Miscellany: The Artisan & The (Gerber) Artifact

This is an Atwood Prybaby XL, keychain edition. It is a pocket prybar/bottlecap opener/screwdriver made by knife and toolmaker Peter Atwood. A quick look at Atwood's website and blog shows the huge variety of small knives and widgets he's created over the years, as well as the cult following that tools like the Prybaby, Atwrench, and Keyton have garnered.

This is the Gerber Artifact:


I find the contrasts between the two tools fascinating. The Prybaby is made by a single master toolsmith, the Artifact comes off an assembly line across the Pacific. The Prybaby uses good quality CPM 154 cutlery steel (like a midrange folding knife), the Artifact is made of some mystery steel. The Prybaby is a model of simplicity, while the Artifact seems like a product of "design-by-committee" that tacks on a removable hobby knife blade and an ugly pivot screw.

Which isn't to say I'd never buy the Artifact. Actually, the Gerber tool is probably the only one I could buy - it's available and in stock at my local Target (a five-minute drive), while the Prybaby and its brethren are sold in limited runs from Atwood himself (if you'd like one, look for the ephemeral posts on his blog - the tools usually sell out quickly). The Artifact costs $10, while Atwood's tools sell at around $50 and command twice that on the secondary market.

All of it just goes to show how hard it is to make a high-quality manufactured item in bulk. Like my Dad always says, "There's good, cheap, and fast, but you can only have two."