Bow/harp tools

yud · **on:** October 27, 2018, 02:04:42 PM

Anyone have experience with Bow/harp tools? I was going through a 1845 tool catalog and ran into a whole bunch of folding corkscrews in the same vein as the harp tool.

I was thinking about making one, it looks to me like the bow acts as a spring and then the notches act as detentes to keep everything together.

Any ideas?

ironraven · **Reply #1 on:** October 27, 2018, 02:52:30 PM

That's pretty much how they work. I think Spyderco is making one or was fairly recently. I haven't seen a sample of it, though.

Grant Lamontagne · **Reply #2 on:** October 30, 2018, 10:22:39 AM

You are thinking of the Harp tool from Byrd. It's funny, I actually had it in my hand yesterday and was thinking of making a post about it because it is such an oddity!

Yud- you are absolutely correct in your theory of how it works. I don't know much about them, but I do know that at one point they were a very popular design, however I don't know of any in current production with anyone. The Harp from Byrd is the only modern one I know of and it was discontinued shortly after it was released, likely due to painfully poor sales.

Def

ironraven · **Reply #3 on:** October 31, 2018, 01:01:06 AM

What about the Keyport and similar? Those could be thought of as a harp-style multitool.

Noa Isumi · **Reply #4 on:** October 31, 2018, 08:30:13 AM

I dont think so. The simple slab and screw construction of Keyport, Keybar etc is actualy based on an older style of key holder that used a folded piece of leather and screws instead and usualy had a snap flap...my grandmother had several for the house and buisness. That or a folding driver set like the Eklind Tool (pic)

The only tool/knife I know curently using the Harp's hoop spring frame is CRKT Hole-in-one knife. It even uses similar tab and notch locking, with a grove in the spring face that enguages with an extended tab on the blade.
But this only has one implement to latch, so the pivot pin is part of the blade. On a harp there is a notch and ramped tab on each tool that interacts with the previous or next tool in the stack, and the pin is sepetate going through all. The gentle ramping on the tab allows them to swing without the need for a spreader like the CRKT has