metalfishies: fun little EDC pocket tool and pretty good beginner's project

[Tait]

A friend of mine and I recently made a little keychain tool we are calling metalfishy.

Here's a picture of one made out of titanium:


They're pretty easy to make and great practice for some important skills. (For example, I practiced learning to heat treat with these as the prybar edge is probably more forgiving of heat treating problems than a knife edge).

We decided to open source the design and have published a WIP along with some design templates at http://taitstevens.com/metalfishy/.

It's surprisingly helpful to have a mini prybar/screwdriver on a keychain. I just had people at work start asking for them today.

I hope somebody enjoys making one or more themselves!

 

[bobbystoney]

Cool. Thanks for posting that.

 

[Ed Braun]

Very cool--I was just about to post something similar and saw this--gotta say, sweet irony.
I really like the light weight factor here--the Ti's resilience has got to be a nice shock factor to folks when they see it, and then feel it. Our tech lab has been looking for a little project for such handy tools students can use around school--I'll be sure to show the project and your page to my associates. All too many ties these kind of EDC bits are tacticool--this is just endearing. Good show, old bean.

 

[Tait]

Thanks for the kind words - I do hope it's helpful.

Titanium is fun for being light, fairly inexpensive in the amount needed for the project, and easy to color (I used my etcher. Two 9-volt batteries would work well. Or, a variable voltage power supply would let you choose the color. )

I've made a bunch of these. Most of them were from stainless tool steel. This was a good beginner project since they work great even if the heat treating doesn't come out exactly right.

@Ed: The printable templates are on the website - they are free to use, so it should be easy to try. I'd love to hear if they end up working for you.