More Timascus Mini 5 Flutes

Howdy folks,

It's a rainy one here today with about 2 inches in the forecast. We had an inch last night already, so we're definitely getting a good drenching.

I'm getting ready to grind more KingPins and will have those very soon, maybe later this week or early next week. I have another round of PryDaddy Jr's on the bench right now and have started grinding them, so those will be coming very soon as well. There are more Pryons to finish too... I also have two flat steel projects underway and they are currently at S&W awaiting heat treat.  

Today I have a few dozen more Timascus Mini 5 Flutes for you. These have a wide variety of wild colors and a mix of finishes. This is such an interesting material and it's been a lot of fun trying out all kinds of ideas for arriving at the different color effects and finishes, some of which are very hard to duplicate, hehe... 

Timascus Mini 5 Flutes will run $48 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks so much for coming by today, and I hope your week has been a good one so far.

All gone for now, thanks so much! 

 

A51 Zirconium Keytons

Howdy all, and Happy Wednesday,

Looks like we are shaping up for a nice day today. The hottest part of the summer may be behind us and we are settling into a nice stretch of reasonable temps for a few days. And we have gotten a little rain this week so the plants are pretty happy right now.

Today I have the last handful of Zirconium Keytons for you, and these all have A51 grinds! These are all stamped with a variety of images and there are two lefties available as well if anyone wants to email me for them. 

A51 Zr Keytons will run $85 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for coming by today and I hope your summer is going great.

All gone, thank you so much! 

 

More Zirconium Minis

Howdy All! It's a warm day here with a great deal of haze. The wild fires in Canada are sending a lot of smoke down our way and even though I can't smell it, the sun is giving off a weird orange light this morning because of all the particulates in the air.  

I've been busy grinding some new steel tools this week and will have some nifty light weight summer items soon. I took a little break from grinding pins, but will have some more KingPins coming up soon too.

Today I have another batch of Zirconium Mini 5 Flutes for you. The torch hardened, blackened and burnished finish really makes these shine and the durability will be extremely good. Just the thing for bags, tools and knives. This is a pretty big group so I will no doubt have plenty of these for the foreseeable future.

Zr Mini 5 Flutes will run $35 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for popping in, as always, and hope your summer is going great!

  

 

Acid Washed Timascus

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

It's dark and dripping out there this morning after our half inch of rain last night. Temps are so much cooler too, will be around 70f today at best. This is the heart of the muggy warm summer for us and I'm hoping we see a couple of small thunderstorms every week so that I don't have to water my garden every day. The gardens are flourishing right now and the first squash and green beans are coming in. Should have some ripe cherry tomatoes in another week or two. 

Well today I have something interesting for you. I was fooling around with various finishes and came up with this really cool new one for Timascus. I'm calling it an acid washed finish, and for you folks who are Timascus Curious but not big fans of bright colors, this one is for you. These result from a multi stage process which combines heat, acid etching, electrical anodizing and a final burnish step to achieve these warm gray tones with understated and subtle coloration. The process is a bit involved, but make for some really fun and unique effects.

Acid Washed Timascus Beads will run $48 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks as always for coming by today, and I hope you all are having a fine summer so far.

Sold out, thank you so much!

 

 

Anodized Titanium KingPins

Happy Monday Folks! It's a dark and gloomy one here today with a chance of rain this afternoon which we could really use. Hope to see at least a half inch of rain if not a little more overnight.

Well, I managed to finish a couple dozen more of the Titanium KingPins for you, and this time they are anodized a wide variety of colors, as well as with a wide variety of stamps. I do still have a couple of plain stamped ones without anodizing as well if color is not your thing, just let me know...there will be a bunch more of these coming as the summer goes on and I get more pins ground, but this is what I have for today.

Anodized Titanium KingPins will run $85 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for coming by today and I hope you stay cool this week!

All gone for today, thank you!  

 

Happy 4th of July!

Howdy Folks, and Happy 4th of July Weekend!

It's sweltering here again today with oppressive humidity, and temps will be in the high 90's for the third day in a row. It's been a good time to hunker down and get some work done in the cool basement shop...

Today I have some early fireworks for you! Oh man, these are so stunning that I can't believe it, and all you color lovers are in for a treat. After years of thinking about it I finally managed to get some Timascus Mini 5 Flutes made, and the colors are absolutely wild. I never thought I would see the day that I would get my hands on some of this material for beads, but they sure are pretty. And the photo below is very close to the actual colors, so they are quite vivid indeed. 

Timascus Mini 5 Flutes will run $48 plus shipping and the link is below. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend ahead, and thank you as always for swinging by today. 

All gone for today, thank you again folks! I will have more of these soon, along with ti Kingpins. Have a great weekend! 

 

 

 

 

Titanium KingPins!

Happy Monday Folks,

It's gearing up to be a hot one here today. We'll get up into the high 80's, then it gets warmer as the week goes on, and it looks like we might hit 100f on Thursday. So it just might be the hottest week of the year heading our way.

Today I have a couple dozen Titanium KingPins for you. These are all plain burnished finish, without anodizing. They do feature a wide variety of stamps on the heads however, because I stamped all of these KingPin batches years ago when I originally made them. Some had Atwood stamps, and some were the decorative stamps. The only ones that I did not stamp years ago are the copper ones which I am currently stamping, and I still have dozens of those left to finish up this summer. As for the titanium ones, these are all with plain finish today but I have at least 100 of them remaining to finish and make the pins for, so a lot of the titanium ones coming up will have either solid or contrast anodized colors. 

Plain Titanium KingPins will run $85 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you are staying cool this week.

Plain ones are gone for today, thank you so much! I will have anodized and some misc ones done soon.

 

 

Copper KingPins!

Hi Everyone,

Well it's another lovely day here in the Northeast. We should be having temps around 80f today and it's mostly blue skies out there for now. 

I've been working busily in the shop on a couple of older projects that were never finished. Today I have a very cool one for you...KingPins return! I have a lot of these that were never finished, mostly because grinding the hardened pins is such a tedious process as it is all done by hand. But, I just bought some new equipment that makes the grinding a bit easier for me, and I am able to crank through the pins much more quickly. It's still a tedious process mind you, but not nearly as bad as before. 

I have a few dozen Tellurium Copper Kingpins for you today, but there are still some zirconium heads left over from the original batch, and a huge batch of titanium heads as well. So there will be several more waves of these coming over the rest of the year. These are all stamped and feature a wide variety of images. 

Copper KingPins will run $75 plus shipping and the link is below. Thank you for popping in today, and I hope your weekend ahead is a relaxing one.

Sold out for today! Thank you so much, and I will have more coming in copper, titanium and zirconium as the weeks go on. 

 

Anodized Mini 5 Flutes

Howdy Folks and Happy Summer! 

Hard to believe that the days are flying by this fast. We're due for at least an inch of rain today, so that will be much welcomed.

I have another batch of titanium Mini 5 Flute beads for you today. These are anodized in a wide range of colors and I will just send them out randomly. I still have plenty of plain ones without anodizing if anyone wishes to request them as well.

Anodized Mini 5 Flute Beads will run $35 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for coming by today and I hope your summer plans are going great so far.

All gone for today, thank you so much as always! I will have more beads later this summer and fall, and also copper KingPins coming soon.   

 

Zirconium Mini 5 Flutes!

Happy Monday Folks!

Well it's a lot cooler here this week, and we finally broke the drought last night with an inch of rain. Should be a great week for outdoor activities.

Over the weekend I finished up another batch of Mini 5 Flute beads for you, this time in Zirconium. These have that gorgeous glassy finish, similar to obsidian. I used a mint colored paracord to give them a strong contrast that looks very cool. The torch colored finish is ridiculously resistant to wear and these will stay looking great for many years.

Zirconium Mini 5 Flute Beads will run $35 plus shipping and the link is below. Thank you for swinging by today and I hope your week is a great one.

All gone for today, thank you so much!   

 

 

Mini 5 Flutes Return!

Hello Everyone, and Happy Friday!

We finally got a few drops of rain overnight and we might get a storm later today. It's hot and humid right now but looks like it will be a little more reasonable next week.

Well today I have some oldie-but-goodies for you...Titanium Mini 5 Flute Beads return! It's been a few years but I finally managed to get a new batch of these done. Hopefully there will be more variations as the weeks go on as well. But for now I have a big batch of plain ones done for you. These are great tied onto the lanyards of knives, flashlights and other tools, and they work very well as zipper pulls on bags and jackets. An Atwood classic at this point, these minis are my own personal favorite size and shape. 

Titanium Mini 5 Flute Lanslide Beads will run $35 plus shipping and the link is below. Thank you so much for swinging by today and have a great weekend.

All gone for now, thank you so much!  

 

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!

 

Anodized Ragman Hooks!

Hi Everyone, and Happy Official Spring! 

It is still quite chilly here in the Northeast, but a couple more weeks of this raw weather and we should be getting to some milder days. Maybe by then the two huge piles of snow in my yard and the end of my driveway will finally disappear. It can't come soon enough.

Well today I have some more Titanium Ragman Hooks for you. These are anodized with a wide range of colors and effects, and are also stamped with a wide variety of stamped themes. I do have a few colored one without stamps btw, if anyone wishes to email me for them. I also have some stamped ones without coloring, and I have uncolored and unstamped pieces available as well. Just ask. :) And, I have some lefties in this batch too...just a reminder, I no longer have any rags left to go with these, it's BYOR, haha..

Anodized Ragman Hooks will run $60 plus shipping and the link is below. Thanks for popping in today and I hope you all are staying with it in these crazy times.

All gone for now, thank you so much!

 

Pryon!

Well, a Happy Thursday to you all, and a one day early Happy Spring! I am so looking forward to some warmer days ahead after the brutal deep freeze we have had this winter. My little pepper plants are looking good and I'm glad I started them a few weeks ago. Tomatoes will get started in a couple of weeks as well.

Well today I have the first small wave of new Titanium Pryon Tools for you. The Pryon, (aka Wrenchikins) are adorable little PryWrenches featuring a 1/2" open off set jaw, a rear 7/16 opening and a sturdy rear pry tip. OAL is 2.9", so quite compact indeed. I have stamped ones today with no anodizing, and there is are also a few without stamps if anyone wishes to request them. No lefties just yet, but I will get to them as I work my way through the batch...

Warning: EDC and Use could result in a case of Chronic Wrenching Disease in the states of CA and MA. Hehe... 

Titanium Pryon Tools will run $70 each and the link is below. Thank you for checking in today and I hope your week has been going great.

Sold out for today but more on the way very soon, thank you so much!