Scalpel Jones everyday carry titanium scalpel Kickstarter - video and photo

[Jon]

An $80 titanium scalpel for everyday carry, intended to replace a pocket knife. Uses a #11 scalpel blade from McMaster-Carr. Succeeded on Kickstarter with $11,000 pledged of $2,000 goal.




1:47 video:

Previously:

desktop waterjet kickstarter
Precision Stop Kickstarter for auto-positioning tool
Paint can perforator Kickstarter
Self-powered hydraulic floor jack Kickstarter
JM3 oil filter wrench Kickstarter
Archimedes aided digging device failed Kickstarter

[mklotz]

My question is WHY? Is he a surgeon who does impromptu amputations at cocktail parties?

While a scalpel is obviously sharp, the blade is awfully fragile by pocket knife standards. In fact, I would call it dangerous to use for typical pocket knife tasks.

[Jon]

Yeah, it's definitely a "lite" cutting implement.

It could find use among non-traditional knife carriers, people who have occasional light cutting tasks, or those who believe that social pressure discourages from them carrying a "knife".

[mklotz]

Jack the Ripper would have loved it. He was into spontaneous bouts of organ removal.

The titanium handle in such a small tool screams "impress your yuppie buddies with your threatening, hi-tech knife" rather than any significant weight economization. I'd be willing to bet this guy owns a sword cane and probably a muff pistol as well.

I've walked a lot of sidewalks and I have yet to encounter a body, dead or alive, in immediate need of surgery or dissection.

[Jon]

I think your fragility point about the blade is really critical, and that if people have only a single cutting tool on them, they'll be tempted to perform dangerously heavy cutting tasks with such a thin blade.

Agreed, "titanium" may have helped with the Kickstarter publicity. If you want to check out a shady Kickstarter campaign, look at this gem: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...rgy-generator/



Notice how he sets the goal really low (€300). Once he reaches that number (fairly quickly), he automatically receives the funding, and disappears, leaving the funders to complain in the comments.

[mklotz]

Yep, that one reeks of fraud.

Selling people "free" energy gadgets is easy. Like most scams, the mark already wants to believe in it, so much of the selling has already been done for you.

As long as we have a public willing to believe in 6 horsepower shop vacs running on 120 volt, 15 amp circuits, we can sell them anything. Ask the typical 30-something adult the difference between power and energy or, better yet, how the electricity for his save-the-planet Tesla will be generated.

[Jon]

or, better yet, how the electricity for his save-the-planet Tesla will be generated.

I actually had this exact experience. Blank stares. It's very difficult to tactfully say: "It's really a coal car."

Along the lines of fascinating (but still possible) energy ideas, Peter Todd, a bitcoin developer, commented yesterday about transmitting solar power with bitcoin.

The concept revolves around harvesting solar power in space. This one is somewhat of a reach, but within reason, and we're working on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-based_solar_power, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_...nology_program).

Anyway, the idea is that you harvest the solar power in space, and you use that power to mine bitcoin on-location. Then, instead of transferring the harvested energy back to Earth, you just transfer the bitcoin.

[mklotz]

I actually had this exact experience. Blank stares. It's very difficult to tactfully say: "It's really a coal car."

I wonder if they know how much radioactive thorium is released when coal is burned. They're all scared of cow flatulence; radioactivity must paralyze them.

[C-Bag]

That "scalpel " is close to the stupidest thing I've ever seen. That certainly won't fit in my pocket and wouldn't be good on my belt loop either, never mind the fragility. My most used tool on my key chain is my Letherman Micra. I use the scissors most, with the blade second and the tweezers for getting out metal slivers.

I get you Marv, and Jon are skeptical of electric cars and seem to be fans of petroleum. We don't get our power from coal. But check this out:
Californians are paying billions for power they don’t need - Los Angeles Times

Since we got our Volt over the total lifespan of the car so far we've been averaging 160mpg. With our solar array which was under engineered, we ended up owing PG&E $600 for the year. It was very overcast here. But there are so many advantages to plugin hybrid. Like no maintence compared to gas. After 14mo decided to do the first oil change even though it had 50% oil life left. This is after 20,000mi because the electric range is 50+mi which most times we never use the gas.

[KustomsbyKent]

I think your fragility point about the blade is really critical, and that if people have only a single cutting tool on them, they'll be tempted to perform dangerously heavy cutting tasks with such a thin blade.

Agreed, "titanium" may have helped with the Kickstarter publicity. If you want to check out a shady Kickstarter campaign, look at this gem: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...rgy-generator/



Notice how he sets the goal really low (€300). Once he reaches that number (fairly quickly), he automatically receives the funding, and disappears, leaving the funders to complain in the comments.

Pretty sneaky way to scam people out of their money. I wonder if he actually came up with the images himself, or copied those from some legitimate research project. Even a bit of practical sense you can sniff out how dubious it is when he talks about the power generation plants being converted over.
Thanks for posting so we can be aware of the shady business of some of these people. I wonder how they sleep at night....