DIY Tool From Grindworks Dog Tag?

[turkeylord]

First post here

So I got a new Benchmade 5500 for Christmas and BladeHQ kindly included on of these damascus dog tags with the order.



The damascus is neat, but I'm never going to wear the thing. So I could try to sell it, or I was thinking about making a little pry tool/beer liberator out of it.

Came up with a couple designs, but I'm not sure what I want yet. Also, it's a little thin to be making this kind of tool out of, based on some of the stuff I've been seeing here. Not sure how that would affect it's use.



Thoughts? Suggestions? TIA

[redbaron]

how thick is it?
how do you plan on cutting it out?

[turkeylord]

It's about 3/32 (don't have a caliper handy).

I was going to attept to drill for the gut of the bottle opener, the rest would be done by dremel and my benchtop belt & disc sander.

[Sparky415]

That dogtag looks very cool 

I made some stainless key rings in to bottle openers when I first started ‘modding’ all those years ago

http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,17783.msg336626.html#msg336626

I would do them a little different now, I would make the bottom of the slot a bit more curved to really grab the bottle top
 
I hope this is of some help even if it makes you think ‘I’m not doing that’ 

Good luck 

[turkeylord]

sparky, those look fantastic. Do you find them to have enough leverage for comfortable use?

I see what you mean about a point to grab the edge of the cap. It's a little hard to tell in my carboard mock-ups, but I had planned to use ~210 degrees of the circle to get a little edge there.

[Sparky415]

sparky, those look fantastic. Do you find them to have enough leverage for comfortable use?

I see what you mean about a point to grab the edge of the cap. It's a little hard to tell in my carboard mock-ups, but I had planned to use ~210 degrees of the circle to get a little edge there.

Thanks TL,
Good thinking
I gave most of them away, as I said I think they need a bit of a tweak with a round file, I’m not sure how comftable they are everyday use but they are fine for ’emergency openings’

I mostly use a SAK or Artifact for bottle tops nowadays 

[turkeylord]

Had a bit of luck yesterday - one of my buddies who is a machinist called yesterday looking for some computer help.

So I reinstalled his printer drivers (twice ) and he's going to do the work on my opener.

I just have to decide on the design and bring it back to him.

[turkeylord]

Design finalized and my machinist friend did the heavy lifting on the machine work:



I have a little more I'll probably do, the tip could be a hair thinner to work as a screwdriver, and I'd like to even out the bevel on the back end. I'd like to strip the laquer and redo that too.

Overall, I'm very happy with it.

[Sparky415]

Totally unique tool, Nice job 

[nuphoria]

Purty... looks like it will have a high fiddle factor

[Raukodur]

You know what, I'd love a damascus dogtag for my keyring, maybe with some custom engraving on it.

These aren't available in the UK are they?

I'm thinking it would work out too expensive to get someone in the UK to buy it, engrave it for me, and ship it to me.

Anyone know of any alternatives for us UK people?

[Raukodur]

I have started a new thread for my question, since I do not want to hijack this thread about this very cool mod.

If they want, the Mods could delete my earlier post. 

[turkeylord]

No worries here!

Here in the US, we have retail stores that do custom engraving, or you might try a trophy shop.


And thanks for the comments guys, I'm really enjoying it so far.