Adam Savage's Favorite Tools: Pry Bars!

Adam shows a roundup of some of his favorite prying instruments for separating pieces of material large and small. From the standard crow bar to wedge and apply leverage to a small area to novel pry bars with telescoping rods, Adam loves having a variety of these on hand for when the task calls for them. And his favorite one of all looks like it was designed for the a zombie apocalypse!

Shot by Adam Savage

Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks:

Tested is:

Intro bumper by Abe Dieckman

Thanks for watching!

[michaelrumsey]

Adam explaining that he loves to hear what tools the experts use is exactly why we watch these videos

[marksnyder]

That miniature pry bar Adam shows starting at the 3:00 mark isn't intended as a pry bar, but is actually a slotted screwdriver for tight spaces. The heads are in two different orientations on the ends so you only have to turn a screw 90 degrees, then flip to the other end and you can turn it farther. I have a couple of these for different, tight access problems, like adjusting the points on my one old Gravely tractor.

[Dreadnought]

Love the tool tip, but I think Adam forgot the most common prying tool, and probably the first prying tool that most people encounter is the claw on the back of a hammer.

[Michael]

Not surprised Adam likes pry bars; after all, there must be 50 ways to love your lever.

[CupolaDaze]

The Probar is also called a halligan! It's a design that was made for FDNY back in the 40's.

[ronwingrove]

A firefighter friend of mine once asked me to make a leather wrap handle for his Halligan bar, much like the one on Adam's, above. He said "every time I take this to a scene, I find a new way to use it."

[robertlevine]

The large screwdriver brings back fond memories of a Chief Engineer on one of the ships I worked with. The ship was new coming out of the shipyard. As part of the Contract certain tools were provided., including the biggest screwdriver I have ever seen. The Chief carried the screwdriver around, aka George C.Scott carrying the riding whip in Patton. The screwdriver was specified in the list of tools to be provided, but no one knew what it was to be used for.

Years later my wife came home with two screwdrivers, one flat blade and one philips, of similar size to yours. They were on sale at Tractor Supply. She knew I "needed" them for my toolbox.

[ldalton]

I don’t know if it would be of use to you, but a Burke Bar has been living in my cross-bed tool box for several years. They are made for stripping concrete forms, but they work wonders for when you need to move something that refuses. It is a force multiplier that’s in it’s own category as far as I’m concerned. Almost 5ft long, almost 15 pounds. As Essential Craftsman says in his video about the tool, “There are things that can only be done with a Burke Bar”.

[Keeling]

Dear Adam and members of tested, I'm a 3rd generation Ironworker. Klein tools makes our favorite pry tools. Including the 7/8" diameter connecting bar "sleever bar". As well as every spud wrench size imaginable. Prying Steel and Aligning holes for quick connecting or bolting up full connections. but when there's a stubborn connection and prying isnt enough bull pins and barrel pins are the next step.

[ragingangel]

I have had a really terrible day, and after quite too much of a bottle of whiskey I clicked on this video with a dark grumble of "well go on and explain why they're not all just oversized screwdrivers." For one of them to actually be an oversized screwdriver has just really cheered me up, so I must really thank-you for posting this today.

[RetinaBurner]

Like a kid in a candy store, you can always tell that Adam loves what he does. I truly envy and respect that. Outstanding as always, Adam. :)

[sapermader]

I have absolutely no interests in tools or making things, but i could listen to adam talking about anything his passionate about for hours on end, dudes the best.

[johnmac]

my favourite small pry-bar is a beekeepers tool .. in the UK it's called a hive tool, stainless steel, very slim , great for delicately parting things & scraping gaskets

[cheziollx]

0:22 "Seperate things that don't want to be separated" "Things that have spent many years together" Man that hits hard

[Kihidokid]

I love when he says a sentence to explain a process, his brain stops all other functions to do word processing, then he audibly says "yep" or "yea" if it's more complicated

[marksnyder]

That little "ring the steel bar" trick is actually useful. My grandad taught me that when we were looking at crowbars (interestingly enough) out at a flea market. You loosely support a bar and "ring" it. If you can't get it to ring, it indicates there is a crack in the steel somewhere. I still have that crowbar I bought.

[connorbermes]

I’m a plumbers apprentice and I absolutely love my cats paw pry bar. Good for yanking nails in crawl spaces or prying literally anything apart.

[erikforsell]

My favorite pry bar is the cat's paw nail puller. As someone who does a lot of home renovation where there's need for careful demolition, this tool is extremely useful for removing a thousand nails without damaging what's underneath.

[Engitainment]

You know, I'm realizing now that I should get a prybar of some kind. The last time I needed leverage to fit nuts and washers between steel and wood...I used a butter knife. Which to its credit, the handles on those things are Sturdy, and it worked better than I thought it might.

But a prybar would have made easy work of the problem, I wager

[AnimeRonin]

Ah, yes, the halligan bar, aka a breaching tool. Used one more often than I care to remember trying to get into doors and through things that were well and truly stuck. You just have to REALLY trust the person next to you with the sledge that they're not going to miss.