Titanium Tent Stakes

[Lawson Kline]

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know of two upcoming products I am going to start manufacturing. Both products have been in testing for months and they both work great.

The Corkscrew is a 6" long Titanium corkscrew tent stake built using a piece of 1.95mm 6Al-4V with a weight of 3.0 grams. It is designed for soft-medium soil. Its corkscrew design is like nothing currently offered and has the holding power of a much heavier tent stake. It's simply the worlds lightest USEABLE titanium tent stake.

The Ti-Eye is a 6" long Titanium eye tent stake built using a piece of 2.95mm 6AL-4V with a weight of 5.4grams. It is designed for medium-hard soil. Its a titanium eye tent stake similar in size to the 5.8 gram Vargo UL shepards hook but with an eye instead of a hook. Some of the benefit's include not worrying about your stake turning and the cord coming loose. Also in hard ground the Ti-Eye's drive easier with less chance of bending due to the eye being centered over the stake.

Stakes are painted using a two part safety orange epoxy paint. It has very good durability but over time can come off. Introductory Pricing will be $2.00 Each and will be available to ship Jan 14th.

Mountainfitter.com

[Ken K]

5 stakes under an ounce for $10? Way cool! I'm guessing you're going to have a hard time keeping these in stock.

Will you also offer them unpainted?

[Roger Caffin]

> Will you also offer them unpainted?
Don't go here.

If you have ever dropped a Ti stake in long dead grass and spent 10 minutes searching for it, you know just how important the orange colour is. Seriously!

Cheers

[Chris Benson]

"If you have ever dropped a Ti stake in long dead grass and spent 10 minutes searching for it, you know just how important the orange colour is. Seriously!"

So true. My first thought on seeing them was, "thank God, their painted."

I'll be adding some of these to my upcoming cuban bag order.

[Ken K]

I've never had Ti stakes, but I imagine they're as hard to find as anything else small and grey dropped in tall grass.

On the other hand, I've had paint chip off other gear and leave flakes all over the rest of my gear. Obviously, these have a lot less paint than a 2 liter pot (and would be stored in a seperate bag), so maybe my worries are unfounded. Still, it's nice to have options.

[todd]

When can we order?

[Jerry Adams]

Do you pund in the corkscrew or do you screw it?

The only problem I have with tents and wind is when the tent stake pulls out of soft soil, like sand, maybe this would work better.

If you have a tarp with a long guyline it's easy to lose where the stake is – orange is great idea.

It doesn't matter that the paint flakes off a little because stakes are dirty by nature and have to go in bag of some sort anyway. An extra flake or two of paint won't matter.

[John Donewar]

Hey Lawson,

Can you do them in "Paul Newman's eyes, blue"? ;-)

I think I remember a thread somewhere on BPL where the poster tried various colors on his stakes in the field and found that blue of all colors stood out best.

As I remember it, it was a bright shade of blue, almost metallic, and the test was done during the fall/winter time.

Happy New Year! ;-)

Party On,

Newton

[William Brown]

To create more push back force in sand and snow you need more surface area. These would not be suffice in those situations.

Buuuuuuuuutttttt.

If Lawson had someone suggest an idea of a small cuben bag with nylon handle attached to it. Then sand and snow users could fill that small bag with sand or snow and bury the bag and attach tent/tarp guylines to the nylon loops sticking out of the ground. He could sell them in packs of six. (hint hint)

[Lawson Kline]

Bright Blue. Hmm that would be interesting. The epoxy paint is very expensive ($110 per gallon) so I am not sure I am willing to give it a try as of yet but I could see how that color would stand out in all sorts of conditions. Maybe I will buy some spray paint and do some testing.

As far as really soft sand. They corkscrew designs works much better then a standard titanium rod due to its shape but it has limited surface area. I would say they hold as well as a 6" easton nail in the sand but I could be wrong. I thought about cuben sand/snow bags before but never thought there would be a ton of interest due to the cost. Maybe I was wrong…

[Jerry Adams]

So, do you pound in corkscrews or do you screw them in?

[Lawson Kline]

Hey Jerry,

I missed your question before. You screw them in. They go in pretty easy but in harder ground you have to use another stake for extra leverage.

[Nico .]

The new stakes look great. I look forward to placing an order for a few along with some of the cuben dry sacks once they're all (back) in stock.

Please keep us posted!

[James Mudler]

Maybe a option for people wanting other colors. I am a home fabricator (metal,wood,and carbon fiber) and found a spray epoxy paint at the local auto store by VHT which I have had very good results with. It comes in colors too.

One caveat, I have not tried it on Ti and only have used black. Here is a link to the stuff I have used.

http://www.amazon.com/VHT-Gloss-Black-Epoxy-Weather/dp/B0029056OY/ref=sr_1_40?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1293733520&sr=1-40

Oh – awesome stakes and will be picking some up

[Steven McAllister]

I just happened to be doing boat repairs so did my ti stales with red epoxy. I admit that blue stands out even better, but I didn't think about it at the time.

The red epoxy does stand out much better than un-painted. Makes a huge difference even when the epoxy has been chipped from repeated use.

I even added the red epoxy to my unpainted aluminum stakes for the same reason.
I don't loose stakes any more.

[John Donewar]

James,

Thanks for the idea.

Just a bit of "Googling" and voila.

VHT-SP655 Paint, Epoxy, Gloss, Marine Blue, 11 oz., Aerosol Spray Can

I would imagine it to be just as close as my nearest auto parts store. While making the "one trip" I could pick up some flowable silicone windshield sealer too for seam sealing. The "trip" could then be classified as "dual use". ;-)

Happy New Year!

Party On,

Newton

[Steven McAllister]

I may be wrong, but I don't think spray epoxy paint is as durable as real two part epoxy.
Probably doesn't matter that much though.

I would recommend that you go over the area to be painted with steel wool first.

[Bob Gross]

The problem I see is if the user wants to use a couple of stakes in his woodburner stove, as a pot support. The heated paint is going to burn up.

To keep my titanium stakes visible at night, I slip a piece of luminous tape onto the hook or eye portion. As long as they are exposed to any sunlight during the day, they will glow all night.

–B.G.–

[John Donewar]

Steven,

>>I don't think spray epoxy paint is as durable as real two part epoxy.
Probably doesn't matter that much though.<<

You are probably quite correct on the durability issue of spray versus two part epoxy.

Lawson said:

>>Bright Blue. Hmm that would be interesting. The epoxy paint is very expensive ($110 per gallon) so I am not sure I am willing to give it a try as of yet<<

I believe it would work just fine for experimental purposes before Lawson invests in $110.00 per gallon of blue paint.

It's kind of ironic that my link leads to a website for the spray epoxy paint that is titled R and D Performance. Experimental? ;-)

Research? and Development? ;-)

Happy New Year!

Party On,

Newton

[Bob Gross]

Epoxy adhesives all have two parts.

Apparently epoxy paint has only one part. Is epoxy paint a true epoxy, or is it simply a hard paint that they call epoxy?

The challenge is getting anything at all to stick properly to titanium.

–B.G.–

[Steven McAllister]

I found that when I burnish the ends with steel wool and then paint with two part epoxy, it was very durable.
I really had to pound the stakes with a rock before I noticed any paint chipping and even then it wasn't enough to reduce the visibility.

Since epoxy is two parts and the pigment is normally a separate item, I wouldn't think doing some in blue would be that much more expensive.
Epoxy tint is nowhere near as expensive as the resin and hardener and you don't need much.

Also epoxy is pretty resistant to heat, which is one reason they use it to paint engine parts.

[Lawson Kline]

Are more people interested in the Ti-Eye then the Corkscrew?

[John Donewar]

Bob,

http://www.paintingkey.com/painting-terms.html

From the above link.

>>Epoxy Paint<<
>>Two-part paint that hardens to a shine.<<

There are two kinds, single-component epoxies and two-component epoxies.

There is more info at http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_epoxy_based_paint

Happy New Year!

Party On,

Newton

[Bob Gross]

"Are more people interested in the Ti-Eye then the Corkscrew?"

Speaking purely for myself, I virtually never camp on soft sand. My collection of stakes are mostly straight Vargo brand titanium with a couple of long Easton tubular aluminum thrown in.

–B.G.–

[Roger Caffin]

+1 on what Bob G wrote: straight Ti stakes and a couple of tubes.
(BPL Ti stakes and MYOG tubes, but same idea.)

Cheers

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