Metric Crawdaddies: Seconds Sale!

Howdy All! 

Well we are heading into the summer heat this week with temps in the 90 degree range. We've had quite a dry stretch lately so I really hope to see some rain soon. But despite that, the gardens are thriving and the first strawberries of the season have been ripening. These little Alpine Strawberries are such a delicious treat. They will go on bearing for month or two and then another wave of them will come which typically lasts until the first frost.  

Today I have some really cool older tools for you. These are CPM 3V Steel Metric Crawdaddies! These are quite hefty and were built for serious use and abuse. This batch was all unstamped and there are no lefty specific ones. 

CPM 3V steel (RIP Crucible!) often came back from heat treat with some minor pitting marks that occur during the heat treat process, for reasons that I have never understood. Because the steel is so hard it is super difficult to sand out these marks and refinish the tools, so years ago I had set this group aside and never got around to trying to refinish them. The pitting is a cosmetic thing only and will not affect the performance. You might see a little surface rust develop over time if you never oil them and leave them out in the elements, but honestly these have sat around my shop for years without any change at all. Regardless, these tools are so massive that your great grandchildren will still be enjoying them for generations to come. But because of the cosmetic blems I will discount these. 

CPM 3V Steel Metric Crawdaddy Seconds will run $65 plus shipping and the link is below. Thank you as always for popping in and I hope you are staying with it in these crazy times. 

All gone, thank you so much! I will have titanium Mini 5 Flute Beads coming up soon. ;) 

 

Zirconium Keytons

Hello Everyone!

Here we are in the beginning of June and it is still rather chilly here in New England. This has been the craziest spring I can remember, with wild temperature swings, mostly to the cooler side. One day we are sizzling with unseasonably high temps, and then it plunges down to jacket weather the next. We even had a few snow flurries spotted this weekend in a town just east of here. My poor garden doesn't know what to make of it and so some plants have been late to bloom. My squash plants are struggling to get going. The biting black flies are normally terrible at the beginning of May, but this year we have hardly seen any until this past week, and the ticks are unbelievably bad this season. 

Well, projects have been slow but I think we are finally getting somewhere. The first batch of Mini Five Flute beads are nearly done, so some titanium ones will be coming along very soon. I'm in the middle of grinding some new tools and have some prep work to complete this week on some others. I also have a few mugs ready to go and just need to shoot some photos this week when the sun comes back out and the light improves.

Today I have some more Zirconium Keytons for you. These have my usual wide range of images stamped on them, but there are some plain ones as well if anyone wishes to request plain. I also have several lefties remaining.

Zr Keytons will run $85 plus shipping and the link is below. Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope your upcoming week is terrific!

All gone for today, thank you again!          

 

 

Anodized PryDaddy Jrs

Howdy Folks!

Well it's a rainy one here today which is great, because we really could use some more precipitation. It's been quite cool lately but that will be ending this weekend as we get into the 80's, and they say it even might hit 90 next week. So this soaking for the past couple of days is just what we needed as we get into a warmer period.

I'm finally getting past a lot of my spring time stuff and have more time for the shop coming up in the next couple of weeks so hopefully will ramp up production a bit more. Today I have a few dozen PryDaddy Jr's for you. These have my usual wide variety of stamps on them, and I have added a ruler scale on the top edge as well. I decided to contrast anodize these so that the stamps and markings will pop a bit more. I do have a couple of lefties available as well if anyone wishes to request them. 

Anodized PryDaddy Jrs will run $75 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for swinging by today as ALWAYS, and I hope your upcoming weekend is excellent. ;)

Sold out, thank you so much! 

 

Groom Lake Monsters

Hi Folks,

Spring has definitely sprung here in a big way, although it is advancing with fits and starts. We've had a few gorgeous days, many chilly days and a couple of hot days that came way earlier than usual. I've taken advantage of it to get my gardens going, power wash the algae off the house, patch my driveway and freshen up my deck. I also cut down a few saplings and cleared some brush, although when you live in the woods there is always more to be done. These are typical springtime activities on my small country property which provide a welcome respite from news of the horrifying world and I'm so grateful for it.

I'm about to jump back into the shop and get going on various projects. I have several new small tools to work on, and also other partial batches to finish. I still have a bunch of Zr Keytons to complete, as well as PryDaddy Jrs. I'm hoping to have a cute little timascus ThumbNail variant tool in production soon. I have several older sheets of thin S30v steel lying around that I never did anything with, and I have an interesting new project in mind that might use some of that material up. I'm also waiting for some new mugs to come out of the kiln soon and there are some really cool pieces among them. On the bead front, it looks like they are finally going ahead and I'm looking at maybe June and July for those. So there is lots of fun stuff to look forward to.

Today I have a small batch of Groom Lake Monster Combs for you. These are all stamped and feature my usual wide variety of images. Thin titanium can be very challenging to stamp and tumble out so expect a few character marks here and there as well as a faint "phantom tooth" on a few left from the waterjet. I deliberated for some time on the finish, finally decided to try my new Heat Wave treatment on them and they came out quite nice.

Groom Lake Monsters with Heat Wave will run $65 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for swinging by today and I sure hope your Spring is going well too.

GLMonsters are all gone, thanks again my friends!

 

 

Pryons with New Heat Wave Finish

Hello Everyone,

We've got gray skies here today, and it's rather chilly. But at least I can report that over the drizzly weekend the tiny patch of snow in the backyard has finally succumbed. We have daffodils just about ready to break into bloom and I'm sure there are some hungry little juvenile newts roaming the woods looking for springtails.

Today I thought I would post something a little different. I have worked with these materials for so many years that I sometimes forget that there are other directions that I could go in. Titanium is roughly half the weight and twice as strong as steel for prying, but much softer, so that means it deforms and scratches more easily. For years I have played around with electrical anodizing and developed many different types of finishes, but I generally ignore heat treating because the resulting colors are not as vivid and they are much more difficult to control. Heating also alters the surface of the metal by laying down a very tough layer of oxides. So if you do want to make a change in coloring or finish, then it makes for a ton of extra work. The heat treat process hardens the surface of the metal, and that can be used for an advantage in that it increases the scratch resistance and improves the material's tendency for deformation. You can never achieve the hardness and toughness of steel, but it definitely does have a noticeable effect on wear and tear.

So today I have a batch of Titanium Pryon Tools for you. This is the trial run featuring my new Heat Wave finish. For now I am just doing a military-like grayish bronze color, but I will play around and see what else I can come up with down the road. Today's Pryons feature my usual array of crazy stamps, but I do have a few without if anyone wishes to request them. And I do have a couple of lefties as well.

Pryons with Heat Wave Finish will run $70 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for coming by, and I hope your week is a lovely one despite the worrisome world.

All gone, thank you so much!

 

 

Steel Skeletaurs Return

Hi Folks,

We're having April showers here today, and temps in the 40's. Very typical for this time of year. I'm hoping that between the showers today and the 60's temperature tomorrow we might finally bid goodbye to the ugly glacier in the backyard which is slinging tenaciously to life.

Today I have another round of Steel Skeletaurs for you. These were inspired by the classic skeleton keys of the past but given a generous application of AI (Atwood Imagination!) to produce something with more of a multitool flavor. Who knew that I have been using AI all along to design my tools? :)

Anyhow, the Skeletaurs are stamped with a wide variety of images. I also have a few without stamps if anyone wishes to request them, and there are still some lefties (paws, clovers or fish) as well.

Steel Skeletaurs will run $80 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for coming by today, and I hope your upcoming weekend is terrific.

All gone, thank you so much! 

 

Steel P20s!

Howdy Folks,

We're finally thawing out here for the most part. I still have two big piles of snow but they are receding and maybe by next week they will be out of here. Plenty of bulbs are poking up in the flower beds though. The purple and yellow blooms of the crocus, daffodil and Siberian Iris are always a welcome sight to see this time of year.

I've been steadily working away on several new projects, and I am hoping to bring you some new beads later this Spring, among other things. I have numerous tool batches underway as well and will have some new stuff coming up in a few days. 

Today I have just seven of these left over CPM154 Steel P20s for you. I saved a few with especially nice stamps. 

Steel P20 Micro Batch will run $75 each plus shipping and the link is below. Thank you for dropping by this week and hope you are enjoying the nicer weather!

Sold Out. Thank you so much!