Many of Bridge City Tool Work’s tools make it into our Tool Pr0n category, but their limited edition CT-16 palm brace has got to be one of the most frivolous offerings since the $100 plumb bob.
Bridge City Tool Works crafts the brace from steel, stainless-steel, and aluminum and then chromes the outer chuck, swing handle, and knob in black, a look which they call “stunningly beautiful.” The handle of the 8-1/2″ inch long brace swings in a 4-1/2″ circle around the bit and accepts 1/4″ hex shank bits in its chuck.
If you are crazy enough to spend the $280 for this limited edition palm brace, you need to get your 50% deposit down by December 3rd, 2009. Then you’ll have to wait until February 2010 for delivery. Or you could also just buy a perfectly serviceable bit brace from a number of other stores for around $20.
Palm Brace [Bridge City Tool Works]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
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9 Responses to Tool Pr0n: Would You Pay $280 For A Brace?
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Toolmonger on Flickr
I’m holding out for the $1000 hammer. Seriously, are there actually people that buy this stuff, and why?
It would look cool next to my $180 coffee cup! 😉
Gimme my North Bros 2100 any day. I’ve seen a lot of BridgeCity tools for sale no eBay lately. I guess people are feeling the pinch of the economy. Some of their stuff looks like it would work really well, but I think the people that buy them are the tool as art type. Who knows. I might be one of them if I had much deeper pockets.
if i paid that much for a dam Brace it’d have to hang on the wall or in a glass case, i am more partial to useable tools
I might do it but I’d need to be resuscitated afterward
That gives a whole different meaning to “getting drilled”
@Toolhearty
Only the military is allowed to buy those $1000 Hammers.
I may not pay the big bucks for a hand tool, but I would be willing to pay top dollar for quality USA made portable power tools, or even European manufactured tools. I wish Festool would bring in their Protool line. I would buy their PDC 18-4 TEC 18 volt lithion hammerdrill in a heartbeat. Even if it did cost $700
http://www.protool.com.au/ to browse their site in English
@ PutnamEco
I’ve been involved in the construction trades for over 40 years – and have pondered many times what is it about the American Market that seems to inexorably push things down to the lowest common denominator. Be it tools or technologies – lots of what make it in European and even Japanese markets can not seem to be economically introduced – let alone sustained here. Is it onerous licensing requirements or maybe our litigious nature that results in oustside manufacturers shying away from bringing anything other than mass-appeal items to our shores?
Re:
fred Says:
and have pondered many times what is it about the American Market that seems to inexorably push things down to the lowest common denominator.
—
My guess is it is a number of factors, American consumer culture,economies of scale and market segregation. The American consumer, to me, seems to be more interested in some new and shiny gadget with loads of dubious features, rather than some plain vanilla built to last, utilitarian product. Good designs are timeless. It is a lot easier to market junk to people, when all they are concerned with is fashion.Part of it,I’m sure, is our culture of disposable goods. How hard is it now to find some one who can reasonably repair our goods, especially with manufacturers designing things so they are hard or impossible to repair and charging an unreasonable amounts for replacement parts. As for marktet segregation,our 110 V 60 Hz vs most of the rest of the world 220 V 50 Hz and them not being able to afford cheap disposable tools.
From Ellen Shells book, Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.
“What are we really buying when we insist on getting stuff as cheaply as possible?” She answers, A low-quality food supply, a ruined economy, a polluted environment, low wages, a shoddy educational system, deserted town centers, ballooning personal debt, and the loss of craftsmanship.