A Steampunk Combination Sketchbook

book

[Admiral Aaron Ravensdale], fine craftsman of steampunk wares, just finished up a new project. It’s a sketchbook protected by two layers of security, covered in gilded leather and drenched in the expositions of a [Jules Verne] novel.

The first layer of security for this sketchbook is a combination lock. On the cover are four switches, each with four positions. These are connected to a PICAXE microcontroller which goes to the next stage of the lock once the correct combination is entered.

The book’s security also includes a knock sensor. With a small piezo element hidden under the cover, [Ravensdale] deeds to tap the book with a specific pattern before it opens. The mechanical part is a small hobby servo also mounted to the cover that releases a pair of brass clasps once both locks are opened.

Like all of the [Admiral]’s builds, it’s a fine piece of craftsmanship, equally well suited to take on a holiday with the baron or to the opium dens of Ceylon.

You can check out [Admiral Ravensdale]’s demo of his sketchbook after the break.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rUtVLy9YiQ&w=580]

28 thoughts on “A Steampunk Combination Sketchbook

    1. Because to most steampunk enthusiasts, steampunk is all about the aesthetic with absolutely no regard given for practicality, functionality, or even the thematic elements associated with steampunk. Is this supposed to be Victorian steampunk? Edwardian? Mid twentieth century a la Bioshock? Who the fuck knows! Just slap a bunch of gears all over it!

  1. I love Steampunk! Personally, I think modern technology is so sterile, I wish I were born a hundred years earlier so I too could experience the joys of Polio, black lung, horse excrement in the streets, and medicine that stands as good a chance to kill me as it does to make things better.

      1. When it comes to various forms of ‘creative anachronism’ the phrase ‘with medicine and indoor plumbing’ is often uttered. I’m sure that even the most hardcore reenactor is sure to take his insulin or hypertension drugs when prescribed. And it’s not like steampunk is about historical reenactment so much as historical fantasy.

  2. Wow, the venom.

    This IS functional. He could have used a cog or rod instead of a gear, but it 1) it fits with the aesthetic, and 2) it is more likely that you have a gear at hand than a cog, and it is easier to mount than a rod.

    Yes, I agree that “glue a gear on” steampunk is overdone/not a hack. This, however, is an interesting creation, and finished and in a case, no less. I applaud a steampunk creation that does perform a function, and has some semblance of functional mechanical action.

  3. The comments here are embarrrassing…like any of you could get within a mile of the creativity and originality of this project. So what you don’t like the aesthetic. Give the man some props. Or SHUT UP.

  4. hey, everyone. In fact I AM a steampunk. And some of your comments are not only nasty but show an amasing vacuum btween your ears.

    @ Guido: Open your eyes when reading about steampunk. I have read about forty and a bit projekts that work with pressured air or clockworks. Even a locking mechanism with “rythm-detektion” working with some kind of a saw-kerved sheet of steel to check if the right frequency is used. (Maby you know the “frequency-detektion”-part used in old power meters). And I’ve read over a hundred projekts working with a simple VACUUM-TUBE-logik. THAT still is steampunk!

    @ Anonymus: also existing. It’s called “µc-punk” and it is a sub- subgenre of Cyberpunk.

    @ vonskippy: Sorry to hear we are not to feed you. Is there ANYTHING creative by you? I haven’t seen a single hack by you. Nor a brilliant thought. IF there is, POST SOME LINKS so I MAY COMMENT YOU.

    @ all : Of cours spreading a hand full of gears over a gadget does not make it steampunk. In Steampunk there are 5 types of people (ranked by importance):
    1) typers: writing a story
    2) makers: building (working) stuff
    3) costumers: making clothes
    4) larpers: making films
    5) modders: gluing gears and brass to create “steampunk”-jewellery or creating false
    gadgets.

    NO STEAMPUNK LIKES MODDERS. Steampunks type 1-4 think modders are no Steampunks. We are looking down to them.

    Pesonally I think, this one was at the very rim. Still it was interesting. It may not be steampunk but it is working, and it looks funny. Maby if it were silvern he could have called it “Cyberpunk-Sketchbook” but on the other hand in cyberpunk there are no sketchbooks.
    Oh, and me: I’m a maker.

    hope you survived my comment. Sincerely yours, Teck-Freak

  5. The Power of Criticism
    http://www.blogger.com/profile/14223451946155899657
    SEARCH THIS BLOG
    http://greatcriticism.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-thousand-times-easier-to-criticize.html

    TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2011

    It’s a thousand times easier to criticize than create
    That’s why critics are never problem solvers. “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most do” (Dale Carnegie). My feeling is that the person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the one who is doing it. Just remember, when you are kicked from behind, it means you are out in front. A Yiddish proverb says “A critic is like the girl who can’t dance so she says the band can’t play.”

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