TITANIUM Dice on Kickstarter!

[Rex Sanders]

Want to be the envy of all your BPL buddies? Get casino sized solid TITANIUM dice, with that magical TITANIUM goodness, $45 a pair, 32.2 grams each, through this Kickstarter project:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/124127689/precision-machined-dice

Or, if you are a heretical, NON-believer in TITANIUM goodness, you can pay $12 for a pair of non-magical Aluminum dice, 18.4 grams each, and save $33 and 27.6 grams per pair.

For you heavy backpacking sinners out there, Tungsten dice might be available, $196, 129.5 grams each, adding a glorious and useless 222.2 grams per pair to your base weight, while lightening your bank account by $184, compared to Aluminum.

Besides gambling and game playing, think of all the other uses these dice might have. Thinking …

[Martin M. Clark]

So many times have i been hiking and think about how the only way to complete my wilderness experience is to enjoy a little whiskey and a backcountry game of cee-lo. But woe, dice weighed too much, UNTIL NOW!!!

[David Thomas]

Thanks Rex, for the early-morning laugh.

If anyone really does want some dice, I've got scores of mini dice I buy out of China for demonstrating math and probability. Send me a PM and I'll drop them in the mail. 3.6 grams per pair. So 64.4 – 3.6 grams = 2 ounces saved versus the titanium kickstarter version.

But I'd also be game to send you five such dice. Yahtzee seems like a better game than craps while BPing. And the 5 dice would only be 9 grams.

[Rex Sanders]

Before you scoff and say "Who would carry Tungsten dice at 4.57 ounces each?", think about all the other uses you might have for Tungsten dice.

Use Tungsten dice as weights in a small stuff sack, to throw your bear bag line over a tree – no more hunting around for rocks!

Bears attacking your poorly hung food? Throw a few Tungsten dice at them. Tungsten dice pack way more punch than most rocks!

Bring along a small TITANIUM balance, and use Tungsten dice as calibrated weights to weigh "herbs" you stumble across in the back country. Good thing you are wearing trail running shoes!

Leave your Esbit stove behind! Lay your Esbit tab across a few Tungsten dice, build a pot support with more Tungsten dice, and cook inside your Tungsten dice fort-windscreen. No need to worry about your Tungsten dice melting – Esbit burns at 1,400°F, but Tungsten melts at 6,191°F!

Carry a lighter sleeping bag! Just take the hot Tungsten dice you used for your stove and windscreen, and put them in the foot of your sleeping bag.

Play jokes on your hiking companions! Next time they brag about the comfort of their Exped Synmat UL 7, sneak a few Tungsten dice under their hips and shoulders just before they go to bed. Loads of laughs!

Leave the maps, compass, and GPS behind, and bring a big bag of Tungsten dice instead! Just drop them along the trail as you hike. When you turn around, follow them back to the trailhead. Be sure to pick them up on your way back for LNT.

Running out of food on your three month hike from Barrow to Ushuaia? Trade your Tungsten dice for food from other hikers – gram for gram!

Standing at a trail junction, but can't decide which way to go? Assign numbers to each path and roll your Tungsten dice. If an unassigned number comes up, rejoice – it's cross-country time! Roll a few more times to pick a compass heading.

Pack unbalanced? Move your Tungsten dice to the light side to balance it out!

Need weight lower in your pack for that Class III rock climbing section of the Appalachian Trail (i.e. most of it)? Move your Tungsten dice to the bottom of your pack!

Leave the TP behind! Tungsten dice can clean you up quickly, and Tungsten dice are easy to clean and re-use. Tungsten dice should be boiled to sterilize, but don't re-use the water for your pasta.

Tired of carrying so much water on those PCT desert sections? Leave the water behind, but don't forget your Tungsten dice. Do like the old-timers, and suck on a few dice instead of guzzling water. Much more sanitary than sucking on smooth pebbles!

Have a nasty wound? Leave the sterile gauze and Neosporin behind! Heat your Tungsten dice over a fire until red hot, then carefully lay the dice on the wound for a few seconds to cauterize. Be sure to carry lots of Tungsten dice to close large wounds.

Leave that signal mirror behind! Polish your Tungsten dice to a mirror finish, and use those instead. More Tungsten dice means a bigger flash.

Need to know the height of a cliff? Leave that barometer behind! With a handful of Tungsten dice, you have many ways to find out:
(1) Drop your Tungsten dice from the top of the cliff, and time the fall. Drop several times and average for more precision.
(2) On a sunny day, pile up several Tungsten dice, measure the height of the pile and the length of it's shadow. Then measure the length of the cliff's shadow, and compute the cliff height.
(3) Put your Tungsten dice in your bear bag, attach the bear bag line, lower the bag to the bottom of the cliff, and measure the bear bag line.
(4) Using your Tungsten dice, bear bag and line again, make a short pendulum, and time the pendulum swings precisely at the top and bottom of the cliff. Using the gravitational difference, compute the height of the cliff.
(5) Use your Tungsten dice to bribe the park ranger to tell you the height of the cliff.

Tungsten dice can replace so many pieces of equipment, that you would be crazy NOT to carry Tungsten dice!

[Nathan Watts]

Rex, I just read your whole post. Definitely worth the time spent reading it. Haha. Thanks for that

[David Thomas]

Rex: And to go even further afield with uses for tungsten dice: I have seen, in a dog park, a fixed male dog who'd be "restored", at least cosmetically, with implants. And what is corrosion free and non-immune-provoking? Titanium. There's even a name for them, "Neuticles". They feel VERY hard compared to the original equipment and I'm not sure the dog would have felt incomplete without them, but I bet these dice are cheaper than titanium nodules at the vet's office.

[David Thomas]

(6) bring thousands of tungsten dice and stack them up alongside the cliff, measuring it in units of dice height.

[Raymond Estrella]

Keeping them in your mug/pot on the outside of your pack eliminates the need for bear bells. As an added benefit the tungsten versions will remove that ugly baked-on finish…

[Author]

Posts