I think one of the most commonly asked question I get is why titanium is so great. And as they say - pictures are worth 1000 words. Because aluminum only takes a few minutes to machine, the shop always does aluminum proofs first before commiting to the hour long process of crafting the titanium prototypes. This way you can see the machine marks, where the tool will hit - everything without wasting expensive titanium barstock.
When I first saw the aluminum Evora, I got really excited. It was only something like 30 grams, but what surprised me most is that they could machine the half with the same profile and shape - even with the hub area only just half a millimeter thick. That's about 5 pieces of printer paper in thickness.
All Luftverk yoyos have areas this thin including the anticipated Octavia, so weight can be added where it makes the yoyo feel the best, and taken away in areas that conventional aluminum can't. And here is why:
This was done with just one of my hands. Just my palm and three finger tips. This is a really great visual representation why titanium is such a great material. You can make sections super thin, without comprimizing strength. And with the new release of the Octavia, this is more important than ever.
Apologies if this writeup seems short. it has been an insane month of work, accumulating multiple 70 hour work weeks back to back. More than half of that work is comprised of plastic projects I have in the pipeline for 2023. So although it has been non-stop, it is work I have been enjoying quite a lot. Im trying to get stuff buttoned up before I leave Canada, so things have been all over the place. Back in December when the Fulvia hit the stores, this Triple zero was already in development. In fact - this was supposed to be the first yoyo released until I changed my mind in mid 2022.
December was such an insane month, it almost burnt me out. The amount of yoyos I had to ship out for the Fulvia release was insane, but on top of that being just a single person running Luftverk, it meant I was also dealing with invoicing stores all around the world and making sure the factory got paid in advance for shipments. All in all it was a slurry of spreadsheets and staying up late to pack orders every day.
I dont know where to start with the project. It has been the most expensive yoyo by multiple magnitudes to create. Not only was this project costly due to injection molding, but my persistence on a machining operation meant the R&D for this yoyo took forever. I started designing this yoyo over 2 years ago - and it has slowly snowballed into this proof-of-concept initial release based on the beloved Fulvia design.
Ronald
November 13, 2015
When will the Octavia be released? Gonna save up!