Indianapolis, IN -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/21/2013 -- Nearly 1,700 individual donors have found the idea of a combination crow bar and hammer so compelling that they’ve pledged over $123,000 on Kickstarter.com toward manufacturing and marketing the Cole-Bar Hammer, a patented multi-tool created by an Indianapolis inventor, Lance Hyde, and his late son Cole.

“As far as we can tell, this is the most funded hand tool ever on Kickstarter,” says Brandon Hyde, Lance Hyde’s older son and the family spokesperson. Donors who have pledged at least $65 will get a Cole-Bar of their own from among the first few thousand made. “Cole would be so excited to see his idea becoming a reality,” says Brandon.

Kickstarter is making the Cole-Bar possible,” he continues. “The Cole-Bar made it to the finals of the DIY Cool Tools inventor’s competition a few years ago, but it wasn’t until we posted this project on Kickstarter that we pulled together enough funding to take the tool to production. Kickstarter is the ideal incubator for a project like this. It makes venture capital accessible to anybody. If you have a great idea, and the Kickstarter community shares your vision, your dreams can come true.”

“We are about $2,000 away from hitting our stretch goal of $125,000, at which point we will add a set of metric measurement guides to the tool,” says Brandon. “We only have four days to go, but I’m sure we’ll make it. Kickstarter backers are so enthusiastic about the Cole-Bar that many of them are buying multiples of the tool to give as gifts to other DIY fans in the family.”

The Cole-Bar Hammer was the brainstorm of Lance Hyde and his son Cole. The pair was putting tools away at the end of a long day of pole-barn building back in 1997. Cole, who was then just eleven years old, laid a crow-bar down on top of a hammer, and the father and son both had the same thought: “Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a hammer and crow bar in the same tool?”

Cole died in a tragic accident just a few months later. Distraught over his loss, Lance Hyde shelved the idea for almost a decade. In 2008, he decided to make a new prototype of the tool in Cole’s memory, recruiting Cole’s half-siblings Brandon and Heather to help develop the tool and take it to market. In 2011, Lance Hyde was awarded a U.S. Patent for the multi-tool.

About the Cole-Bar Hammer
The Cole-Bar Hammer is a patented multi-tool that combines a hammer, crow bar, a demolition tool, angle measurement tool, ruler, a socket wrench and nail pliers. It is the first hand tool invention successfully funded via Kickstarter.com, raising over $123,000 from nearly 1,700 donors. Since its Kickstarter campaign launched, the Cole-Bar Hammer has been featured on several national home improvement shows and tool blogs, including “Popular Science Radio,” the “DIY Live” radio show with Karl Champley, and the “On The House” radio show with the Carey Brothers. Dan Maxey of the Tools in Action blog called it the “Optimus Prime of Hammers.”