The finger-wand design process

This morning, I shipped off a set of fire gauntlets to a customer. It’s a funny thing: in my fire-gear business, finger wands (which are sisters to fire gauntlets) have not been my most popular item, but have occupied an inordinate amount of my attention. I think I’ve gone through something like 9 design revs on them, if you count major and minor changes. Getting a drill press was a real breakthrough, as it allowed me to use tubing instead of wiring, and I like tubing much better. These fire-gauntlets, though, they’re the first finger-wands (or wand-like product) that I’m really happy with. I can imagine improvements, yes, but this set really balanced competing demands pretty well.