Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Credit Where Credit is Due

It's amazing the proliferation of credit-card tool thingies out these days.

Case in point:

The CardSharp utility knife
The Eon Extreme Flashlight
The Carzor

There's other credit-card shaped things out there or tools to re-utilize credit cards.

I can't speak to many of such items, but the CardSharp, Eon Extreme, and Carzor are all items I couldn't resist acquiring.

The CardSharp is the first of the lot I went for. I've mentioned it in prior posts. It's still a neat little construct. Sharp little thing too. The one issue is that I have to remember to take it out of my wallet when I go to the airport or court or somesuch place where they're not keen on sharp objects in one's possession.

The Eon Extreme was the second of the lot that I obtained. I've similarly mentioned it. A few months have passed and my opinion of the Eon Extreme has changed a bit. The concept is really solid and the light is really damn bright, but the construction is a bit shoddy in parts. The case is aluminum that's glued on. When I first got the Eon Extreme, I had some problems with the activation button sticking on its highest setting (and causing the light to heat up a great deal). I later had problems as the glue gave way on one edge, exposing the insides. I had to re-glue the errant edge and then, for added security, I wrapped that edge in black electrical tape. Recently (in the past week or two) the light has demonstrated another problem: when I click on the highest (230 lumens) setting, the light shows super-bright for about 2 to 3 seconds, then it flickers and shifts down to the lower setting. The lower setting remains unaffected.

A bit of an irritation, really. I've asked the company for insight on how this could be fixed, but have yet to receive a reply.

Finally, I received my Carzor late yesterday. It's a fascinating little construct. It breaks out into two pieces: a razor and a U-shaped scratch-resistant mirror. Embedded in the U-frame are two razor cartridges. A third cartridge comes separately in the package.

It's a neat idea. I haven't tried to insert the cartridges yet and shave. I reserve judgment until I've managed that, but in terms of design, it's a cool little doodad.

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