Handwork!

Check out these moves as I debur one of my favorite little tools. Notice how I lean into the piece a little on the straightaways for a heavier removal. But then I back off and just barely pop the prytips where I want to preserve the square edges.

Robots

Dear Atwood Fans,

My webmaster is giving me a hard time about people running automatic software to check my site for updates. There have been a couple of people over the last few months who are significantly running up my bandwidth and transfer rates by checking my site once every minute. I'm asking you to please knock it off as it is a total pain in the ass to block these robots and it is wasting her time.

Let me be clear: We're talking about people running up 65,000 hits per week, not the folks checking 20 times per day. I appreciate the interest in my stuff and I know I'm having trouble keeping up with demand but you'd do better by emailing me every couple of days if you are that interested in obtaining an item. Thanks for your cooperation.

New items coming at the end of this week: Gasbabies, Hexbabies, talonite MSOPTHings, more ti mini keytons, Nothing will be released for the next three days as I am taking some time off for a family related activity.

Bending the XL Prybaby

Just in case you were hungry for a bit more in the ShopFlix series....:D

Whack Whack!

The last step before heat treat. :)

Cord Wrap Video

Here's a little something for all you cord wrap junkies...

Keep 'em Coming...

I know, it's the dog days of summer and your thoughts have turned to cold beer and the delights of air conditioning...luckily it isn't too warm in my shop yet this year. It will get a lot warmer though if the hot and humid spells last too long. Well, it's certainly warm enough for me and unfortunately my production tends to suffer with the temperature rise. I figure slow and steady wins the race though. :)

Here's a couple of recent goodies. More coming in the next few days!


Blue Tongue Damasteel Whistle:




Satin finish full sized Titanium Keytons:



Titanium GasBabies:

John Russell Cutlery

I had a really fun time today visiting the site of the historic John Russell Cutlery building in Turners Falls, MA. I took a bunch of pics and put up a separate blog devoted to it. Fascinating stuff and if you'll pardon the pun, a real slice of Americana. :)

The Russell Cutlery was a very important knife and tool maker located on the banks of the CT River from the 1870's until the Great Flood of 1936 wiped it out. The famous Green River Knife produced at the Cutlery was one of the most coveted tools taken with the settlers during America's western expansion of the mid to late 19th century.

Anyway, here's a link to pics and comments:

http://johnrussellcutlery.blogspot.com/2007/07/welcome.html

HexBaby

Here's the proto for the HexBaby. As in the GasBaby, the bottle opener area features a 7/16" wrench. Then you have hex sizes in 5/16", 1/4", 3/16" and 5/32". Wanted to get 3/8" in there but couldn't get it to lay out right. Maybe I'll fiddle around with it some more next time.

I am considering a metric size tool and will explore what the common sizes would be that will fit on the tool sometime over the summer. It could possibly be a bike tool version, we'll see.

It's a Gas, Baby!

Thought I'd put up a little teaser of an upcoming project...these will be coming in about 2 weeks or so. The Prybaby CG takes the basic Prybaby concept a little further, incorporating a 7/16" wrench at the bottle opening area and adding a 1/4" hex drive hole on the bottom right. The Compressed Gas or "CG" part comes in with the oxygen cylinder wrench, an excellent option for first responders or others in the medical field. Further function is introduced with two standard sized Acetylene tank wrenches for plumbers, welders and other tradesmen. The 58 Rockwell CPM 154 steel measuring nearly 3/16" thick ensures that these wrenches will last just about forever. A second variation featuring hex openings only is also coming at the same time.

Working, working, working...

I was working on the Ghouls and SOPTHings all day starting at 7AM this morning.The sheaths are coming along very well indeed. I made huge progress and will have the Ghouls and a few of the SOPTHings up on the site for purchase tomorrow.

Ghouls Coming Back

Will have some more of the CPM 3V Ghouls coming along in a few days, probably after the full sized Son of PryThings. This will be the last batch of the 3v Ghouls and no more will be made when these are gone. For those not familiar, these are the small chisel ground drop point blades with the cord wrapped handle and screwdriver butt end. Neat little personal carry tool blades.

Son of PryThings

Got a few of the Minis available now and a few more in the finishing stages. The full sized ones are also in the final stages and will be up in a day or two.

Waiting

I'm waiting on inserts for the ti whistles and so will be a few more days until release I think. I may also have my logo laser engraved on these whistles because my stamped logo has always looked like crap on the curved surface and ti is particularly springy and uncooperative under the hand stamp. Depending on cost I may send the entire balance of this batch in all materials out for engraving and that will add yet a few more days. So patience is the idea here for now. ;)

Huh, Wonder What This Is? :p

Check it Out...

Couple of these are in the oven curing...

I Know What You're Thinking...

"But Peter, what about us lefties?" Well fear not my Southpaw brothers and sisters...I saved the last three titanium Prybabies for you.

What! Not Enough for You?

Two talonite Skeeters....:D

Hey, what about that Eye Candy?

I know it doesn't seem like I'm listening sometimes but I am. Honest! Hehe, here's a few goodies for ya...also, literally about two tons of stuff is coming over the next week or two so stick around. Something tells me it's gonna be a fun few weeks ahead. :)

The Knurl's the Thing

Finally! Got the first 30 diamond knurl whistles turned this morning and got them finished up this afternoon. I spent several hours with the CNC shop yesterday and again today tweaking the darned things. It was time well spent though because we dialed in the knurl nicely in the end. What a tough one though, what with some tooling breaking and endless other little complexities that came up. Thank God I'm not a serious machinist and just play one on television! :)

I'm Getting There!

Patience please! :) LOL, I've been in and out of the shop a bunch this last week but I'm getting myself back into a production mindset. I think this week will see a fair amount of activity.

I'm slowly working my way through a huge pile of Son of PryThings and hope to get them done in the next week and get them into heat treat.

The machine shop that I work with is being a pain so the diamond knurl whistles are still in limbo. I was told "tomorrow" every day last week and am frankly disgusted with their service. Hang in there though, supposedly this week I will be seeing some pieces to finish and assemble. We'll see...at the end of the run they will be turning some damascus too...

Other projects that are on deck and are set to start grinding include Mini Keytons, new and improved Mini Prybabies, Bug Out Bars and a few others.

There will be a couple of misc. pieces coming out this week as well if all goes according to plan.