Titanium Hook Tent Stakes

These stakes are great – I used them for the first time in June on the Mid-State Trail here in PA. No soil – just rocks covered by a loose 1" layer of forest duff. They're great and don't bend when you push them in.

It's also really nice that you can buy just the quantity that you want…

Love mine, too! Painted the top of the hooks with the brightest hot pink nail polish I had — haven't lost one yet. :)

2.50

Lawson,
Your trick worked on me and I just placed my first order – although I'd been meaning to for a while, as you carry some nice gear (guywire, glowire, droppers). It would be awesome if you also carried guyline adjusters (Line-loks, Linelocs) for use with your guyline – any chance we see them in your store in the near future?

Cheers,

Joe

Just ordered 8 stakes before they went up in price. Thanks, Lawson!

M

Lol don't remind him to bump the price! =-X yeah got 8 yesterday, his trick worked.

Lawson,

I just wanted to put in my 2 cents and agree with what Joseph said above… I ended up buying some Lineloc 3's from Zpacks to go with my glowire, but would definitely have bought some from you if you'd carried them when I ordered the stakes and glowire a few months back, just to consolidate orders. You have probably already considered carrying them, but I just wanted to validate it.

Just beat the deadline as well :) thanks for the great gear!

Picked up 8 this am. Can always use more

just wondering what happened to the ti eyes you were selling, i thought they were the latest & greatest thing out, now back to the normal old hooks

Hey Everyone,

After receiving a few complaints over the last couple months about my stakes being too sharp I decided to make stakes with blunt tips. Due to the small rod diameter (.125") there seems to be no difference in penetrating power. I personally think they work just as good as before, but now there is no need to worry about the stakes piercing through any of your soft gear. I made the change a week or so back so some of you might already have these new stakes and don't even know it or you might have them and either love the change or you might absolutely hate it. Either way, If you have the new stakes please feel free to comment and give feedback about the design change.

Thanks,
Lawson

I got 8 of these from you some weeks back, thanks, so glad I didn't have to try to force/bend break those fat easton alu tube stakes they replaced. No idea what people are perceiving, if anything I would say the old ones were too dull, in fact I was thinking of sharpening them a bit, but they turned out to be fine in rocky soil so that's good. But since it's easy to sharpen, a file will do it easily, no biggie.

Are people storing these point down or something? Or did I get an early duller batch? Anyway thanks for your gear, worked fine.

I did notice these stakes being a bit sharper than average. I never had any problems with this, nor do I really think it makes much of a penetrating difference, so a bit duller might be the safer call.

I have sold quite a bit of these stakes since going to a blunt point and I was wondering if anyone had any feedback on sharp vs. blunt..?

Thanks,
Lawson

I just ordered a few more from you, and my first action will be to sharpen them. Actually I'm going to sharpen the old ones too. That's just my feedback, file is easy to use, and for people who can't put stakes in a 2 gram stake sack out of harm's way, I guess having them be dull is a good idea, since it's easier to sharpen than dullen them.

Added: ok, sharpened the old ones. After looking at them, perfection to me would be about a 1/4" of taper, or a touch more, ending in a rounded flat 1/16th inch or so blunt end. Harder to grind down though for you. This would get through hard rocky soil the best I believe.

Thanks for the Feedback. It seems as if most people prefer the ends to be blunt so this gives me a better perspective of why you like them sharp. Any feedback on the hook design and how it has worked for you? When I designed the stakes, I built them so they would NOT turn around under tension which is the biggest problem with other Sheppard hook stakes. I had to bend the hook at a more radical angle to accomplish this and while I was at it, I made sure the apex of the bend was centered over the spine to give the stakes great driving power. No matter how good the design is, it can always be made better so I welcome any and all feedback.

Thanks,
Lawson

These are back instock with hex bar and blunt tips.

Thanks,
Lawson

" I had to bend the hook at a more radical angle to accomplish this and while I was at it, I made sure the apex of the bend was centered over the spine to give the stakes great driving power."

Good idea – I did that to my BPL Ti stakes.

They work much better – pound in better without bending, don't rotate as much under wind load

Only problem is one of them broke because of stress fracture.

> Only problem is one of them broke because of stress fracture.

They will – if bent cold. Get them to a dull red and they bend beautifully. Heat will NOT affect the hardness once cold (unlike steel).

Cheers

I disagree. If done right, Titanium can be formed, extruded, drawn and bent cold all day long with no issues what so ever. Cold Rolled Titanium is alot more expensive then hot rolled material. Not only is it a better product, but when you cold work titanium you actually increase its tensile strength.. The hex material I just bought is cold rolled and has a tensile of 185KSI. This is about 50KSI more then spec.. With that said, its all about the equipment.. If you don't have the right tools, your going to run into problems.

Hi Lawson

> Titanium can be formed, extruded, drawn and bent cold all day long with no issues
Ah, we are talking about two very different materials here.

You are talking about CP Ti – commercially pure titanium. Yes, you can push that around a bit, but it is not as strong. They use that material to make those fold-up wood box stoves as it takes the heat.

I was talking about 6Al4V Ti: an aerospace alloy. It can only be worked when hot. Period. I can put a single bend into 6Al4VEL Ti welding wire with a proper bender, but the EL bit means a special heat treatment for electrical use, and that allows a bend. Once heated up (torch or weld) it goes as hard as the rest. Once bent it cannot be straightened as it hardens the same.

> If you don't have the right tools, your going to run into problems.
I have tooling all right: a full workshop, with lathe, mill, CNC lathe, CNC mill. I machine Ti routinely.

Cheers

I am sorry Roger but you are wrong about everything you posted.. Before you can become a titanium expert you need to know what your talking about. First the EL rod your talking about actually is actually called ELI and that means Extra Low Interstitial. Its not an "electrical grade" at all. Its solely used for Biomedical Applications like dental implants, bone fixation and joint replacements since it has lower specified limits of Iron then the standard 6AL-4V. With that said, I have bent more titanium tent stakes in a day then you have in your lifetime and I only buy COLD ROLLED (DRAWN) Grade 5 6AL-4V certified rod and I have never had a single problem with stress fractures or during use breaking. If you don't believe me, then ask the thousands of people that have bought stakes from me.. With that said, If your breaking the rod then your radius's are too tight or your bender is crap..

Just bought some. Just came in. Look great. Thanks!

Hi Lawson

> First the EL rod your talking about actually is actually called ELI and that means
> Extra Low Interstitial. Its not an "electrical grade" at all. Its solely used for
> Biomedical Applications like dental implants, bone fixation and joint replacements
> since it has lower specified limits of Iron then the standard 6AL-4V.
I'll concede on the EL/ELI bit, but dunno about the 'solely used for Biomedical Applications' bit as that is exactly how a lot of standard Ti welding wire is listed. I just checked on the web.

> I have bent more titanium tent stakes in a day then you have in your lifetime
Probably! No argument!

> If your breaking the rod then your radius's are too tight or your bender is crap.
Both rod and sheet, actually. I am not the only one to have problems with bending 6Al4V alloy though. Yes, you may be right that I am trying to put a tighter bend into the material (rod and sheet) than is found in a stake. Fair comment. I do it hot, which works fine for me.

I've been successfully working with 6Al4V alloy for about 6 years now, both bending and machining (milling and turning). I suspect I am a long way short of being an expert though. I'll leave that to the aerospace and turbine guys.

Cheers