The Persuader - My Biggest EDC Pry Yet

I have been working fast and furiously on a new pry design I am calling the Persuader. I wanted to make something that was bigger than your normal pocket pry, but not a full-sized crowbar. This is a happy medium at about 6" in length that is perfect for a backpack or a Maxpedition pouch.

On top of being a heavy-duty 440c pry, it has a ton of features combined into it. I was able to add the normal pry edge similar to my Executive but added a hook pry on top. This will allow a ton of leverage to get stuff started and my hope is strong enough to even pop open a door if needed. There is also a build-in hammer that works great. At 8mm thick, there is plenty of room at the top to hit nails in.

I have received the first batch of laser-cut blanks and have ground a few of them for testing. So far this is a beast and has held up to everything I have thrown at it. Prying, scraping, pulling nails, hammering, just to name a few.

There is another week or two worth of testing to complete, but assuming all goes well it will be released before the end of October. Can't wait to get this out there into the hands of more people.

EDC Friction Folder Kick Off

I had a great time designing my current knife, the Index, and wanted to move to an EDC folder. I thought long and hard about what style do I make. The three main that I could think of were a fiction folder, a slip joint, and a locking knife. There are pros and cons with all of them but I ended up going with a friction folder. My reasoning is that first, it is the simplest design of the three. I am a big fan of walking before you run. I started with a fixed blade and learned a ton. With a friction folder, I take a step in complexity without adding too many additional parts. Second, it makes it more friendly world wide. Like my Traveler, I like the idea of something that can go with you and a friction folder passes a lot more knife laws. Finally, there just aren't that many out there. There are a ton and ton of locking knives, a lot of slip joints, but the least amount of friction folders (that I can find).

Now that I knew I was going down the friction folder path I needed to come up with a design. I played with a bunch of different options and then had that "ah ha" moment. If I can design it just right I can come up with a knife that pairs with the Executive. It's going to be the same width and length and I hope to have an overall similar appearance.

Overall, I love the design right now. I have made a bunch of 3D printed prototypes in order to test it and just received some preliminary hardware. The next steps are going to be finalizing the design and then working on a functional prototype (or small production run). Depending on pricing I may just make 25 or 50 to start and go from there.

As always, let me know what you think and if you have feedback. Also, I need a name for this knife so if anyone has any ideas please let me know.

Update on the Reaper

I have received my steel prototype of one of my newest designs, the Reaper. The ergonomics on this pry are fantastic and it seems to be created to the form of my hand. I have been torture testing it for the past for days and have pros and cons to the current design.

The pros of the design are the pry feature is fantastic. With a 30 degree edge, it is great to push in between objects as well as scrap surfaces. The bottle opener works easily and is really fun to use. Instead of prying up on the cap like most openers you push down on the pry and use the leverage of the pry to easily open the bottle. The integrated clip works well too and I have been carrying it on my athletic shorts. It's secure but easy to take off to use. I am going to make it a little bigger in order to make it go onto jeans a little easier though. Slight tweak and that is why I prototype. Finally, the box opener and key attachments work as expected.

Now on to the cons. This design started before I created the Executive and it was going to be my first pry with a nail puller. I thought the shape of the pry would work as a hammer claw to take nails out. Unfortunately, it did not work as planned. What I didn't account for was it is difficult to get the claw of the pry underneath the nail head due to the design. I was able to get the nail out but it was too difficult for me to call this aspect of the pry a success. I am going to keep trying to play with the design but may ultimately remove the nail pulling function. Thankfully I have the Executive to meet that need now.

My hope is to have a new design in a few days and move to either another prototype or a small production run. Also, I plan on changing the material to D2. Since I created the Executive with stainless I wanted to try a different material on this one. I would do titanium but I want to have a ~$50 pry and the steel should hold up better with this unique design. As always, let me know what you think.