Originally Posted by
unworthy1
anybody else thinking this tool would be fairly easy to re-create, maybe even with simple hand tools but the one thing most needed might be a roller to form the strip-stock into a nice round loop
Starting with some heat-treatable sheet in the annealed state, it would be fairly easy to make one with hand tools. If you wanted to make them in quantity, a jig would be relatively easy. I've formed loops like that over barstock clamped in a vise. I have a small sheet metal brake that could probably handle the right-angle bend, though beating on it in a vise is always an option.
Heat treating, tempering, and bead blasting to finish it off.
So, yeah, not hard to do!