Crowbar design

While I buy a lot of goods online Lowes (a Home Depot competitor) is four blocks from where I work. Home Depot is a similar distance but requires waiting for traffic lights to cross a very busy arterial.

It's only pointless if you have no need for one.

I expect most people are using them for what they were designed for rather than than finding an unsuitable use.

Wot Rot, they are designed for different purposes, the one you show is useless for normal things crow bars are made for.

There is no such thing as a CROWBAR.

Crows dont drink alcohol!

How is the angle important for this? All you need is a long lever. And preferably one that doesn't get in the way of the thing next to it, which non-right angled ones always do!

How is the angle important for this? All you need is a long lever. And preferably one that doesn't get in the way of the thing next to it, which non-right angled ones always do!

A right angled crowbar has PRECISELY the same leverage.

A right angled crowbar has PRECISELY the same leverage.

If you're happy to pay twice as much for a more limited choice....

There is no advantage of having a non-right-angle. Both have the same leverage, but the right angled one means you can remove nails etc from near where two things meet, eg a wall and a floor.

They use them because that's all they can find and have never realised some manufacturers have a clue and make them at right angles.

The right angled versions are just as good for demolition aswell. If you just need a lever, who cares what precise angle it's at?

Do you know how a lever works? All that matters is the length of the two arms.

Leverage is not the issue in demolition work, it is the sweep of the driven end and the curved fulcrum on the original crowbar you posted is designed to have the small end move as far as possible with one sweep of the bar because the fulcrum moves as you rock back on it. Leverage is the most when you are originally breaking something loose and it decreases with the added movement of the driven end as the item is getting looser.

The ratio is the same. The distance is always from the bend to your hand, and from the bend to the nail. That distance will change very little as the bend rolls along the surface, but that would change just the same with a right angled nail puller. Funnily enough I find it just as easy to pull nails with a right angled one, and a lot easier when I can actually get the damn thing into position!

If it helps you to understand, look at my first link,

You're more patient than I. I figured explaining that concept to Sword would be like explaining sex to a virgin.

If you look at that picture and imagine where the curved part is in relationship to the surface you are prying against it is easy to see when you start the claw is virtually right at the fulcrum and as you continue to pull down on the handle, the fulcrum moves around that curve, increasing the motion of the claw as you go relative to the handle movement. A right angle fulcrum is pretty much constant. The design is pretty much unchanged for a couple of centuries so they must be doing something right. Again that is not really a "nail puller" it is a wrecking bar. If the wall is in your way, bash a hole in it, the wall is coming down anyway.