Cool Tools: Halligan Bar

Check out this little stainless steel beauty!

This here is the Halligan Bar. Good for prying, lifting, wedging, smashing, hooking, basically any verb ending in "ing." Beautiful to gaze upon, and as useful as they come, a Halligan Bar is a true necessity for any empowered doer and maker. Hang one on your wall, impress your friends.

Here's the def, from wikipedia:

"A Halligan bar (also called a Halligan tool) is a special tool commonly used in the fire and rescue service. It was designed by and named after Hugh Halligan, a First Deputy Fire Chief in the New York City Fire Department, in 1948, based upon the well known Kelly tool.^[1] The Halligan is a multipurpose tool for prying, twisting, punching, or striking. It consists of a claw (or fork), a blade (wedge or adze), and a tapered pick, which is especially useful in quickly forcing open many types of locked doors. Either the adze end or fork end of the tool can be used to break through the latch of a swinging door by forcing the tool between the door and doorjamb and prying the two apart, striking it with another Halligan, a Denver tool or a flat-head axe. Using a K-tool and the adz end, a lock cylinder can easily be pulled. There are many other uses of the Halligan tool, including vehicle rescue and opening of walls.

A particularly useful variant of the Halligan has a heavy sliding collar on the shaft. Once the prying end of the tool is wedged into position, the sliding 'hammer' is used to force the wedge, allowing for proper seating, prior to prying. The adz end is also assisted by using the sliding hammer to generate forced traction on a hooked cylinder."

The tools the good guys use!
Fun.