[Street Tech Writing Contest Winner: Alex Anderson is another one of the winners of our current writing contest. Will Alex take home the Grand Prize? Tune in to Street Tech on March 20th to find out.]
It all started in early January. I went to an auditorium at my
University/place of work and was introduced to my next computer -- a Powerbook G4, which has been somewhat cornily dubbed "Titanium." Of course, it took a while for me to scrape together enough cash to pay for it, and it'll take Apple even longer to ship it. But I digress. The new 'book made me wonder about the commercial possibilities of titanium, a metal that has a number of unique properties.
I started poking around the Internet and eventually found several
companies that sell titanium-based products online, including ... titanium crowbars, so I bought one. It's cool for number of reasons.
First, the vital stats: it's 21 inches long, roughly three-quarters of an
inch thick, and weighs only 1.32 pounds. A similarly-sized steel crowbar would weigh in at around three pounds, but the titanium version is just as strong. Titanium is also fairly malleable, which makes it resistant to something I've seen happen to more rigid metals, such as steel, which is metal fatigue. I've known several steel crowbars snap to have snapped at stress points. Though I haven't read any data to support this as a rampant problem with steel crowbars, it certainly makes sense.
In spite of the utter coolness of this shapely hunk o' metal (did I mention it was cool?), there are a couple of problems. First, the price seems to have gone up in the past year. A while ago, these tools cost a scant US$25, now they're up to $40. Not the right direction, if you ask me.
A lot of people might question the logic of spending $40 on such a simple tool. But since it's so compact and lightweight, you can carry it around with you and show it off. Brandishing this thing can get you into trouble, though. Not that it's happened to me, or anything. Okay, that's a lie.
In terms of design, the crowbar is solid, but it does differ a little from other 'bars. There are serious nailpullers at both ends (as opposed to one puller and one chisel), and the curved end doesn't have as much of a hook as on other crowbars. I've probably thought about this entirely too much, for I'm a high-tech worker at a University who doesn't really use analog tools like this very often.
All in all, this was a satisfying purchase. I've used the crowbar
for different things around the house like pulling nails, chipping the incredibly thick ice off of my driveway (I live in Minnesota), removing sections of subflooring to run Ethernet cabling, and wandering around places under the city for a little urban spelunking. I've been pretty abusive to this expensive, glorified metal stick, and it's held up really well. This should be the last crowbar I'll ever have to buy.
P.S. I got my Titanium Powerbook mere hours before finishing this review. It's sweet, but does a lousy job of pulling nails and doesn't scare anybody when I wave it around over my head. For that, I'll stick with my *other* new titanium tool.
- Alex Anderson [3/18/01]
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