Under the Weather

I've not been feeling my best lately so progress has been spotty. We'll see how it goes over this weekend and if I'm feeling up to finishing more stuff.

O-Ring Size

People have asked what size the O-Rings are on the new tools. They are #109 on the O Ring size chart and measure 3/32" wall, ID 5/16", OD 1/2". I'm using the standard black Buna-N type but almost any of the materials available would work.

The Glow in the Dark style are usually made of silicone which is much stretchier. So would probably require a smaller size with thicker wall to produce the same degree of tensile stength. If someone figures out a size and source for good GID O-Rings that fit I'd like to know about it. :)

Check 'Em Out

These were actually electrically anodized on an experimental basis.

Wave of Ti Whistles

I've got a few ti whistles up on the site today. I have plain satin, electric blue and some wild heat colored ones. The heat coloring is impossible to control so the effect ends up varying a great deal from piece to piece. They look cool though and the layer of oxide on the surface of the metal is pretty tough.

Back up

Site is back up after being down for several hours yesterday afternoon. I'm also receiving my email again although it is still a little pokey.

Preview of Things to Come

G2 Minis

I've been wanting to do this for awhile. The new Generation Two Mini Prybabies have had a small facelift to bring them up to speed with my current designs. The 3/8" wrench adds another potential element of function. I really like the new look and hope you all agree. :)

Will have some finished up tomorrow afternoon, including at long last a few lefties. Imagine that, I finally remembered to do a few up for the patient and long suffering lefties out there. :D

Grinder Maintenance

I have to change out the bearings on my grinder in the next day or two so not sure how long it will take me. I may be down production wise for a day or two. It sucks that this would happen now but no time is a good time I guess so this is as good a time as any...

Temperature Gradient

Atwood BugBite!

I thought I'd do a few of these little guys in titanium. Overall length is just about 2.5 inches. I have applied an orange peel texture to the metal and then heat colored these for a more durable finish. The surface is much harder than conventional electrical anodizing and it resists fingerprints very well. The trade off is that it is impossible to achieve an absolutely uniform color over the whole piece, but that just adds to the charm in my opinion and makes each piece unique. Plain satin finish with orange peel will also be available.

Antique Pocket Tool

As you can see the thing is pretty crude but the idea is there. I should note that I had the idea of the captive object in the skeletonized handle even before seeing this piece with the wrench cut outs. Anyway, the piece is heavy duty, made of about 5/32" thick steel, obviously stamped out then the end had a very rudimentary screwdriver tip forged out from it. I estimate that is certainly early 20th century vintage if not earlier.

Well I'll be darned! A customer emailed me with information from the US Patent database and this tool or one very similar to it turns out to have been patented in 1898 by Vaughn and Bushnell and sure enough it bears the stamp V&B right on it. So it is likely right around 100 years old. Awesome!
No idea where he got it, but huge thanks to the Gadget Guy for sending it to me last winter. :D

Bug Are Up!

Got a few of the new tools ready today and posted them to the website... :D

Next Generation of Atwood Tools

I've been working through some ideas lately. Some of this stuff I've been dreaming about for a couple of years and I'm just now able to make it happen. My original idea for the O ring retention system kind of morphed into something else and I'm very pleased with the results. It's interesting how these ideas evolve and take shape and it's a lot of fun for me to go through the process. It's especially good when I can finally get to a finished design.

The BottleBug tool features a 1/2" wrench opening in the bottle opener area and a small pry tip/screwdriver.



The Crawdaddy tool takes the concept even further. It is loosely based on a late 19th century or early 20th century antique wrench tool that a good customer sent me for my collection. The antique tool had machine filed teeth and showed evidence of crude forging. I updated the design considerably and limited the sizes to just six: 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2 and 9/16. The two holes where his "eyes" would be are sized for a bead chain for a convenient neck carry option if desired. The Crawdaddy is just over 3 inches long so it will ride well on a keychain or in a pocket too.



One of the things I like about this series is that you can store any standard one inch long 1/4" hex bit that you want. So if you want Phillips you can have it. Square drive, Torx in any size, 1/8" hex if you want one for your Strider pivot, tamper proof bits of all kinds. There are literally dozens to choose from but I will be supplying a nice USA made #1 Phillips with these.



The O rings keep the bit plenty snug and the bit is accessible from either side so the tool is ambidextrous. The last O ring partially covers the 1/4" hex opening and so when you stick the bit in the hole, again from either side, the tension from the O ring holds it in and keeps it from falling out on the floor. The bits are easy to slip in and out of the handle "breech", and indeed it kind of reminds me of sliding a shell into a rifle or shotgun.




These are underway and should start to be available in a week or two. And I have a couple of related pieces in mind for the future so it’s going to be an interesting fall....I should also mention that these things have the highest Fiddle Factor to date of any of my tools. :)

Still Grinding

Title says it all. I haven't forgotten about you all, just plugging away. It seems like I'm kind of stuck in a cycle of making without actually finishing anything. Hopefully the payoff will be a whole lot of stuff this fall. I have some new items up my sleeve that I'm anxious to share with everyone but not quite ready....stay tuned.

Regular Mini Keytons will be back this week.

Further Updates

It's cooling off here for a few days so I'm torn between working and playing. The playing part has been really good and I'm happy to report that there are some really nifty brand new tool designs that will be coming in a 2-3 weeks. These are related to my previous offerings but are also very different. Stay tuned!

Spannerbabies of any kind are permanently discontinued. I've made quite a few of them and it's time to move on. I cannot possibly make everything in my lineup as it is and so I'm going to be making room for new items. There are other makers out there who are working on new spanner tools and I'm sure they will be offered soon.

Shot glasses are still in the works but are being delayed a little longer. I had the choice last week to start working on them or make another run of titanium whistles so I chose whistles this time. Hopefully they will be done in a more timely manner than the last batch! I never did get the marking issue resolved with them but it really doesn't matter....they are simply gorgeous in person and ultralight weight. There are still a couple left from the current batch so please email me if interested.

What's Ahead?

I'm working on a small batch of Hexbabies which will hopefully be ready mid week. For tomorrow I am just finishing a very small batch of 3V steel Bug Out Bars and Micro Bug Out Bars. The next batches of these will be in titanium and will be similar to the one shown below...those will be available in a few weeks. Trying to get to more whistles this week and also the last of the talonite MSOPThings. Should be less distractions this week and I'm feeling a little better so more will get done this week I think.

Slow Week

Kinda slow this week while I work through some minor injuries but I'm still getting a few things done. I have a nice batch of Keychain Prybabies and a few 3V steel Bug Out Bars going into heat treat tomorrow so maybe by the end of the week I can at least get those back on the site. More regular steel and brass whistles are also coming. I still haven't gotten to the Ti Mini Keytons that are sitting in the final stages before completion but will try to real soon. Also a couple more talonite MSOPTHings...

In the meantime, here's a prototype for those of you looking for a little eye candy. :) I hope to do some of these in September. Full sized 6" x 1" x 3/16" thick titanium Bug Out Bars with O2 cutout for first responders and 1/4" hex drive hole.

Keychain Prybaby vs. Original Prybaby

With the recent batch of Keychain Edition Prybabies I have several people write and ask if they received the correct one. I have increased the size of the Keychain Edition Prybaby slightly in this last batch and it is now 10% smaller than the Original, rather than the earlier batches which were 15% smaller.

Thus, the new Keychain Prybaby is 2 7/8" long compared to 3 1/8" long of the Original. It is not a lot but I felt that the first batches were a touch too small and my intention was that I wanted to give people what I feel is the best product that I can make. My apologies if some feel they are not small enough.

Missing Galleries

My One of a Kind and Past Work galleries are turned off temporarily until the crazy blog traffic calms down. I was mentioned in the Cool Tools blog last week which caused my traffic to increase to astonishing rates, literally several thousand people per day coming through. A couple of days of this caused my bandwidth to exceed the current limits and I had to move my whole site to a different server. Cost me a ton of time and a lot of money for my webmaster to do three days worth of changes. I should be in a lot better shape now though with a new plan that allows much greater bandwidth in case this happens again or if the higher traffic is sustained.

Server Switch

We have had to switch servers for Atwoodknives.com because of certain technical reasons. We are no longer on Phlaunt.com. The new URL is below:

http://www.atwoodknives.com

I'm hoping the move was glitch free and so far it seems to be. Thanks! :)