Plain Titanium Prybabies

Hi Folks,

Well it was a glorious weekend here in New England. I participated in a rare wood fired kiln session yesterday and that was quite an interesting experience. Salt and baking soda are sprayed into the kiln at the end which create a glaze on the pots and subtle color flashing effects that are highly coveted by traditional pottery enthusiasts. It's hot and grueling work, certainly a labor of love for those who wish to preserve the old ways. I only had a couple of my most crude test pots in the kiln as I have no idea how they will turn out, but other people had beautiful items in there so will be fun to see how it all finished up. The kiln will cool down enough by Wednesday to open it and I will try to get over there for the opening...meanwhile, today it's pouring rain yet again.

Today I have a small batch of plain titanium Prybabies for you. This newest version is about the same size as the originals, so a full sized tool, just a tad over 3 inches long, my traditional 5/32 thickness, V notch and rear pry tip. I opted for my favorite crenelated thumb rest area and added a 1/4 hex for the lanyard opening. This is a plain ground batch with basic grinds on the front end, and no anodizing or stamping. I am working on stamps for the next group of these as well as various A51 style extra grinds, and will be anodizing them. There are a few lefties today and in the next group too if anyone wants to email me.

Plain Ti Prybabies will run $70 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for dropping by and hope your week is going to be awesome!

Gone in a flash, thank you guys! Fancy ones coming later this week!

 

 

Friday Update

Well hello everyone! Coming to you today from soggy New England where we are finally drying out for a few days after two months of near daily rain storms. The only creatures happy this summer have been slugs and mosquitoes, lol. The rest of us are ready for some sunshine and less humidity!

I've been puttering along on projects. New Steel Mini Superbugs are almost done with the milling. I have prepped out steel Atomic Wedgies and they are now ready to be milled. I have a nifty new drawing called the SupaWrench, and am mulling whether to cut them in steel or not as it would be very expensive, but I might make a small run...the rest of the Zircuti MikroSpikes have just been cut and are in my hands so they will be finished in a week or two. I will be cutting a few Prybabies in exotic materials this fall, but in the meantime I do have a big batch of 3v steel Prybabies that are already cut and are awaiting further preparation and milling.

Some of you might be aware that 20+ years ago I was an avid high fire ceramic artist for several years. I stopped making stoneware pots when I got into the knife and tool thing, but over the years I often have missed playing with clay. Recently I stopped by to visit an old friend who owns a pottery studio and shop in nearby Shelburne Falls, and I discovered that she now runs a community clay studio in the old Lamson Knife Factory building (more on Lamson later). Since there was an opening, I promptly signed up and have  made a few dozen mugs this past two weeks. It is taking a little while to get my pottery chops back, but I'm having a blast and can't wait to share some of these with you! These are definitely not dainty little tea cups for fussy ladies at the bridge club btw, and I suspect you will be quite surprised with what is coming. Think wild textures and custom stamps... ;)

I was going to have a sale today but due to a scheduling conflict I have to postpone until Monday. I have a small group of plain Titanium Prybabies ready to go and am starting the stamping for the rest of the Prybaby batch today. I will be cranking out some of the previously mentioned Zircuti MikroSpikes very soon as well since they are already quite far along. Have a great weekend folks!  

 

 

 

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...

 

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. ;)

 

 

 

 

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!****

 

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!

 

 

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!