Stonewashed Original Minis

Happy Wednesday!

I have just two dozen of these Original Mini Prybabies available in stonewashed finish. There are a few more coming but they will be bead blasted. Anyway, because there are only a handful I'm limiting it to one per customer please. They are $45 plus shipping.

Sold Out! Thank you folks.

Got the Atwood Itch?

Well, maybe the Atwood Chigger™ will help you scratch it. :D

The simple design of this cute little tool pays homage to the classic key ring screwdriver/pry tools of the past but adds a bottle opener and 5/16" wrench. The large 3/4" hex opening makes it easy to slip onto a keyring and helps provide grip. The Chigger™ is made of 5/32" thick CPM S30v steel, is 2.25" long and features a stone washed finish. These are $45 plus shipping.

Thanks folks, these are gone for now! I very much appreciate it.

Blasted Mini XLs

Hi Folks,

After a couple of days of laying around and sleeping I seem to be feeling a little better. So it's time for a sale.

I have the remaining Mini+ Prybaby XLs ready to go. These are bead blasted. I don't have a whole lot of them so I'm going to keep it to one per person so that some of the folks who missed the stonewashed release get a chance at them.

Sold out, thank you once again folks!

FunnyBones

Hi All,

I have a few FunnyBone wrench tools ready to go. These are stonewashed and there just a few dozen. They are $50 each plus shipping and the link to purchase is here:

Stonewashed are sold out, a few more bead blasted ones will be coming soon. Thank you!

Just Getting Back

Had a family event to attend in VT this weekend. I'm still recovering this morning but will try to get the FunnyBones up this afternoon.

No Sale Today

Hi folks.

Paypal is doing something weird and for some reason I'm not able to view any transactions from today in my transactions list. So I will not be able to do a sale today until they get it straightened out. I'm able to accept payments and the balance is correct but no listing comes up with my transactions. Very odd. They have been doing some maintenance recently and obviously something is messed up.

I am going to try to get to some bead blasting today. Hopefully will get to the rest of the minis and also some FunnyBones in the next day or so. Thanks for your patience!

Mini Plus XL

Hi Everyone,

OK, I have a portion of the Mini Plus XL batch completed. Exact same specs as the Mini Plus but they have a small bend for extra leverage. The bend does not significantly change the length of 2.5".

These will be $55 plus shipping. Link is here:

Sold out for now, thank you!

Mini Prybabies®

OK, I have some Minis ready to go finally. This is the first wave only. I have several wave's worth of these coming over the next few days with several different flavors. This group is the largest and I'm calling it the Mini Plus Prybaby® to distinguish it from the Original Mini Prybaby®. The only difference between the two designs is the 1/4" hex in the body and also the Mini Plus is slightly lighter stock at 1/8" thick. These are all S30v steel.

A word on the tumbling. These have a nice satin stonewashed finish but are not quite as shiny as my recent batches of tools. Also, everything that came back from this tumble has some remnants of bronze heat coloring on the edges and inside surfaces and in the name stamps. This is the result of the tempering oven cycles and usually I don't see this. Not quite sure what they did differently but I want to make it plain up front so that folks don't email me thinking there is rust on any of these pieces. It's NOT rust, just heat coloring.

I will also be doing a portion of these with a bead blasted finish just like the original Minis. So more of them will be coming as I get them done. The straight Mini Plus group with stonewashed finish is what I have done right now so they are up first. XLs will be coming probably tomorrow afternoon. I did not get to any lefties yet. Thanks for checking in folks! :)

Mini Plus Prybabies® are $45 each plus shipping. Link is here:

Sold Out for now, more tomorrow. Thank you!

Update on Minis

So, I just spoke to my heat treat guy. They are all done and have been tumbled with the shiny Stone Aged finish. He is shipping the first batch of Mini Prybabies out to me today so I should have them on Monday's UPS. That means Tuesday will be the first wave of sales. I expect to be able to offer these in several waves over several days as I get them sorted, cleaned up and packaged up. Thanks for your patience folks!

Swordbaby

Howdy Folks! Hope your weekend has been a relaxing one. I've been working for some of it and kicking back for the rest of the time.

I have a few titanium G3 Prybabies available. I marked these with one of my 19th century antique die maker's stamps in the shape of a sword hilt with D guard. I only made two dozen and they are all anodized green. They are $75 each plus shipping and I'm keeping it at one per customer because of the limited stock. Purchase link is here:

Sold Out, thank you!

Next Batches

Hi Folks,

Just wanted to let you know that I am grinding and milling this week. Will have Mini Prybabies coming up next but realistically it will be about two or three weeks before completion. There will be some XL (with a bend for extra leverage) versions included in this next batch. Could be a lottery before that too... and there are also some other tools coming so stay tuned. ;)

And the Winners Are:

First of all, wow! I can't believe how many folks signed up for this one, thanks so much for your interest.

OK, the sixteen winners are:

2 Aznridah
11 Dan
25 Code-X
46 CodeNaked
57 KCM1
68 P-Nut
176 StrayLight
178 tonester
199 deedub5853
201 antmelnat
203 BSR
213 longac1
254 Zatchmo55
275 POCKET DEBRIS
279 trucklvr2003
296 knifenut

I will send out emails shortly, thanks so much everyone.

Friday Lottery

Hi Folks,

It's been ages since I've done a lottery so I thought it was time to finish a few pieces just for this purpose. These are steel G3 Prybabies with extra grinds and glow dots. I know someone will ask but there aren't any titanium G3s with glow dots coming, only these steel ones. Anyway, I have just 16 of them and the price will be $80 each plus shipping. The lottery will run until 8PM eastern time tonight, Friday, August 7th. The 16 winners will be announced shortly thereafter and I will send emails out at that time with purchase instructions.

Please remember only one entry per person and if you haven't signed up for one of these lotteries before please read the rules, link is below. Thanks folks and hope your summer has been going well!

Lottery is over and winner will be announced shortly. Thanks to everyone who signed up!

Lottery List

Lottery Rules

Not the best picture I'm afraid but it's all I had...

Plain G3 Titanium Prybabies®

Good Evening! :)

I have some plain G3 titanium Prybabies® without anodizing. Here is the purchase link:

Sold Out! Thanks folks.

Ti G3 Prybabies

Hi Folks,

I have the first of the titanium G3 Prybabies ready to go. These are anodized green. Same specs as the steel G3s in regard to wrenches and sizes but these are slightly thinner at .140 due to the shortage of 5/32" titanium stock. I am finishing the batch in stages and will offer some plain ones next but today I only have the green ones done. Price is $70 each lus shipping and purchase link is below:

Sold out for now, thank you folks! More coming though so stay tuned.

Tipplers

Hi Folks,

OK, I have a batch of Tipplers done. They are $55 plus shipping.

Sold Out for now, thank you!

As always, thanks for stopping by and hope everyone is having a terrific summer.

What's Up?

Hi Folks,

Thought I'd better give an update. I'm going to start finishing up Tipplers tomorrow so should have those going by Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm hoping to see the titanium G3 Prybabies back from the tumblers by the end of the week but my understanding is that they are very busy right now so I'm not positive when they will come back to me. But my fingers are crossed for a release next weekend.

In the meantime I have been getting sheets cut and am in the middle of planning for even more. We'll be seeing a smallish batch of FunnyBones in two-three weeks or so and another batch of steel G3 Prybabies in about a month. I have a feeling quantities of G3 Prybabies are probably covered for the near future between the batch last week, the upcoming titanium ones and then the next group of steel pieces. I also need to get going and grind the next batch of WingNuts. Still did not get to the metric drawings though...

There are several surprises coming as well but I need to keep it quiet for a little bit until I get some proto pieces completed. But I can tell you all that it is going to be an excellent late summer and fall this year with some very interesting new items coming. :D

Yo West Coasters, Wake Up!

LOL, alright here's an 11AM sale for all you west coasters who claim you can never catch any sales. :p :D Actually, you can always email me btw if you miss a sale and see if I have anyleft...anyway, I have more G3 Prybabies ready now. Here's the link:

Sold Out thanks!

G3 Steel Prybabies

Happy Friday Folks!

I finally have the first bunch of steel G3 Prybabies ready to go. These have the buttery smooth Stone Aged™ finish on them. I ended up cutting these with seven SAE wrench sizes instead of the previous version which had six sizes: 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2, 9/16 and 5/8". The insert cards state just six sizes ending with 9/16" but I didn't want to throw them away and make new ones. So for all the sticklers and nitpickers out there I'm sending out the old cards with the G3s. :p :D

The steel G3s are $60 plus shipping. Will be more than one wave of them.

Sold out for now, thank you!

I have been getting a lot of emails asking two questions:

1. The titanium G3 Prybabies are still two weeks away at least, possibly longer. I have not finished the grinding and clean up on them yet and they still need to get tumbled. So it's going to be a little while yet. Lots of projects happening all at once as usual!

2. Also, there will be no G3 Prybaby XLs at all in either metal due to difficulty in processing. When heated and bent they are prone to a small surface stress crack near the thumb grooves. The crack is minor and although it is fixable it's a total pain in the butt so I'm not going to be making any. There will be something else with an XL bend later this summer however so sit tight. ;)

One other thing, I will NOT be making these in metric. I have other metric tools in the planning stages though so stay tuned for releases later this summer or early fall for metric sized stuff.

Thanks everyone! Hope your summer is going well. :)

Shooting For Friday...

...and/or the weekend for the steel G3 Prybabies. ;) There are quite a lot of them coming back from heat treat. Since I have already made and sold some fairly good sized batches of these last year I think it will probably be very easy to score one.

Bead Blasted WingNuts

Hi Folks,

I have a few of the WingNuts with a bead blasted finish available. These are the same exact specs as the previous batch except for the finish. This is a small release but I will have another good sized run of them in about two-three weeks or so. Thanks!

Sold Out!

WingNuts!

The Atwood WingNut is the latest in my ever evolving line of pocket multi wrench style tools. The material for these is 5/32" thick CPM 154 steel hardened to 57-58 Rockwell. The overall length is a little longer than my past keychain tools at 4 inches and they weigh in at 1.6 ozs making it a substantial tool but one that is still easily carried in a pocket or bag. I have one on my keyring right now and it is quite manageable.

Features include both open and closed wrench sets in SAE sizes 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, 7/16, 1/2 and 9/16. In addition there is a 1/4" hex opening and a large screwdriver/pry tip plus two smaller pry tips on the front end that could double as screwdrivers in a pinch. The Stone Aged™ antique EDC finish feels smooth to the touch and makes the tool look like it spent the last fifty years riding comfortably in your grandfather's pocket. :D

This is the first wave with at least two more coming this summer, pieces already underway. I'm hoping to get the drawings done for the metric version in a week or two as well. WingNuts are $70 plus shipping.

Sold Out for now, thank you!

Happy 4th of July Folks!

Tipplers

Alrighty then, finally got some Tipplers done! These are single shot sized glasses, basically the same capacity as a standard shot glass. They weigh in at a hefty 4.3 ozs so not quite as heavy as the BigShots but still substantial for their size. The diameter is 1.5" and the height is 2.25". They have been professionally passivated (acid cleaned) to remove surface iron and sulfur. Most of them have light beauty marks of one sort or another which seems to be unavoidable with this kind of machine turned product but certainly nothing objectionable. Dishwasher safe and made to last virtually forever. :)

The Tipplers have a bit more complex shape compared to the BigShots so they take longer to turn and mill. With less material but more machine time they end up costing me the same to make and so they are priced the same as their larger counterparts at $55 plus shipping.

Sold Out for now, thank you!

Tools In Progress

Got the G3 Prybabies off to the tumblers today. They will be back in about a week at which point I will name stamp them and then they will go back for heat treat and final finish tumble.

The WingNuts came back from first tumble yesterday and I stamped them and got them back out the door headed to heat treat. We're looking at probably 10 days or so for them to be back and ready to go.

I will be doing a good sized batch of titanium G3 Prybabies in about 3-4 weeks. They are being cut next week.

I have a small number of plain Dot Shots that I will be finishing tomorrow. These were done without the knurling for a super clean industrial look.


The new small shot glass project is underway as I type. Should have the first of those by the end of next week. This is a standard single shot sized vessel. I think this design will tentatively be called the Tippler. ;)

DotShot

This is a BigShot variant featuring a series of eight decorative divots and pinstripes. I only made a few dozen of these. It's possible I could make more but it's more likely that I'll be changing over to an all new design this summer.

Sold Out, thanks!

NutJob is Now a WingNut

It seems there might be a conflict over use of the name NutJob for my upcoming wrench tool. So in order to nip any potential problems in the bud I think I will be renaming it the WingNut.

NutJob Preview

Alright, as promised, a sneak peek at the upcoming NutJob. LOL, I couldn't resist poking a little fun at myself with the name and it did seem oddly appropriate for the tool as well. :D

Anyway, for this tool I wanted something fairly small and compact but at the same time I think there is a need for something beefier than some of it's predecessors. This piece bridges that gap to some extent while remaining small and light enough for easy pocket carry.

I debated back and forth on a bottle opener but finally decided that everyone has lots of bottle openers already and it's likely that most people will have more than one tool on them anyway being the gearheads that I know you all are. Plus you can easily pop a cap with the screwdriver end of this tool in a pinch using the old lever-in-the-fist method.

So, the NutJob combines the best of the Crawdaddy with the best of the Atwrench with a small dose of Mini Bug Out Bar thrown in for good measure. It has six SAE wrench sizes, 1/4-9/16" in both open jaw and closed jaw configurations. The two small bevels on the open jaw end can be used for light prying or perhaps as a small screwdriver if need be. The butt end features a large screwdriver/prytip and lanyard hole. The 1/4" hex hole in the center would form a nice T-handle wrench if necessary. I placed the side grooves in such a way as to optimize grip and if desired an O-ring or O-rings could be obtained at your local hardware store if you wanted rubber grips. I will not be supplying them on this tool since I'm envisioning the primary function of the grooves as simple grips.

Material for this tool is CPM 154, .160 thick (5/32") and the overall length of the tool is right around 4 inches.

I'm just finishing the grinding on the first batch. I have enough steel for three more batches and I will be doing one of them in metric sizes once I finalize the drawings. I'll be running another post where we can discuss the metric one in more detail but for now let me just get these pieces going. We're looking at about 2-3 weeks for completion from the tumbling and heat treat cycles. G3 Prybabies will be coming at just about the same time as well.

The NutJob:



A piece in progress with the Crawdaddy and a fancy Atwrench next to it so you can see the size comparison:

Progress Report

I know it's been quiet around here for a couple of weeks but rest assured that stuff is going on behind the scenes!

I still have a few BigShots available and they continue to trickle out the door. It's kind of a nice change to finally have been able to make enough pieces of something to make everyone happy. I have a few variation pieces available as well and will be posting them soon.

In other news, the G3 Prybabies are still in the works. I am in grinding mode this week and am working on them.

I'm also working on a brand new tool, something I'm calling the NutJob. I'm nearly done grinding the first batch and I'm just about ready to post progress pics. This will be a slightly larger pocket tool than my recent offerings at 4 inches OAL and it is quite substantial. It combines the beefed up jaws of the Crawdaddy with the body of the Atwrench and adds the tail end of the Bug Out Bar. The first round of these will be SAE sizes only but I may cut a sheet of them in metric as well.

I'm still weighing my options on other projects. My specialty steel supplier, Crucible, has filed for Chapter 11. I guess their biggest customers have been the auto industry and tool and die companies and with all the economic calamities they have gotten into trouble. So right now S30v steel is not available in the thicknesses that I use. I'll be using some of the very similar CPM 154 for the next couple of projects and it sounds like S30v will again be available later this summer. My fingers are crossed. It would be a huge blow if Crucible ended up going out of business. I'm researching other possible alloys in case of such a disruption but there are many reasons for me to use the steels I have been using and it will not be easy to find a good replacement material although the old standby 440C is one possibility.

More BigShots!

Alrighty then, now that the BigShot list has been completed I have the first wave of BigShots available for a general sale.

Sold Out! Thank you folks, much appreciated. :)

I will be changing the design of the BigShots and offering a smaller version around the last week of June.

Two Dozen Ti Rulers

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone! Wherever you might be I hope you're going to get some gorgeous weather and some much needed rest and relaxation. :)

OK, I have two dozen of the plain blasted ti rulers available and then that's about it for the batch. Although I had much better results than the last batch of rulers I still had a slightly higher loss rate than I had hoped for. I think I have all the kinks figured out now though. Next time I do these I'll shoot for a bigger batch and I will make some anodized ones as well.

Sold Out! **I made it to the PO this afternoon so they are already on the way. **

Stonewashed Titanium Rulers

Howdy folks,

I have a batch of stonewashed ti rulers ready to go. These will are plain, no anodizing. The finish is bright with a zillion little scratches and the contrast with the numbers and scales is really nice. These will wear wonderfully for years to come. The price is $45 plus shipping and the link is below:

Sold Out!

What's Peter Up to Now?

Hehe, wouldn't you like to know? :D Well, at least I hope someone wants to know.... :P

OK, I have some plain uncolored stonewashed rulers done which I will be posting today. There are also some blasted ones coming later this week which will be anodized. Maybe I can squeeze in some patterns for a lottery if I have time.

Next wave of BigShots has just come back from the passivation step. I'll be name stamping them in the next couple of days and then will post a general sale. There are lots of them. As mentioned a little while back I need to nudge the price slightly on this next batch to $55 each.

There are still more Fixers coming but I have to start from scratch on the sheaths. Not a lot of them are left so I will probably do a couple of lotteries for the remaining ones. It will be at least two weeks probably or more before I can get to them.

Other than the above projects I have been doing some much needed yardwork and I need to make a day for shop cleaning and maintenance sometime in the next couple of weeks.

No news or progress on the G3 Prybabies but I need to buckle down and do some grinding on them so I can get them moving along in the process.

Hope everyone is enjoying the nice weather! It will be air conditioner time in a couple of weeks and then I'll be looking for excuses to hang out in my cool basement shop. In the winter it's almost penitential to go down in the cold dungeon but when the hot weather comes it's downright pleasant. Translation= work gets done. :)

Fixers: Wave Two

Hi Boys and Girls,

Got another couple dozen of these done. Here's the link:

Sold Out, thanks folks!

First Wave of Fixers

I have almost three dozen Fixers done in this first wave. Will have the next wave either Wednesday or Thursday.

Sold out for now, thank you folks!

Fixer specs:

5/32" thick S30v steel
3.375" OAL
1.375" cutting edge
1" from tip to end of blade measuring along the top edge
6 American wrench sizes 1/4-9/16"
1/4 Hex opening mainly for sheath retention and fine tactile manipulation
Kydex sheath with bead chain

DO NOT USE THE WRENCHES WITHOUT THE SHEATH COVERING THE BLADE.

Few More Fixer Shots

Sheaths in progress and 7/16" bolt action!

Update

I'm still working on sheaths and sharpening. Fixers will be released on Tuesday or Wednesday. Price will be $150 plus shipping. Thanks for being so patient folks and here's a few pics to tide you over... :)

And the winners are:

11 ideadoc
63 freeman7
75 wwnick
114 shroyerg
152 elfan888
165 lcd
173 Jonesy
177 steven
262 kuh
303 rad

Thanks very much folks! I will send emails to the winners right now.

DLC Mini Son of PryThing Lottery

Well it's been a while since I have done a lottery. Since it will be a couple of days until I can get enough sheaths done to unveil the Fixer knives I thought I would offer up the last of the DLC MSOPThings. This is the end of them and no more are planned at the moment.

There are 10 of these total, all matte black finish with black cord wrap. They come with a kydex sheath and beadchain. Price will be $180 plus shipping.

Lottery is over!

Sign Up List

Lottery Rules

What's Next?

Hi Folks!

Well, I'm in good shape with the BigShot list. Everyone who signed up on the list during the one month period that it was open have been contacted. I'd say about 96% of folks responded which was an incredible response I thought. Thanks so much everyone for helping me see this project to fruition!

There will be more BigShots coming in a week or so for those folks who wanted more than the two that I allowed in the first round of direct email sales. I'll do at least one or possibly two more rounds of these before making a significant change to the design. There will also be a small price nudge upwards on the next batch to $55 each and hopefully that will not be too excessive.

In other news, ti rulers are at the laser marking company now for the measuring scales to be applied. They should be back by next week I would think.

I'm back into sheath mode and will be unveiling the new fixed blade knife in the next couple of days. They will be released via general sale and there is quite a large number of them coming.

More info coming soon!

Rolling with the BigShots

Hi Everyone,

I know it's been a little while since I announced the BigShots and some people have had theirs for a month or two. I wanted to let you all know that I am still going down my list as I finish the cups. Today I reached the halfway point in my list so if you signed up for them and have not yet heard from me don't worry! It's a rather huge list and it is taking me some time to get through it all.

The really great news if that I have just finished my next installment of pieces and have resumed going through the list. I will be getting more done next week as well so it's looking like I may be able to just about get to the finish in two weeks or so.

I am still planning to do some general release sales when I have completed the list phase and I will make sure that the folks who wanted more than the two that I have allotted during this phase will have plenty of opportunity to pick more of these up if they wish.

I also wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who has purchased a BigShot so far and thanks you all so much for your kind words about them and your patience with this project! :)

Another Plate of Cookies

Today's flavor: For all you vanilla lovers, Plain Bead Blasted. :)

Sold out!

Cookie Wrench

The past couple of days I have been taking a little time off and enjoying the weather which is finally starting to show some signs of spring. So since I can't seem to bear being in the shop more than an hour or two at a time I've been rather slowly picking away at these. Unfortunately for me we're in for a spell of April showers so it looks like it's back to the grindstone this week. :D Anyway, here's the official spiel:

Atwood Titanium Cookie Wrenches measure 2.25" in diameter and are made of 1/8" thick stock. They are based loosely on antique lantern wrench designs from the 1940's. Features include 1/4 and 5/16 hex openings, 3/8, 7/16 and 1/2" wrenches, 5/16 open end wrench/bottle opener, oxygen bottle wrench, lanyard and center 7/8" hex opening.

This batch is lightly bead blasted and anodized a rich rose gold color. Clean with Windex or other glass cleaner periodically to keep the color bright.

So there you are...crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Mmmmm good, just like Mom's only these last much longer...LOL.

The Cookie Wrenches will be $65 plus shipping. I didn't make a whole lot of them so it will be one per customer. I'm still finishing the batch so there will be another wave pretty soon. Maybe the next ones will be chocolate chip!

These are gone for today, thank you!





P.S. They are NOT Cookie Cutters. Do you see a blade on these? :P

MicroSpuds: Final Wave

MicroSpuds are sold out, thanks everyone.

Few More SuperBugs...

Sold out, thank you folks!

No XL G3s

People keep emailing me and asking if I will do some XL G3 Prybabies in the next batch. No, I can't. The reason is, if I have grooves or thumb scallops on the top edge of the tool then on a lot of the pieces a little teeny stress crack occurs when I make the bend. It's very small. While I don't think it really affects the strength of the tool it looks as though it is a small crack and therefore casts doubt in my mind. In the past I did make a few and then had to spend a considerable amount of time grinding and sanding to fix the areas in question.

What I can do at some point is to make a batch of Prybabies with no grooves or scallops and no little jog at the bottle opener area. That way with an uninterrupted expanse the bend would go smoothly with no problems.

SuperBugs!

Darn!

Was trying to have a sale this morning but paypal keeps acting fluky and sometimes works and sometimes doesn't when I try to do shipping labels. So I'm giving up for today. In addition, our email server is screwed up now too so I can't send emails except over my blackberry. This ain't my day apparently...

SuperBugs

The first wave of SuperBugs are done. I have quite a few of these and will be cleaning and assembling more over the next day or two.

SuperBugs are made of 5/32 S30v steel. I'm sure the various functions are obvious and familiar to Atwood fans. :) No plans for a ti version right now but who knows?

I found a neat little bee or fly image amongst my old jeweler's stamps and just had to include it on the tool. These rare metal stamps are from the 1800's and I think it's so cool to be able to create a bridge between the centuries this way. Plus given my output of energy this past month the bee seemed more than appropriate!

SuperBugs will be $50 plus shipping. I had 10 lefties but they are all gone, thanks.


These are gone for now but I have many many more coming in a day or so. Thanks folks!

Quick Update

I'm sick as a dog today with a cold. No energy, although my nose isn't as bad as it was yesterday. So probably this week will be a little slower than the past week...

On a positive note, next group of BigShots are heading to the passivators today and so probably by the end of the week I will resume going down the list and sending out emails. They will be running more BigShots all this week so I expect the wave to continue through next week. Hopefully we will make substantial progress in getting through the list.

Some of the SuperBugs will be ready later this week.

Plain Ti Rulers

Alright folks, got a few of the plain Titanium Rulers ready to go. As I mentioned in the post below, these have a light glass bead finish on them. It was originally my intention to have a much larger batch than this but half of the rulers never even made it to the marking stage and then there was some loss in the final finishing stage. So we are left with a few dozen pieces that are saleable.

And before anyone else asks, no, I will not be releasing seconds of these. I would rather instead do a second batch. Now that I understand the areas where there were problems with the first bunch I am confident I can avoid pretty much all of it and get another group made within a few weeks. I plan to obtain the material on Monday and get that next batch going so no worries if you miss out on this batch, there will be a lot more coming and it should not take very long to make it happen.

Price on these is $45 plus shipping and I have to keep it at one per customer this time around. These are plain finish only, no anodized pieces in this group.

Sold Out! Thank you!

No Release Today

Sorry guys, I'm still working on rulers....tomorrow for sure though.

Good News (hopefully)

I spoke with the shop this morning and they have gotten their BigShot tooling straightened out and dialed in. They are estimating that they could have most of my total order filled by a week from Monday. If so that would be absolutely awesome as I was fearing this could drag on for many weeks with a lot of starts and stops. It still has that potential of course but right now it's looking good that most folks on the list will be seeing a BigShot in their hand within two-three weeks or so. :)

I had a meeting today that took up my afternoon so was out of the shop... I'll be messing around with ti rulers over the weekend and hopefully knock out the finish work so I can have a sale. Maybe tomorrow afternoon or Sunday...supposed to be rainy anyway so nothing to do but stay in and work. :)

Ti Rulers Coming Soon

They are back from marking and I'm quite pleased. These have been such a long time in coming for what they are and it's been kinda nuts. Basically it was one of those little projects where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But I'm finally beyond all that and if I do these again or at least some variation of them I will know exactly what to do next time.

Anyway, I was able to rescue about half of the batch. A lot of these do have minor surface blems, blips and small scratches so do be forewarned. I'll be sorting them out over the next few days and will save what I can. Because of uneven finishes from tumbling I will have to bead blast these with a fine glass bead media but that is not all bad since it gives them a nice frosted look. I'll be anodizing some and leaving some plain...we'll see what happens with them when I get fully underway with the finishing.

Note the cool way that the laser marked scales develop complementary colors to the main color of each piece. It's a really neat effect. Green gets gold marks, gold gets UV, UV gets green and (not shown) blue gets silver. Plain just looks dark gray or black.

A Few MicroSpuds

Hi Folks,

When it rains it pours! :)

I have a few of the CPM 3V MicroSpuds done. These nifty 5 inch mini tools are loosely based on the gigantic old fashioned irons worker's tools. The MicroSpuds feature a bottle opener and 7/16 wrench opening, pry tip with V notch, 1/4 hex opening and tapered tail end used for aligning objects before bolting them together. They are not sharp enough to act as a marlin spike...these have a bright stonewashed finish. They are running $70 each plus the shipping. Link to purchase is here:

Sold Out for now! Thanks folks, I really appreciate it.

BigShot Update

Hi Folks,

First of all, the BigShots that are coming back from the passivators where they have been acid dipped and cleaned are absolutely GORGEOUS! Wow...Just a super nice bright finish on them and I'm overjoyed with the results. I think you will be too. ;)

OK, here's how it will work: I will be going down the list in the order that people signed up. As I get these done and as your name comes up on the list I'll send an email to you with a buy now link. I think that's a simple low stress way to do it and also it's fair.

I have had a tremendous response to the BigShots so it is going to take a while to get them all made and to get through the list. I think for the first pass I will limit it to two per person just so we can get through everyone who wants one as quickly as possible. The shop that I am working with has said that they will make as many pieces as I want so if people want more than two I think that it will not be a problem to get them to you but it's going to take a little time.

Now, these will be getting done in waves. The first wave has already started and over the next few days I'll finish the name stamps and get more of these out. My buddies at the shop had to bump me for another job last week so we lost a week of production. They will start turning more BigShots tomorrow however and will give me another week or so of machine time. Then I'll probably be getting bumped again for a few days and this will continue like this for as long as it takes to get all the pieces made that I want. When I do get done with the list I will no doubt have extras made and probably do some general release sales.

So, bear with me if you will and I'll get everyone hooked up as fast as I can. Thanks for your interest and your patience! :)

More Shiners!

Well, by a small miracle I finally have some stuff ready to go. Shiners came back from heat treat yesterday and my fingers are sore today from all the O rings and lanyard tying. But I have about half of them ready to go right now. :)

Shiners are made of CPM S30v steel, 5/32 thick, 3.25" OAL. These simple little keyfob tools feature a screwdriver tip, bottle opener, 1/4" hex drive opening and thick rubber O rings for a secure grip. They run $45 each plus shipping.

Sold Out, thanks.

Shot Glass Update

Hi Folks,

First of all, response to the BigShots has been enormous! Thank you all for the interest and enthusiasm for these. I thought they were cool as hell but I never know what others will think of thise stuff and you all have made it plain that you like them too. So thanks for that. :)

They are running shot glasses right now and they should have a pretty good pile of them for me on Monday or Tuesday. However, as always seems to happen, the shop is bumping me on Tuesday to run another small job which has a deadline attached. Supposedly they will resume running shot glasses the following week and you can be sure I'll be on top of it holding their feet to the fire. I'm really hoping they will finish the run completely in the second phase but we shall see...

So what I will probably do is go down the list in the order that people signed up and email them a buy now link. Seems like the best and most fair way to do it. Not sure yet if the release will be on Tuesday because we are also evaluating if we want to do a passivation step or not and the samples by which I will determine that will be back to the shop on Monday. Passivation is a process where the part is cleaned and then dipped in acid to remove any free iron particles on the surface of the metal leaving only chromium, nickel and other trace elements. It's not mandatory but it seems like it might be a good idea as long as the cost is minimal which it is supposed to be.