Originally Posted by
Miele Man
Why not just get a piece of decent quality metal, cut/grind a slot in it to precisely fit your spoke nipple and thus have a custom spoke key that'll do the job without risk to those spoke nipples?
The reason why Clifford's improvised spoke wrench works is that he chose an appropriately heat treated piece of steel (a finished nut) from which to craft his tool. If you were to go and buy a chunk of plain cold rolled steel from somewhere it wouldn't hold up nearly as well.