Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Titanium Mini Poltergeists!

Hi Folks,

Well, another snowy week is definitely in store here. It's spitting a few fine flurries this morning and we will get maybe an inch or two of accumulation today. Then Friday night we're supposed to get another 8 inches or so. Winter in New England!

Things are moving along here. I have my fun little titanium Game Board batch coming up in a few days. I'm nearly done with a fresh batch of ti Count Sporkulas. I just drew up a new key fob design and will be testing it out soon. And I have a couple of other items brewing as well, along with some more small remnant tool batches if I can just carve out a few more production hours in the shop.

Today I have something really cool for you....the Mini Poltergeist is a design I first made many years ago and I have wanted to bring it back for a long time. I only made a small batch of the steel ones, and just a handful of titanium ones originally. This batch of tools has been updated but remains close to the originals. I did make them slightly longer and made the tip a little broader. The opening has increased from 7/16" to 1/2" as well. A very handy and compact tool...I'm also hoping to make some more in steel and possibly zirconium or timascus this spring.

The Mini Poltergeists are 2.75" long, beefy 5/32" thick titanium with lightly distressed finish. They are stamped with a wide variety of images and anodized in a broad range of colors. I also have a few plain ones without stamps and anodizing if anyone wants to email me for them. And I made a half dozen lefties.

Titanium Mini Poltergeists will run $70 plus shipping and the purchase link is below. Thanks for coming by today and I hope your week is shaping up to be a good one!   

All gone, thank you everyone!
 

 
 

Friday, February 24, 2023

SportWrench #4 with Anodizing!

Happy Friday!

Hope you all are winding down your week and looking forward to a nice weekend. We have a couple of inches of fresh snow and woke up with the tik tik sound of sleet hitting the windows this morning. It will be going to single digits overnight this weekend too, so cold... And it looks like now they are calling for another 8 inches or so on Monday night. So winter will definitely continue for the next few weeks, right on schedule. 

Today I have something older for you. These SportWrench #4s came out a few years ago and I still had a small box of them that I had forgotten about. They are made of a special heavily textured Krinkle titanium that was only around for a limited time. Anyway, this cool little tool can be worn on the wrist, and is roughly the same size as a large 40-44mm men's watch, but it wears very easily on any size wrist. The included high quality Zulu straps are 22mm. You could use any 22mm NATO style one piece strap on it, so this is a tool with a lot of play value if you are into watches at all and like to swap straps for a different look.

All the previous SportWrench batches were left plain so I have opted to anodize this whole group with contrast anodizing. If you are into brilliant colors you will really enjoy these! I did not use any stamps because there is very little open real estate on this tool, and the gnarly texture doesn't allow for very good stamping.

Anodized SportWrench #4s will run $85 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for swinging by today and I do hope your week is going well!

All gone, thank you so much folks, and stay warm this weekend!
 




 
 
 
 
 
 

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Anodized StirCrazies

Hello Everyone,

Greetings from snowy New England. :) Yesterday we had bare ground outside, so we cleared some brush and did a little minor clean up in the yard. Now this morning we're back to a coating of icy white on every horizontal surface...and apparently we're due for a few inches more tomorrow which will turn into rain and ice, creating a big mess probably. This is definitely not my favorite time of year, but luckily the white stuff will go away in a few short weeks. I also hear that most of the country will have similar weather or worse, so please stay safe out there.

Well, progress continues in the shop. I had a few small setbacks this past week but we continue to move forward. The milling is almost done on my little Game Board project. I just finished up the regular ti Mini Poltergeists. And I did some organizing and prepping on several other things so the Tool Train will keep on rolling.

Today I have the rest of the StirCrazy tools done. These all have color anodizing and are very dramatic indeed. I also still have a handful of the plain ones left, and there are two without stamps and ano as well if anyone wants to email me.

Anodized StirCrazies will run $75 and the link is below. Hope everyone is staying warm this week, and thanks for popping in today.

Sold out, thank you so much everyone!
 


 
 

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Titanium StirCrazies!

Hi Everyone,

Winter continues here in old New England, and we in the heavily wooded and higher elevations still have some snow on the ground. But it's been very mild and will continue this way for the next week or so. Maple sugaring is already underway in some towns which is a little ahead of schedule. I will certainly take it for now, even though it raises suspicions for a possible long hot summer ahead.

We've had a number of distractions here at home lately that have been slowing me down, but progress continues nonetheless. I'm almost done with regular titanium Mini Poltergeists and they are sitting ready for their final anodizing pass. The small titanium GameBoard project is well underway and will be coming in a week or two. And I will hopefully be getting some good sharpening sessions in shortly as well.

Today I have something brand new for you! The idea for Titanium StirCrazy tools came to me several years ago when I was making a cup of coffee. I often reach for a paring knife out of the knife block when I just want to give my hot drink a quick stir and don't feel like getting a spoon dirty. So I started thinking about a stir stick design that could hang around the kitchen. Naturally I wanted a bottle opener and a large opening to hang the tool up. I also have wanted to make a larger ruler for some time, and this longer tool provided the perfect space for that. And so the StirCrazy was born. 

This is a great little multi use tool for giving a quick stir to your coffee or mixed drink, digging out that dollop of crystallized honey out of the bottom of the jar, smearing a bit of peanut butter on your snack cracker, etc etc. It also would be a handy item for the workshop or tackle box...features include a cap lifter plus 5/16" wrench, 1/2" wrench, deeply engraved 4 inch ruler scale and 7cm ruler scale. The overall length is just over 6.5" and the material is a slim but substantial .080" thick.

I have left the first wave of these with a plain stonewashed finish, meaning without anodizing. These were a pain to tumble out as they are light and flat so they have an annoying tendency to stick together in the tumblers and create rub marks. Multiple tumbling sessions were required which is one reason they took so long to finish. At any rate, these first ones are plain, with my usual wide variety of stamps. I do have a few unstamped ones as well if anyone wants to email me for them. And I will have a second smaller batch of color anodized StirCrazies coming up in a day or two.

StirCrazies will run $75 plus shipping and the purchase link is below. Thanks for popping in today and hope your Valentines Day is a great one!

Plain ones are all gone, thank you so much everyone!
 



 
 

Thursday, February 02, 2023

Steel PryDaddies

Hi Everyone,

Hope your winter is going well. We've actually gotten off pretty easy so far, but a nasty cold snap this weekend will bring some below zero F overnight temps. Brrrrr. But the month of January broke records here for the warmest ever so I really cannot complain.

The projects continue to simmer. I haven't been able to get as much work done lately as I would like because of various family and business distractions, but those are mostly sorted now and I have been able to get back to some hours in the shop this week. New ideas and drawings continue to come to me and I've been quite busy setting up some nice projects for the year. I have also expanded my custom stamp collection a bit with some cool new designs.

I finally decided on a few new tool designs to cut in steel, and those will be coming probably in the early spring. I have a big batch of titanium Mini Poltergeists that are already cut and are in progress. Titanium Stir Crazy ruler tools are on the bench now and I'm in the middle of stamping them. There is also a batch of Mini Poltergeists underway in gorgeous timascus, as well as a batch of updated Tombstones and a new Larva tool, so more exotics are coming later this winter. And, after doing some historical research, I just had a small batch of cool little Pocket Game Boards cut from heavy titanium plate. Very fun stuff ahead this year!

Today I have a batch of CPM 154 steel PryDaddies for you. These stonewashed beauties have a wide variety of stamps on them, and I forgot to leave any plain ones, so all of them have been stamped. There are no lefty specific ones either, so all are milled the same way.

Steel PryDaddies will run $85 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for popping in today and hope your week is going great.  

All gone, thank you so much everyone, and stay warm this weekend!