Just picked up the new prototypes from our laser cutter Yesterday. I’ve made a few changes to the body:

• adjusted the trigger pivot point to improve the release action
• moved the trigger catch back slightly for more power, without making it too hard to load
• lengthened the impact weight track to get more travel. This allows a fraction of a second where the acceleration stops and the weight is flying free: as acceleration is in both directions this helps the mass of the hand overcome recoil just before impact.
• removed the step near the front hook, this was an early idea that didn’t work
• beefed up the spring guide stem for added strength
• made the attachment hole bigger to direct-clip to. My old preference was to use a lanyard so there was lots of freedom if you fell on it so reducing the risk of being stabbed. Chatting to a backer (and aid guru M9) who pointed out that the direct clip in with a carabiner makes it harder for the tool to pierce flesh given it’s greater surface area… gruesome I know but worth considering
• added a small notch to the inside of the front hook to open bottle tops. Now there was some debate: are increasingly athletic climbers still big drinkers, are bottle tops widely used anymore, is it a bit gimmicky? Backer and shipwright Rick said craft beers still have these tops so I’ve given it a go. The notch is quite unobtrusive, so cheers. It also makes LittleHammer look slightly like a Leunig character! (— a brilliant Australian cartoonist)

From these prototypes there are two fine adjustments to make then I’m ready to go with the first production run. The impact weigh production is already underway.

Some of these changes have come from discussions with backers, as did a small change to the impact weight. It will be great when LittleHammer gets out to our backers and we can evolve the design together.

Four days to go and we are at 143% with 120 backers. We reached out to Reddit users on their climbing thread and also to german climbers with a short spiel on our Facebook and Instagram page (danke Libby), hope to do Spanish, French and Italian too.

Close to 20,000 views of the campaign video shows the word is getting out, a big thank you to all those who have shared and posted about LittleHammer.