Lost Art Press

5 Years of Crucible Tool

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Crucible Tool has been in business for five years now. To mark the occasion, I wrote a long post about the journey and realized it was a flaming barge of beaver diarrhea. So I deleted it.

Instead, to mark the occasion, we will make a few special tools this year, mostly for our own delight and to experiment with new processes. The first tool is a straight-up collaboration with engraver Jenny Bower. She’s engraving a handful of our Lump Hammers with our logo and some beautiful scrollwork. 

They’ll be for sale in early 2022. The price will be $350, which basically covers the costs of making these special tools and no more. If no one buys them, and we end up with a bunch of beautiful hammers here for students, I’ll be just as pleased if they sell out.

We have two other anniversary tools in the works. Details on those in the coming weeks.

Thanks to all of you who have bought and used our tools during the last five years. Toolmaking is a rewarding part of my daily work, and I have a long list of things we are going to make in the next five years. (No, Gary, you can’t see the list.)

— Christopher Schwarz

28 thoughts on “5 Years of Crucible Tool”

  2. For this, I will keep the sharpest oulook possible, so basically you have already sold at least one! The Crucible lump hammer is one of the tools high on my personal “doubles for unexpected troubles” list; in fact so high that even though I already have the double, I will (unless I’m unlucky and miss out on’t) make this special edition the triple for trying times!

    Cheers,

    Mattias

  3. Looks nice. I suspect they will sell out. One of the skills I want to learn (summer vacation class somewhere I’m guessing) is metal engraving so that way I can do this sort of thing. I was at the Cody Museum three summers ago and was stopped in my tracks at the engraved firearms section. Absolutely beautiful workmanship. They had some videos playing there for engraving. It was at that point I realized it can all be done by handwork and I got nerdly excited. All kinds of hand tools I own could be embellished if I just spend a bit of time learning how. Won’t be as good as a master engraver but it would be my own work.

  5. Has Crucible given any thought to producing a brace or egg beater? There’s a bit of a gap in the market.

    1. Hi Andy,

      The Schroder hand drill carried by Lee Valley (and EU companies) is difficult to beat at $70. Plus there are so many awesome used ones here in the U.S. that you can pick up for about that price. Eggbeater drills require castings, machine work and woodwork. It would be very expensive for a company to do them in small numbers (like we do). Sorry!

      1. Thanks for the recommendation. And I see it’s even less at $56.50 right now, unless you’re referring to the “Heavy Duty” version that Highland sells for $70?

        Wait a minute! You cleverly responded only to his question about the hand drill. Maybe there’s still hope for a 10″ Crucible brace…

  9. I have a lump hammer and a shop full of tools that are exposed to the elements. My problem is that I live in the mountains and the scenery view overrides the benefits (moisture down) of keeping the shop doors closed. How do y’all keep the hammer and associated tools from rusting? Merry Christmas

    PS: I am buying an engraved lump hammer when available. Why? Because of the artistic value Ms. Jenny adds. This is same as using one of Dad’s tools; special! because it’s not just another tool from the STORE.

    Merry Christmas ya

    2. We wipe everything down with an oily rag before we put it away for the day. When our lump hammer gets spotting we take a 3M woven abrasive pad (the gray one) and rub the hammer head with the pad a little oil.

  10. I’m quite sure you underestimate our appetite for “a flaming barge of beaver diarrhea”.

  11. That’s a beautiful engraving – as is all of Jenny’s work.
    I just purchased my first lump hammer a couple of weeks ago. Haven’t had a used for it in the shop yet but I did smash the walnuts & pecans my wife needed for baking up some cookies and a pie. Now I need to lock it in a toolbox to keep it her away from adding it to one of the drawers in her kitchen.

  13. It is a skillful editor indeed, who can detect flaming beaver diarrhea of his own creation.

  14. Cool!! Congrats on making it and thriving for five years. “Flaming beaver diarrhea”?! It’s possible that you are excelling in the too-hard-on-yourself olympics. . .

    1. That evil Gary (an imaginary frenemy) is always asking what we are working on next so he can spoil it with his books and tools.

      Everyone needs an arch nemesis. Mine happens to be a figment of my imagination.

  16. I will admit that I have a psychological resistance to what I’ll call “bench jewelry” – tools which are explicitly very flashy relative to their intended purpose. This is of course, almost completely hypocritical, as these same tools are often showcases for the skill of a master artisan – something which I hold in very high regard.

    But damn if metal engraving work like Jenny Bowers’ (and the wonderful work on what I’ll call “The Anarchist’s Bench Plane” – apologies for forgetting that artist’s name) doesn’t just smash through all of that mental noise like the A-Team van through a breakaway glass wall. It’s simply delightful.

  17. Are you starting a notification list for the 5 year anniversary crucible tools? I would be devastated to miss out on the opportunity to have one of these beautiful tools.

    1. We use the blog as the way to alert people as to when new things are in stock. We don’t have any waiting lists or notification lists. In the next month or so we’ll announce how we are going to sell the hammers. We will do everything we can to make it fair!

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