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.