to do that with the oil of your choosing should you wish to slow down the patina process, with either WD-40 or any type of household or petroleum based motor oil. I elected not to do any extra grinds on these other than on the pry tip end, and there are none with decorative stamps or wrench end grinds so as to preserve maximum wrench teeth grip. I didn't make any lefty specific ones in this run either.

The Metric Crawdaddies will run $75 each plus shipping and it's a sizable batch so I'll make it a two per customer limit on them please. Thanks for dropping by today. I hope you have a great week ahead (how can it almost be August???) and stay cool!

Sold out, thanks so much everyone!






Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Red Magnums!

Hi Folks,

It's another fine summer day here in the Northeast. It's been rather warm lately with the mercury rising over 90 for much of the past week. It's supposed to be a little cooler for the next week or so though which will be nice, and a little rain would be much appreciated as well since we've been rather dry lately. Today the skies are darkening and we are supposed to get a big storm this afternoon with a half inch of rain...

I don't have any further tool news just yet but I'm going to try to finish up metric Crawdaddies towards the end of the week, however it may be Monday before they are finally done, we shall see. I'm waiting on more o-rings and hex bits so I can do up the packaging and they are not shipping very fast. This is always a slow time of year because a lot of companies are taking time off or are short handed because employees are on vacation. So it's hit or miss trying to make arrangements or order supplies, get heat treating done, and shipping is often slowed down.

Well today I have some Red 5 Flute Magnum beads for you. These are single name stamped only. They have that same gorgeous deep velvety red anodizing that the smaller ones had earlier this spring and they look amazing on the black and white "checkered flag" cord.

The Red Magnums will run $35 plus shipping and the link to purchase is below. It's a pretty big batch so I won't put a limit on them. As always, I cannot thank you enough for stopping by today and hope you all are getting some days off and staying cool this summer!


Sold out, thank you everyone!




Friday, July 13, 2018

Steel Ringbabies

Hi Everyone!

Hope you all are having a great summer so far. It's been quite warm here but with low humidity so it has been quite bearable. Very little rain so I have had to go out every morning to water my tomatoes and peppers but looks like we might get some showers this weekend. The blueberries are starting to come in and I got the first zucchini of the season yesterday. Good times coming if I can stay ahead of the slugs, beetles and squirrels all of which have been enjoying the buffet.

The new E115 tool and one other new design are due to be cut anytime now. I have been finishing up more Magnum fluted beads and digging out some other neglected projects, so there is much more on the way this summer. The metric Crawdaddies just came back from heat treat so I will be working on finishing them up this weekend.

Today I have the Ringbabies with stamps done. Finally! These are CPM 154 steel and this project is one that I started several years ago and just never got around to working on the batch. Some of the older collectors may remember my earlier runs of captive bit RingMasters and RingThing knives that I made about 10 years ago, and this batch continues on with the exact same theme but in a shorter package. These little guys are less than 3 inches long and are about 1 inch wide at the widest point, and the steel is normal 5/32 thickness. So darned cute!

The batch is heavily stamped and I have to say, this is one of the best stamp runs I have made. I had to go slow on the stamping and spread it over a few days since that is something that has really been bothering my hands. So there are some really nice ones here with clear deep images and a few cool seldom seen examples as well. And there are a few lefties too.

The Stamped Steel Ringbabies will run $70 each plus shipping and the link to purchase is below. It's a good sized batch so two per customer limit on them please. Thanks as always for dropping by and I hope you have a great weekend ahead!


Sold Out, thank you so much everyone!