Gear Patrol | Spirit of Adventure, Passion for Gear

Tool House Rocks

The “ultimate workshop” is one of those rooms that frequently crop up in a man’s dream home ramblings, right between mentions of the Holodeck and a putting green. Even for those who’ve never lifted a tool in their life, the allure of escaping to an oasis of tinkering, away from the rest of the house [...]

Get Plowed

Your standard $3 snowbrush can’t seem to bear much load, making it tough to clean off your car without snapping it into plasticky bits. So when time (and avoidance of “snow elbow”) are of the essence, you just might want to give the Innovation Factory Snowmover 2.0 ($24) a go at the white stuff. Made [...]

Breaking Better

The latest addition to Stanley’s FuBar line of demolition tools features an overhauled design that combines the prying power of a typical crowbar with the cutting skills of a chisel. One end of the 14-inch steel-and-carbon bar sports a prying hook and nail puller we all know and love. The bottom half, however, replaces the [...]

Meet your home's path to the future

Twine looks like the aftermath of a booze-fueled sleepover in Vegas between a pack of Post-its and a bar of soap. Its inanimate and rather blunt form-factor, though, hides the Twine’s ambitious purpose. The device was devised by two MIT Media Lab grads, who wanted to create an easy way to bring various household objects [...]

Screw Your Best

Kobalt’s new Double-Drive Screwdriver ($20) features a unique all-metal gear system that channels both clockwise and counterclockwise ratcheting motions toward turning the screw. This increased motion harnessing efficiency makes the screwdriver twice as fast as the traditional ratcheting variety (or so Kobalt claims). To engage the double drive, users must grip the front blue collar [...]

Homewrecker

There are sledge hammers, then there are sledge hammers backed with a guarantee to pay you a cool grand if you can muster up the muscle to break one. Yes, that’d be the Wilton Bad Ass Sledge Hammer ($38) we’re referring to. B.A.S.H. for short. Why so much confidence? Well if you’ve done a fair [...]

Hammer the gods of winter

The Thor ice scraper ($20) is another clever idea to emerge from the creative product think tank Qwirky. It’s purposeful double-blade design allows users to scrape both backwards and forwards. Rubber-coated front and rear grips provide plenty of points for leverage, so there’s no need for excessive force either. The handle is also extendable up [...]

Hold 'em or fold 'em

The Craftsman Clench Wrench ($30) is a hybrid tool that combines the convenient folding design of a pocket knife with the torque-applying benefits of your typical spanner. Besides putting a nail in the coffin of the “is that a wrench in your pocket…” joke, the spring-loaded adjustable jaw easily fits a wide range of fastener [...]

Powder Power

Does your hate for shoveling snow equal your disdain for poor fuel economy? Then Honda’s first-ever Hybrid Snow Blower ($8,000) was designed for you. It’s gas-powered four-stroke iGX390 engine provides enough spinning auger and blower power to discharge 83 tons per hour at distances of up to 62 feet (bombs away!). The fossil fuel burner [...]

If Apple Got Into HVAC...

If we had to guess what famed Apple hardware and software engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers would do after leading the team responsible for the first 18 generations of the iPod, and the first three generations of the iPhone — revolutionizing the thermostat wouldn’t immediately spring to mind. Now, after launching the Nest Learning [...]

Fresh Cut

Thanks to the physics of leverage and well-placed angles the Steel and Walnut Hand Wood Splitter ($280) not only makes for sharp striking fireside wall accoutrement, but backs it up with mighty cutting prowess. With an ability to apply 2.4 tons of splitting force using nothing but one’s bare hands (just add growl) the splitter’s [...]

Smash Test Thumby

The ThumbSaver Magnetic Nail Setter ($13) is an ingeniously simple solution for a fairly common problem. It’s grooved magnetized tip is strong enough to hold even the thickest of nails firmly in place while hammering — sparing your most important evolutionary digit in the event your aim is slightly off the mark. The magnet is [...]

Cutting Edge

When it comes to chainsaws corded and battery-powered options have always left something to be desired — their lack of torque and power relegating them to oversized shrub duty. But come this September, there’s going to be a new player in town. The Oregon PowerNow Cordless Chainsaw ($TBA) will pack 40 volts of lithium ion [...]

Demolition, Man.

Artillery Tool’s various pry bar systems are designed to help professionals and do-it-yourselfers alike tear down construction like Stephon Marbury destroyed his career. While all of their kits feature a variety of interchangeable handles and specialized pry heads, the Disaster Restoration Set ($440)is their top of the line offering. The 22 specialized wrecking components packed [...]

Where hammers fear to tread

Required ingredients to forge one badass hammer: 19 oz balanced head, 18 inches of Tennessee Hickory and monumental biceps. Okay, maybe not the last, but you’ll find the former two in this collaboration between our friends at Base Camp X and Hardcore Hammers who have somehow managed to take a ubiquitous tool and turn it [...]