Friday, November 27, 2020

SpaceNails

Hi Folks!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Despite all the turmoil of 2020 I do have so much to be grateful for. Many others are not as lucky, and I was thinking about them as I enjoyed my turkey yesterday. So a hefty portion of today's sale has already been sent to the local food bank here in western MA.

A little story for you today...

My great Uncle Howard was a pioneer in the aviation industry. During the 1930's and through WW2 he worked as a master machinist for the Chance Vought Company which produced some of the most famous fighter planes of the era. After the war, he went to work for Pratt and Whitney in their experimental engine department and stayed until he retired in the 1970s. He passed away some years ago, sadly. But he strongly influenced me as a kid. I enjoyed many hours playing in his fascinating and well appointed home workshop, listening to his colorful stories and watching him build everything from a completely hand made car (from scrap metal and a lawnmower engine!) to musical instruments to elaborate doll houses. He was truly an amazing and very talented man, a self sufficient product of the Great Depression.

That's a cool story in itself, but here it gets even more interesting... It seems that sometime in the 1950's, while at Pratt and Whitney, he became close friends with a gentleman who had recently been transferred from a government post in Nevada. His name was Bill, although we never learned his last name. 

One hot summer evening, while enjoying cigars and a few too many drinks, Bill shared an interesting tale with my uncle. He claimed to have in his possession some mysterious artifacts from the crash of an unidentified flying object in 1947. 

The debris field from the crash had been enormous and material was strewn over a half mile of rough terrain. Bill had been part of the recovery crew so he had seen it all firsthand. Every single bit of the wreckage down to the tiniest scorched scrap was carefully collected by the men over several weeks. The entire collection was then brought by a convoy of military trucks to the new secret aviation facility in NV for long term storage and study. There were literally hundreds of boxes, barrels and pallets stacked high with these items, all stored in dusty metal sheds. Bill simply couldn't resist and at one point had "liberated" a few small pieces for himself. 

Bill knew of my uncle's engineering skills and keen interest in exotic metals so he loaned him several things to examine at his leisure. Soon after that fateful evening Bill was tragically killed in a car accident and my uncle ended up keeping these curious objects. He stashed them away and more or less forgot them... but he did eventually tell my aunt about Bill and his remarkable finds, and so the story has been passed down through the years. 

After his death, my family came across an old steamer trunk in the attic filled with some of Uncle Howard's secret treasures. There were vintage pinups, yellowed newspaper clippings, a jar of old silver coins and other personal items. In the bottom corner there was a small but very heavy wooden box which turned out to be lined with lead in case of radioactivity. Inside were several strange twisted metal items and a greasy smudged note card in my uncles' handwriting which read, "Bill's horde. From NM crash site 1947." On a second card he had scrawled "Space nails?"  

SpaceNails are faithful replicas of the 1947 originals. Made of armor plate titanium, 3.75 inches long, they will make a great pry tool, although we can only guess at their original use. Were they pins used to hold together the decks of an alien spaceship? LOL...fun stuff.

Titanium SpaceNails will run $65 plus shipping and the link is below. Limit of two on them please. Thanks for dropping by my friends, and may the force be with you. ;)

These are sold out, thank you so much everyone and have a great weekend!


 


 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Black Delrin 6 Flute Megas

Hi Folks,

I hope you all are gearing up for a safe holiday season. We'll be playing it very low key this year and that's just fine, better safe than sorry for sure...good time for me to hunker down and concentrate on working...

I'm making good headway on projects...steel MiniBar+ tools are close to the finish line, just waiting on packaging materials today. Just got the milling done on half of the steel P20 Prybabies so there is a good chance I can get them to completion before the end of the year. Bronze QuickDraws should be done in a week or two...SpaceNails are coming next week. New ti TightWads are still in the queue and I hope to get one batch done before Christmas.

Today I have the Black Delrin 6 Flute Mega beads for you. These are my personal favorites of the Delrin beads, and I like to use them on pocket knives especially. I tied these up with camo cord for a nice look. I left these kind of dry so that they don't ruin the insert cards and make a mess. But if you want to deepen the black color a little you can give them a quick wipe either with WD-40 or any kind of oil and that will bring out the color even more.

Black Delrin 6 Flute Megas will run $25 each and there is no limit on this big batch. Thanks for dropping by, and please stay safe out there, covid is truly getting ugly lately. 

All gone, thank you everyone!
 

 
 

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Black Delrin 3 Rib Magnums

Hi Everyone,

Yeah I know, you can't believe I'm back for a third day in a row! Haha...well, it's quite cold outside this morning. When I took the trash out it was a balmy 17F, so just a bit on the chilly side. At least it's bright and sunny out there. Not that I would going anywhere, except to the grocery store...

Well today I have a small batch of Black Delrin 3 Rib Magnums for you. Delrin is light and non marking so it won't weigh you down or scratch up your gear...I didn't get to make as many of these cuties as I wanted, but maybe next year I will do another run. At any rate, here a few dozen for you today...I will make it a limit of two on them please since it's a small batch, and they will run $30 each plus shipping. Will be releasing black Delrin 6 Flute Megas next so more Delrin beads are coming. Thanks for dropping by as always, and stay safe folks!

All gone, thank you so much!
 

 

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Anodized 3 Rib Magnums

Hi Everyone,

I'm back again...we have a chilly gray day today with a few moments of weak sunshine, around 35F, and with a light dusting of snow that appeared overnight. Much more typical for this time of year. 

Well it's been quite a while since I released any new beads. These are the same titanium 3 Rib Magnum beads that I made a while back, but I saved out a bunch for anodizing which I recently got around to doing. I still have about a dozen or so with plain finish so if anyone wants those instead, please just drop me a line...otherwise, this batch has a wide variety of bright colors and combinations as you can see below. I will just send them at random as very few are exactly alike. 

The Anodized 3 Rib Magnums will run $30 each plus shipping and the link is below. No limit on them. Thanks so much for stopping in my friends, and hope your week is going great!

Sold out, thanks so much everyone!


 

 

Tuesday, November 17, 2020

Steel Oddvarks

Hi Everyone,

Well it certainly has been an interesting fall so far. Also extremely tense and disturbing, and I for one could do without so much "interest" thanks very much...at least the weather has mostly held up and we had some surprisingly warm days in the 70's last week. But now it's turning raw and getting quite gray, a sure sign of impending winter. Another sure sign, we ate our last bag ripened homegrown tomato of the season last night! I'm still ripening some cherry tomatoes and peppers although they aren't as good as sun ripened.

Updates: Progress has been slow but very steady lately. I have a number of batches of tools and other items either ready for sales, or very close to ready. Steel MiniBar+ tools should be back later this week from heat treat. Mysterious titanium items that I'm calling SpaceNails, relicts from a long ago historical event, are also on the way...bronze QuickDraws are nearly done, they just need one more small milling operation to complete and then I can stamp them and do final finishes. A large batch of new old stock flat steel G5 Prybaby Wruler tools from over a decade ago is pending, as soon as they get some milling done. Also coming up are several batches of beads and some small odds and ends. A double batch of special 20 year anniversary steel Prybabies have been cut and prepared for milling so those will be coming towards the end of the year, or in January. I've been busy! :)

Today I have some new CPM 154 steel tools for you. The Oddvark combines a broad pry tip which is also good for scraping tasks, with a cap lifter, small SAE wrench set and small screwdriver/pry tip in a super compact 2.5 inch OAL package. Excellent ergonomics and utility with this one....

The Oddvarks have a bead blasted finish for a little change rather than my usual stonewashed. There are a wide variety of stamps here, and even a couple without stamps if someone wants to email me. Also a half dozen stamped lefties here as well.

Oddvarks will run $65 plus shipping and the link is below, limit of two please...Stay safe everyone. The covid is out of control and life is crazy but we will make it through!

All gone, thank you so much folks!