New Year, New EDC Gear

Long time no post. It sure has been a while. As some of you may know, I pumped the brakes on creating new metal gear for the last few months of 2020. I wanted to really focus on what I currently had as well as new hanks.

Well, 2020 is thankfully behind us and time for 2021. I have big plans for this year and wanted to give an overview of what I am thinking.

First off, I am moving full speed ahead with my friction folder. I am currently in talks with another shop (USA of course!) and trying to get a prototype or two made. If there is one thing I have learned is always make a prototype. Second, I am planning on making a titanium version of the Executive. Not exactly sure how I will be making it, but I think the slim, pry many people love deserves a little upgrade. Also, I really want one. haha. Finally, it is time for a mini Traveler. I have received a few requests and finally going to do it. I am starting the design today and will be working on some plastic prototypes in the next week or two.

That is just the start of what I have planned with many more ideas brewing. As always, feel free to let me know what you think here or shoot me an email at gondekedc@gmail.com.

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.