Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Fancy Wroid Wedgies

Well I'm back already my friends. :)

Not much else to report since yesterday, but I see the hurricane is starting to hit FL this morning and I hope all our friends down there are safe today. It seems like nowhere is truly safe these days from these continuous big weather events...

So today I have the remainder of the Wroidy Wedgie batch done. These have my usual wide assortment of stamps, although the material is really kind of hard so I had to choose stamps carefully since some would not work quite as well on this crazy Beta Titanium....grinding it wasn't too much fun either. On the plus side though, the anodized colors were very interesting. The first pass yields a very bright color response but is a little boring, and then after further surface finishing the second color pass to achieve the contrast effects tends to be more subtle and in a precise range. The final results are really beautiful though, with a glassy smooth feel to the tools and sparkling highlights in the texturing that magically come and go as you turn it over in the light. Too bad I can't get more of this stuff because it is pretty neat.

Fancy Wedgies are $75 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for visiting today, and hope you all stay safe and sound out there as we head into the holiday weekend.

All gone, thank you everyone! 

Super hard to capture the colors on this dark and gloomy morning...



 

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

Plain Wroidy Wedgies!

Hi Folks,

Hard to believe the end of summer is drawing near. We continue to get tons of rain and this will no doubt go down in the books as one of the rainiest summers on record. Hope it doesn't continue into one of the snowiest winters on record!

I keep on chugging away on the projects. I have a little more grinding to do on titanium Prybabies and then I can start finishing those up. Hope to have them completed by next week. I just got more of the Zircuti MikroSpikes cut, so those will be coming in a few weeks. The larger Atomic Wedgies in steel were just surface ground, so I will get them prepped out and ready to mill very soon. Those will take me a month or two to complete...I just drew up a new tool called the SupaWrench and that little gem will be getting cut in thick steel very soon. I haven't forgotten the puzzle project and hope to get some of those done in the next couple of weeks. And, I just signed back up for the community clay center because I am dying to make some new coffee mugs which I haven't made in 20 years, so hoping to bring you guys a few dozen of those later this fall for a little something different. ;)

Today I have some brand new tools for you. These Mini Wedgies are crazy thick, over 1/4", and are made of a unusual titanium alloy. I was told this stuff is Beta Titanium but I have not been able to find out much info about it. At any rate, many years ago, when I first started out making tools, a local friend told me that his dad owned a knife company. That company happened to be Mission Knives in California! I believe they are still in business, although the original owner, former Bell Labs engineer John Moore, passed away a number of years ago. Anyhow, my buddy John persuaded his dad to send me a sheet of the special material that they used for folding knife blades, and that sheet has been sitting around for many years gathering dust and waiting for me to decide what to make out of it!

These Mini Wedgies are rather robust as I mentioned....they measure .265 inches thick, so that makes them among the most heavy duty Wroid Class tools that I have made, and certainly the thickest titanium tools. They are about 3.25 inches long and feature a large pry tip, plus rear offset pry end with 5/16 wrench and opener. If you ever wanted a solid block of titanium for your key ring this is it, lol...the Mini Wedgies have a rustic feel to them, a light raw bar finish with plenty of character marks, and a glassy tumbled finish. I decided to do a small release of plain Jane ones first without stamps (Atwood stamp is on the back) or anodizing, but a much larger batch is nearly done and will be coming in a day or so with stamps and color anodizing....and yes, there are some lefties here as well if anyone wants to drop me a request.

Plain Beta Titanium Mini Wedgies will run $65 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for stopping by (as always!), and I hope your week is going great.

Woah, gone in a jiffy! No worries, tons of stamped and anodized ones are on the way. ;)


 


 
 
 

Friday, August 11, 2023

Zircuti MikroSpikes!

Hi Folks,

Heading into a slightly muggy weekend here. This summer has been a wild one that's for sure, bouncing between cool temps, drought, smoky skies, and now frequent rains. At least I have my first decent large tomatoes in a couple of years, which are currently finishing their ripening on the kitchen counter.

Not too much to report on the project front, but I will have some misc small sales coming up next week for sure. New Mini Ti Wedgies are almost done with the milling, so those will be coming along pretty soon.

Today I have a very special small batch for you, Zircuti MikroSpikes! These are made of Zirconium/Titanium damascus which is a truly exotic material. It's been a trip to finally work with a good sized quantity of this stuff, and I've been having a lot of fun learning the quirks of shaping and finishing it. It's a little different from ordinary titanium and it requires a number of tricks to get what I want, but the results are so interesting...anyhow, this batch has extra grinds and stamps, as well as anodizing. 

Fancy Zircuti MikroSpikes will run $99 plus shipping and the link is below. This is a tiny initial batch so one per customer on them please...I do plan to make more of these later this year btw, so no worries, this is just the first wavelet of them. And I have several other runs of tools planned for the coming months using similar exotic materials as well...thanks for dropping by today and have a fantastic weekend!

Whew, gone in a flash, thank you everyone! 



****A portion of the sale today will go to the Aloha United Way for the victims of the horrific wildfires in Maui!****

 

Monday, August 07, 2023

Count Sporkulas Return!

Happy Rainy Monday Folks!

It's another gray and gloomy summer day here, although the weekend was absolutely gorgeous and things finally got a chance to dry out from some of the recent deluges. But we'll be getting another inch or two of rain today and tomorrow. It's a rather soggy scene out there but at least I haven't had to water my garden very much lately, hehe...

The projects keep crawling along. I will have some fancy MikroStiks coming up shortly, and I will continue cleaning up the timascus Mini Poltergeists this week to get them going on their long road to completion. The puzzle piece project is also inching closer. I will try to get started grinding new ti Prybabies later this week too.

Today I have a big batch of titanium Count Sporkulas for you. These have a buttery smooth fine stonewashed plain finish on them. This is a perfect little flat tool for your wallet, and a heck of a lot nicer to use than crummy plastic ware when you're on the go.

Ti Count Sporkulas will run $55 plus shipping and the link is below. As always, I'm glad you stopped by today, and I hope you're making the most of the week ahead!  

All gone for now. I do have a handful of the earlier version with center hex available, and a few Count Forkulas from a few years ago as well if anyone wants to email me for them. Thanks so much!
 

 

Friday, August 04, 2023

Fancy Titanium Tombstones

Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! We have had a rather sudden cooling here in the Northeast and it went from being oppressively muggy and warm to feeling almost fall like for the past few days. And although mother nature finally stopped pouring rain on us this week, another storm is heading our way today...But then it's supposed to be a glorious weekend ahead so that should be great.

I've been grinding away on the projects, pun fully intended! I'm just wrapping up a big batch of new titanium Count Sporkulas and the last of them is in the tumblers as I type. I just started working on some fancy Mini Poltergeists and will hopefully get those going soon. Almost done with milling on the new beta titanium Mini Wedgies and hope to get them completed this month. And I just finalized the drawings for a new tool called the Atomic Wedgie which will be getting cut in 1/4 steel next week. Fun stuff ahead!

So today I have the other half of the titanium Tombstone batch completed. These guys are fully loaded with various extra grinds, lots of crazy stamps and contrast anodizing. There are a few lefties here as well so please email me if you want a lefty and I'm happy to hook you up. I also kept back a couple of plain ones without stamps and grinds in case anyone missed the earlier ones.

Fully loaded Ti Tombstones will run $70 plus shipping. Thanks for popping in today and have a fantastic weekend ahead!

All gone, thank you so much folks!