[GreenKeys] A KS-series tool I wish I had

[gfmurphy at earthlink.net]

The stick that you speak of is the world famous KS-6320 Orange Stick.
It's still available.  Take a look here:

    http://gmptools.com/nf/01102.htm

    http://cgi.ebay.com/221446820623

Or, go to amazon.com and search for 'orange sticks.'  Lots of choices.
Not all of the modern incarnations of the Bell orange stick are exactly
like the original but they are close enough to be useful.  The major
use of orange sticks seems to be as a disposable manicure tool.  You
could probably find them in any well stocked drugstore.

Jerry Murphy


-----Original Message-----
>From: Steve Garrison <steve.n4tty at gmail.com>
>Sent: May 28, 2014 12:29 PM
>To: "'Jones, Douglas W'" <douglas-w-jones at uiowa.edu>, 'greenkeys' <GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net>
>Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] A KS-series tool I wish I had
>
>I used to have one of those, but don't remember it being called a peach
>stick.  I had one in my tools from the military, but also had one in tool
>kit I had at one time after getting out of the service.  In fact I might
>still have it somewhere, but haven't seen or used it in years.  Will now
>start tearing the place apart to find it! :-)
>
>Steve G./N4TTY
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: GreenKeys [mailto:greenkeys-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
>Jones, Douglas W
>Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 3:21 PM
>To: greenkeys
>Subject: [GreenKeys] A KS-series tool I wish I had
>
>One of the tools I picked up when I worked at Bell Labs 40 years ago was a
>peach stick.  Yes, a stick made of peach wood, but lovingly crafted by
>gnomes somewhere, with one end tapered to a flat spatula, the other end
>tapered to a blunt point.  In the center, it had a KS number.  It always
>struck me as one of the lowest-tech tools, yet is was just right for prying
>into bundles of wires without posing any threat to the insulation.
>
>Sadly, at some point, I pried into something too hard, and broke the stick.
>I'd love to find a new one, in part because it's just the right tool to use
>to poke around in an old wire-wrapped backplane to try to reverse engineer
>the various modifications people made to it.  Does anyone have one?
>Does anyone remember the KS number?  Does anyone have the dimensions?
>
>(From memory, my guess is that it was 8 inches long, and about 1/4 inch
>diameter.  The middle cylindrical section was about 3 inches long, tapering
>down to a 1/16 inch diameter spherical point on one end and a 1/32 inch
>thick flat on the other end, rounded to 1/8 inch radius and all polished to
>a high shine.)
>
>		Doug Jones
>		jones at cs.uiowa.edu