Need a chuckle? Go read this. Jen emailed me the link this morning. It’s pretty much all the same talking points of the anti-gun crowd warmed over again. The author holds to the psychotic principal that we can stop the criminals by making there actions even more illegal than ever before.

He alleges that violent gun crime is running rampant in America without citing figures (as they tend to do). In reference to our very well-documented arguments that concealed weapons do indeed reduce violent crime, I will paraphrase his counter-argument to a sophisticated “Nuh-uh!” He says that it is an illogical stance and that we should prevent criminals from getting guns. He prattles on with his “There ought to be a law” attitude, missing the point that thousands of existing, restrictive gun laws are not doing any good, and completely writes off the natural deterrent of would-be criminals risking their life to violate others. That’s natural law right there.

It drives me nuts when these morons refuse to see that the stuff that they want to be illegal already is. There are sick people in the world that will do sick things to other people. Period. He writes about “violence enacted by guns” as though the little suckers go gallivanting about of their own free will, just looking for someone to shoot. Guns do not kill people. Gun operators kill people. Whether out of malice or negligence, it takes human interaction for a gun to become lethal. Well, almost always. All jokes aside, the gun has no will of its own. It has no hate, malice, or danger to enact on anyone or anything.

It is illegal for criminals to have guns. Criminals are people who break the law and do illegal things. More laws won’t keep them from getting guns. The criminals will simply break more laws. Even if you could somehow magically wipe the guns off the face of the planet, the sick people out there would find other ways. A tire iron will kill a victim. A rope, a stick, a bowling pin, a barbell, or even a hammer or screwdriver. There is a video at that last link, but I don’t recommend watching it. It is very gory and given the choice, I’d rather be shot dead than go through what those teens did to that man. I made it about two minutes in and thought I was going to be sick. My point is that there are weapons all around us. Most of them are less than ideal, certainly not so much as a gun, but will do the job in a pinch. The gun is not the danger in crime – the will to do harm is the danger. Take away guns, they will use knives. Take away knives, they will use something else.

He goes on to describe the Brady Campaign as ‘non-partisan’. I find myself giggling at anyone gushing over the Bradys.

He then cites the Westside School shooting as evidence of his anti-gun stance, and to argue that there should be tougher penalties. What he fails to mention is that it was in no way legal for these children to have guns. They stole guns, possessed them underage, illegally transported them, took them to a banned location, and committed murder. How much more illegal does it need to be to keep such things from happening? My solution – arm the staff. Arm the parents. When the little turds open fire, sixth grade teacher Shannon Wright returns fire, and the shooters die instead of her along with Natalie Brooks (age eleven), Paige Ann Herring (age twelve), Stephanie Johnson (age twelve), and Brittheny Varner (age eleven). Beyond what these two boys did, it is criminal that the five deceased had no defense whatsoever. It violates their God-given right to further life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, not to mention infringing their inalienable right to keep and bear arms.

Our author then cites the Binghamton NY shooting which claimed fourteen victims. Although a tragic case, it is another that suits the pro-gun argument far better. The shooter, Jiverly Voong could not legally obtain or possess guns. He had hardware that was not legal to possess in Binghamton (with upstate NY’s draconian gun laws). He transported illegally. Then, he committed murder. I wonder how many of those fourteen victims might be alive if there were a few good guys in the American Civic Association legally armed. I wonder if Voong would have bothered with his shooting if that had been a possibility.

This sentence is the real gem in the article that stands out to me:

Tragic calamities such as these beg the queWhy was an illegal immigrant able to obtain such deadly weapons so readily?

It’s actually a very good question. The answer is that when people are committed to a goal, they will find a way to achieve it. The United States is not unique in having a very healthy black market for guns. In fact, there are black market guns in countries where guns are completely banned from private possession.

The bottom line is this: Bad people do bad things. No amount of legislation is going to cure bad people. No amount of disarmament is going to fix them. At some point, the most reasonable solution is a .45-caliber slug in the brain stem. Guns are expensive. Ammunition prices grow faster than grass it seems. A good holster is worth its weight in gold, though I don’t charge that much. Training and practice take time and money. They are still far cheaper than trials for evil people, repeat offenses, and broken lives of innocent people. I pray to God that I never have to use my gun against another human being. But, I’m more willing to carry the scars from having taken another life than I am to bear the broken heart from losing my spouse or child, or to leave them without a husband and father.

If you want to do things that others have already done, dot them exactly like others have achieved their success. If you want to accomplish things that nobody else ever has, you may have to go about it in ways that no one has ever done before. There are moments in which it will seem like insanity. But, there is a narrow line between insanity and genius, or so I hear. I won’t claim either until I either firmly accomplish my goals or fail miserably. So far, everything is going well, thank God.

In order to make top-quality luxury products, you need three things; skill, tools, and materials. I’m not necessarily writing this as a tutorial or a how-to, but for personal introspect. No, this is not advice. I’m way too early in the game to give any. Hopefully, when I get to the other end of the tunnel, I will write pretty much this same thing as advice, and add, “This is how I did it.”

The tools are anything that enable you to physically produce, or allow you to produce more efficiently. There is an overlap between tools and skills. I’ve accumulated a couple of sewing machines that allow me to stitch everything from fine silk and lace all the way up to saddle and strap type leather.

There are multiple cutting systems in my arsenal that include specialized scissors and shears, rotary wheel cutter and mat, knives, skivers, and other blades. I have made several tools, and modified others. I’ve gone from free-handing patterns onto lined yellow legal pads with a pencil to precision drawings using graph paper and a protractor, and transferring that to other media to translate it to leather. I have two vastly different rulers, two measuring tapes and a tape measure – each that get used on a regular basis. My work requires dummy guns precision cast from plastic and aluminum. It is safe to assume that this will be an ongoing process of accumulation, and weeding out of tools that proved to not be as useful as I originally thought.

All the best tools in the world are themselves useless without the skills to operate them properly and effectively. Anyone can gain skills with practice and experimentation. There are only two ways to gain skills quickly – formal training or purposeful practice and experimentation. I’ve taken the route of the latter. If I don’t like how something has turned out, I figure out what went wrong and how I must do it differently next time to get the results I want. My close friends and family have been impressed at how quickly I’ve picked up the necessary skills. My response, “I had to.” I don’t have the money or time to go through school, and I don’t have the time and luxury to learn this stuff on my own at a slow pace. Therefore, I’ve pushed myself to pick up the skills quickly. I’m not there yet, but what I lack in skills I can get with patience at this point.

Jonathan Swift coined an old saying that goes, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.” This is to say that you can’t produce a luxurious product from crappy materials. This is one of my biggest irks about the direction American retail is going. It was not that long ago that Jenni could buy Italian-made, all-leather shoes at the discount store on any given day. Now it seems that all the shoes are mostly (if not all) made from cheap, artificial materials. It’s not just the shoe industry either. Clothing is poly/cotton blend (if you’re lucky), furniture is particle board with a veneer, sprinklers are plastic, watches are battery-operated and largely disposable. Home electronics are designed to be obsolete in a few years. I have an antique chrome toaster with bakelite handles on it that just keeps on going. Any modern toaster that I’ve owned burns out after only a couple of years. Where are the things that last? The luxurious things? They are being driven out by the flashy and cheap. I know that I’m not the only one that doesn’t want to participate in a disposable lifestyle. Hence, the materials that I like to work with. I have made practice runs with cheaper materials simply because I didn’t want to screw up the good stuff, but I don’t want to make a real finished product with anything less than great materials.

Recently, I was commissioned to make a purse by an internet friend. Like me, she wants something special, unique, and luxurious. We settled on a basic concept and a price, and I went to town gathering up the materials necessary. The bag is to be black, because black goes with everything. So, I will start with buttery-soft, top-grain, black leather.

This stuff is soft and strong. Many of the factory-made bags are made of mystery cloth or vinyl. Even when they are leather, often they are a finished split instead of top-grain hide. Usually a top-grain bag is going to be expensive when you can find one.

She asked if I could line the bag in the brightest magenta that I could get my hands on. I scoured the local fabric stores until I sourced this heavy, tightly-woven, imported silk.

Not only is this stuff beautiful, silk has a tensile strength greater than steel, and it is highly abrasion resistant. As delicate as it feels, it is incredibly rugged and durable. At sixty inches wide, a yard is way more silk than I need to put a lining in this bag. But, there are other things it will be used for in this project. I’ll get into that more in a later post.

She asked me if I could do some accent work on her bag in stingray. She was open to color options on it, but wanted something extra to give it a little extra spark. So, I sourced this ivory-colored, sanded and polished stingray pelt.

(in sunlight)
(under fluorescent)

Here are the three materials together:

Of course, the whole thing will be stitched together in Kevlar thread where it doesn’t show, and bonded nylon where it does. I’ll finish the bag off with nickle findings and more pockets than you’ll find in a typical bag (including a couple of specialized pockets at her request). I’ll be working on this one next week. I have a feeling that it’s going to occupy most of my time over the course of the week to get everything just right. Of course, I’ll post more pictures when I’ve got a final product to show off!

DISCLAIMER: I do not condone nor endorse installing parts or accessories on a firearm that were not specifically designed for it. If and when I do so, it is at my own risk. If you make a decision to do something similar, it is similarly at your own risk and has nothing to do with me.

The local gun range was clearancing out a bunch of their wares because apparently they had to make some extra space so they can do some construction. We’ve been taking The Kiddo up there on Monday evenings for air rifle training. Since we were there, we decided to check out what they had on clearance. The big clearance shin-dig happened last week sometime, and we deliberately didn’t go.

As both of you probably know, money has been tight recently. Sales on The Holster Site have been slow, which is normal for a brand-new business. Still, the rationalization of the facts unfortunately does not pay the bills. We didn’t really want to get tempted to blow our grocery money on the great deals, so we avoided the main sale event.

They had the dregs of the clearance items in one corner of the facility when we were there yesterday. Since this is like the ‘third-day-garage-sale’ stuff, we decided to give it a quick look. We probably shouldn’t have, but SCORE!!!!

Tritium pistol sights! We had been wanting to get some night sights for our S&W M&P’s! They didn’t have any to fit the M&P, but they had them to fit some of the older Smith pistols. I thought to myself (or possibly out loud – sometimes I get confused), “How many different dovetails could Smith & Wesson possibly cut into their slides?” I unloaded my M&P45c to compare. At a precursory glance, it looked darned close! It might be worth the gamble to get a couple sets! How much of a gamble though?

Not the $115.00 original price, not the $20.00 marked down price, but a mere $5.00! Worth the gamble? Oh hell yeah. Does it hurt the budget? Only nominally. So, we got the stuff home and I went about seeing if everything would fit right. Here’s what came in the kit:

The front sight is actually marked with the Trijicon logo and has the white ring around the tritium tube. The rear sight has the v-shaped sight groove highlighted with a trijicon ‘I’ to dot with the front sight. (I haven’t been crazy about the three-dot stock sights on my M&P anyway.) You can see the kit also came with an allen wrench to stake the rear down, some generic thread locker, and a plastic drift that feels and smells like Delrin. I know it’s weird to describe a polymer by its smell, but there you have it.

The front sight was slightly taller than the stock blade, but would slide into the end of the dovetail securely. Since it was taller though, if I tried to use it with my stock rear, it would make my POI low. We can’t have that! So, I decided the only rational thing to do was to pull my factory rear and see if I could get the XS on there. The M&P series pistols have a strange little block mechanism in the slide that is spring-loaded against the rear sight. So unless you are careful, it will come apart like a Chinese watch. The guy in this video shows us all about it except how to get the thing back together:

I didn’t need help taking it apart though! Once I had the stock sight removed, I compared the two. The one on the right with the one set screw is the stock sight. The one on the left with two set screws is the tritium.

Looks close enough to me! So I hammered the replacement sight into place and cranked down on the set screws. Then I proceeded to remove the front sight.

They look pretty close too!

This actually gave me more problems than I like to admit. It wanted to catch towards the middle of the dovetail slot on the slide. So, I’d have it almost tapped into the center and it would pop across to the other side. It was horribly frustrating. Eventually, after cussing and tossing my hammer and some deep breathing, it centered for me.

I went to reinstall the slide on the frame only to find that the little block dealy from the video that sits under the rear sight would not compress and allow the slide to clear. Apparently, the spring was bound up inside the hole. So, I pulled the rear sight back off, shot the spring into a mystery location until Jenni helped me find it, let her wrestle with the spring for a while and eventually put everything down. I was pretty well resolved that it wasn’t going to go together that evening. That’s okay.

Then we had to give it one more try. I pushed up on the thingie from the underside of the slide and used my finger to compress the spring completely into the hole. I then slid the disk over it, keeping pressure on the underside to hold the two pieces flush with the spring compressed. That allowed me to get the rear sight slid far enough on that I could let go and tap it into place. Then the slide went on and the pistol functioned almost normally. Almost.

Remember how the original rear sight had one set screw in the middle and the replacement has two? One of those set screws strikes the little disk that holds the little spring. With the set screw torqued down it was pushing the disk and distorting the spring so that the slide and trigger didn’t want to play nice with each other. But, I was undeterred for two reasons. 1 – The replacement was actually a far tighter fit than the original. 2 – The original only had one screw holding it down – I’m sure this one will be fine with just one screw too. I simply backed off the offending screw and checked everything else for tightness.

And, the results? Voila!

I wouldn’t believe they weren’t intended for that gun if I had to take someone else’s word for it.

Now, these had been sitting on a shelf for quite some time. So, a very valid question is do they still work? Let’s see that last sight picture with the lights off.

That ought to make it easier to sight the gun in near-dark conditions! We got two sets of these, one for Jenni and one for me. When I finally got the set installed on my pistol, it was far to late to think about doing the same thing to Jenni’s. Maybe I’ll install hers this evening.

DISCLAIMER REPRISE: Don’t try this at home! Just because I did it does not make it advisable or a good idea.

Some people (and you know who you are) have been bugging me to see the new, non-holster wares that I’ve been working up. I was kind of dragging my heels on this until I had a few examples of stuff that I’ve done for review. So, without further delay – Lady and Gentleman, the original prototype designs from Haute Couture Leather and Sac De Cuir by Michael…

Part 1: Sewing Machines

Well, maybe just a little delay… In all fairness, I have to give a little disclaimer/back-story before proceeding. When I got the sewing machine, I jumped right in and attempted to start making leather bags. I knew that the first one wouldn’t be perfect. Heck, I didn’t know anything about sewing! The ‘practice’ or ‘learning’ leather that I originally bought are four upholstery hides. These are not top-grain hides, mind you, but they are what is called a ‘finished split.’ This material is still attractive, but it is not nearly as tough as top-grain leather, which is the material from the top of the hide, as you might infer from the name. Split is more of an under layer of the skin. Usually split looks like a suede, but they will apply a finish to it which makes it look like grain, and that is an excellent, economical material for upholstery or other applications where you may want the beauty of leather, but it doesn’t need to be as tough as grain leather.

The first couple of ‘bags’ that I made were not ready for prime time. They were valuable classes in the School of Hard Knocks. Because I’ve been letting the creative juices flow freely, and unabashedly sewing away with all kinds of materials, I’ve quickly gone from not knowing beans about sewing all the way to producing viable products that have piqued the interest of those that see them.

I told you about the Juki industrial walking foot machine that I purchased. That machine is a brutal beast. At first, I kind of hated her. The machine stitches 1,800 stitches per minute and operates full-throttle on a clutch motor instead with a throttle-controlled foot pedal like a home machine. As in, it is either on or off. There is no slow going with it. It pulls like a horse. It will stitch through pretty much any material from light weight cloth all the way up to bone (I have heard stories). Imagine learning to drive on a supercar that runs either throttle open or throttle closed. Wrecks are inevitable. After using it for long enough, I have eventually learned how she works. Now, I’m beginning to enjoy stitching with this machine. That being said, I quickly learned that she shines on the heavier material. Although she is capable of stitching lighter fabrics with lighter threads, the settings to do so are touchy. It would be a major slow-down to go between light materials and heavy materials and back just because of all the setting adjustments and everything. It quickly became clear that I needed a light-duty machine.

Jenni and I have tended to be pack rats in the past. We don’t drag crap home like we used to anymore. Now, if we don’t have a clear and present need for whatever the object is, it’s not coming home with us. There was a point in time that we had three dining room tables. We don’t have a singular dining room to speak of. Jenni inherited her grandmother’s sewing machine – a Pfaff 130. I inherited my grandmother’s sewing machine – an Adler 589A. We still wound up picking up three other vintage sewing machines since then – two of which we believed to be a pair of Singers, but turned out to be a Singer model 66 made in 1926 and a similar vintage Japanese knock-off. The third machine was a Kenmore made by the White Sewing Machine Company in the thirties. This is a bizarre straight stitch sewing machine that actually spins backwards from anything else I’ve ever seen.

As far as I’m concerned, Jenni’s Pfaff is out of the question for my purposes. Although the Pfaff 130 is widely considered the toughest dressmaker machine ever made, I very simply will not risk breaking her grandma’s machine. When I got into my grandma’s Adler, I found that the timing belt has rotted out. Where we stand with it right now, I can order the belt out of Germany for some $35.00 (which I don’t really have right now), and anybody that can work on the thing is apparently dead. I’m hunting for a service manual for it to see if I can perform the replacement myself. I’m mechanically inclined and don’t see how it could possibly be all that complicated. If I had properly documented instructions, I ought to be able to git-er-dun. But, I can’t very well count on that for my upstart business either.

We douched out the old Kenmore with Gun Scrubber and reoiled it. The machine is strong. I need to rebuild the light, but it happily stitches through over 3/8-inch of calf or pig skin. Since I learned to hang on to my material tightly running the Juki, I wound up thinking that the Kenmore wouldn’t stitch a straight line, and concluded that the feed-dogs were worn out. So, I shelved it and got out the two ‘Singers.’

I quickly discovered that the one was a cheap, Japanese knock-off of a Singer and that the bottom end of it was rusted solid. So, I salvaged the motor off of it and threw the rest of the head in the dumpster. After a little research, I discovered the other to be a Singer Model 66 from 1926. I douched it out with Gun Scrubber and thoroughly oiled it. When I went to stitch with it, it reduced its motor wiring to a smoking, gooey mess. I replaced its motor with the one off the Japanese knock-off. It worked like a charm! We purchased extra bobbins and a light bulb for it. The check-out girl at the cash register asked us what we were working on. We told her a Singer 66. Even though the bobbin package was labeled ‘Singer 66′, the check-out girl seemed surprised. Apparently, this machine has been the benchmark for many machines in the last century. As I continued working with it, I found that it was skipping stitches. The hook is damaged. I can get a new hook for about $20.00, and replacement doesn’t look fun, but certainly more straight-forward than the timing belt on the Adler.

I started thinking that I needed to get a zig-zag machine going for some of my finer work. My mom has a Bernina 830 record that her mom bought for her in 1978. That has always been a fine, well-used machine. In fact, her mom purchased five copies of this machine at the same time in 1978. They were gifts to her daughters and daughters-in-law. Since this machine has a bit of a track record in my family, I decided to see what I could get one for. They seem to be selling on ebay for between $500 and $800. I found one that had been dropped and had some cosmetic damage for $200. I had just brought in some money for a job that I’d just completed, so after thorough investigation and research, I purchased the machine.

The Bernina 830 is a great machine, and will serve me well when I need a zig-zag. But, the model is really not capable of running some of the thread materials and weights that I want to with a light machine. So, although not exactly what I was hoping it would be, it promises to have a place in the industry that I’m currently setting up. Plus, it has a damaged hook, so it skips some stitches. The hook costs $70 and takes two seconds to install. I have used it on several of my projects, and will continue to use it, but I’m honestly looking forward to replacing it with better equipment.

I went back to the Kenmore for my light-heavy-duty (if that makes any sense at all.. medium duty?) work. Now, I’ve discovered that it stitches perfectly straight if you work with it instead of fighting it like you have to with a true industrial walking foot. The feed dogs are nice and sharp, but I was pulling the fabric and fighting the feed without realizing it. Frankly, I can see a place for all three – the Singer, Kenmore/White, and the Bernina. I still want to get my Adler fixed and Jenni will keep her Pfaff. Basically we have six goram sewing machines in this house that aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I’d really like to find one machine that will do what all three of these will. Until I can afford that, I’m stuck with the three. *Sigh…*

Part 2 – Goods

Alright! Here are the goodies! After fighting and cursing with my first few prototype bags, I got pissed off and made a realization. I get too elaborate. The first couple of concepts were simply too complicated for me to do right the first time around. After much cussing and throwing and hating the world, I decided to go back to basics. What’s more basic than anything else in the realm of a hand bag? How about a checkbook cover?

This one is made of red upholstery leather and lined in black pig skin. It is stitched together in Kevlar thread. We are actually using it for our checking account.

It’s possible that both of you have seen the picture of my trifold wallet on MyFace.

This one is lined in pigskin with pigskin pockets. But, the shell is in a carbon fiber/Kevlar twill cloth.

The entire thing is stitched together in Kevlar thread. This one is a promo piece for one of my buddies to take to his auto clubs. I’m sure they will want it badly.

Of course, I had to do a little testing on the concept for myself. Here’s a pic of the wallet that I’ve been carrying in the same materials:

I don’t carry a billfold. Here’s the interior of the wallet:

Behind the cards, there is a bill pocket on the left and another long pocket on the right. I have done a couple of hat bands as well. Here’s one that I did for a Marine friend of mine:

The hat is mine, and here’s the hat-band that’s normally on it. (Also made by me):

But, I know Falnfenix didn’t come here to read all about the sewing machines I’ve accumulated, or to look at pics of wallets and hat bands. She wants to see purses! Here is the first bag that I will reluctantly let see the light of day:

This one is lined in matching red wool under the red leather and red zipper (going for a theme):

The closed-end braided strap attaches to the bag with beautiful, round, nickel buckles:

Overall the bag is about 13-inches wide.

Next, I decided to design and sew a mini-messenger satchel. This is what Jenni is currently carrying, and it is incidentally my second prototype:

Much like the first, I attached the strap with nickle buckles.

The robin’s egg blue exterior is nicely balanced by the genuine silk fuchsia lining. Load-bearing side seams are stitched in heavy Kevlar thread and all the black top stitching is in top-quality, bonded nylon.

I attached pockets that hang from the top in the same leather as the shell.

There are three of them in there in different sizes.

This is the foreshadowing of what I’ve got up my sleeves. I can say with absolute certainty that these things will greatly improve quickly, but this is what I’ve got to offer right now. If there is anything that you specifically want in a top-of-the-line leather product, feel free to contact me.

If any of you have been following the news, you know that we in Central Oklahoma have spent the last couple of days getting drenched by several storm’s worth of rain. Fortunately, we’ve stayed relatively dry here in the Evyl Robot Empyre. It was A LOT of rain. The neighborhood streets were flowing yesterday, but it never did get over the top of the curbs on our street.

The sound of rain is relaxing. There’s no better sedative for me than a good downpour. Usually, when it’s raining while I’m in bed, I sleep harder than any other situation. On Sunday night, probably about one in the morning, there was a thunder crack that rattled the entire house for several seconds. Jenni and I both woke up and laid in the dark, listening.

I’m not sure specifically what we were listening for – just anything odd. We listened for any evidence that we needed to crawl out of the warm bed to patch a window, lash a tarp over the open corner of the living room, pry the car out of the front door, etc. Besides the dull roar of the falling rain, all was quiet. It certainly was an electrical storm, with cracks and growls of thunder all night. In fact, I keep hearing gentle thunder this morning even.

Yesterday morning, we made a more thorough assessment of the possible damage. Peeking out the back window, we could see that all the vegetation was intact, if not wading in a pond that didn’t belong there. Peeking out the front, we could see our unmolested Bradford pear tree, and beyond it, the river in the street. Jenni prepared to go to work, and I got ready for my day. When it was time for her to leave, I walked her out to the car. Once we got past the Bradford pear, we say this directly across the street:

If that was the lightning we heard in the night, no wonder it was so loud in our house! On the up-side, I don’t think that the neighbor’s truck actually took any damage – I haven’t seen any dents on it anyway. And, the breakage on the tree looks like it will grow in well.

On a side note, after making my commitment to post here weekly, I apparently didn’t post last week. So, I owe you an extra this week. That’s okay though, because I think I know just what I’m going to tell you about…

Nope. I’ve decided to branch out into ladies’ handbags. This weekend, we worked out the details on the purchase of an industrial sewing machine, started clearing a spot for it to live, and registered domain names for the new website. Ladies, I desperately want to hear from you. My comment section is yours for the taking. Whether or not you ever intend to purchase from me, I want to hear exactly what you love or hate about any bag that you have carried. I want to do this once and do it right. I don’t carry a purse, so I will take any and all input I can get.

All that being said, I am not – repeat NOT giving up the holster work. If anything, this new sewing machine will allow me to produce my great holsters faster and possibly more economically – if all goes well. Keep your eyes peeled. This thing is going to get real big real fast.

To that end, if you are a woman who would like to have a truly custom, hand-made purse, beautiful enough for the runway, tough enough for extended daily use and artistically made to your exacting specifications, I suggest you contact me immediately.

I have started production on several prototypes that will go into testing (and modeling) when ready. If all goes well, I’ll have pictures and durability reports very soon. I want this to be a shock to the industry, and I believe that even I’ll be shocked by my final results. You have undoubtedly seen my holsters. My handbags will be more bold and dramatic if anything. These beauties will make a statement, and yet be built plenty tough enough for the demanding stresses of real life.

I’m very much looking forward to showing you what I can do. Until later…

1 – As they have preached to me for years, I should not cut towards myself, but rather away from myself.

2 – A good, tough, leather shaft on a boot is worth its weight in gold.

3 – Knife safety is as valuable as any other kind of safety, and often overlooked.

At work, we close many boxes with hot glue. There are times that we have to reopen boxes to check the contents. When I open a brand new box, I want to do it in such a way that it can be resealed. So, I’ve found that my Ka-Bar folder is just about the most effective box opener known to man. The D2 blade is tough enough to rip through the most unsavory of adhesives, and cleans up true and bright, and holds its edge well.

Today, I was in a hurry. The boxes had to be opened NOW. There was a bit of a busy crowd around me in the shop as I produced my Ka-Bar and started cutting through recently set hot glue. I drew the knife through the seam towards me. It’s not that I was deliberately disobeying the knife rules so much as I was pointing inward to protect the individuals around me.

The blade made it through a tough spot in the glue and into a softer spot that instantly gave. Before I was aware of what was happening, I felt the blow against my calf. I quickly inspected by jeans for the hole, and could not find it. Nothing felt wet (with blood), and there was no pain. So, I completed the task at hand.

Afterward, thinking of the tangible blow to my calf, I inspected more closely. I discovered a chisel-point hole in the top of my boot shaft, not an inch from the top.

I found a matching scratch on the inside of my calf, right behind the tibia.

My heart skipped several beats as I realized that I had been less than an inch away from having that D2 steel, Ka-Bar blade sunken deeply between my tibia and fibula on my left leg.

Thank God boot shafts are made from durable leather. Thank God that I have ignored the dress code that prohibits leather-soled footwear. Thank God that the blade landed where it did instead of 3/4-inch higher.

Since I’m currently an independent contractor, Workman’s Comp would be a supreme PITA at its best, and out of the question at its worst. The probable injury to ensue would most likely put me off my feet for some time, and would certainly require stitches, if not surgery.

I’m just really thankful that everything worked out so well despite my negligence. Once in a great while, I have an incident that reminds me how careful I should be with my knives. This has been my latest incident. Thankfully, my boot will carry the scar instead of me. I was very fortunate this time.

To both my readers – I’m sorry. I haven’t been a very good blogger lately. If you have been following my rants, you both probably know that I haven’t been very good at keeping up with my online presence. You probably also know that I’ve been working – A LOT!!!!! If you haven’t, you can pretty much catch up on the antics here or here. If you haven’t already, GO, READ!

As you can already tell from the preceding, I’ve been worked really hard over the course of the last month’s time. I’ve been on my feet on a shop floor for a good ten hours a day. This is no excuse for my absence in my blogging, but I hope that you will forgive me and understand that there has been some other pressure.

I learned a lot at Appleseed when we went, but it was a real disaster to me in the present state of things. It was a real lifter to Jenni, and you can read about it here. Once again, I learned A LOT. If I skip the part about my failure (or my lack of mastery) can I skip on to the part about bad equipment without guilt? Frankly, I feel like the equipment challenges forced me to learn a whole lot more than the other students of the workshop. This won’t be my last Appleseed, as I WANT THAT PATCH!!!!!!!!

Jenni and I are still in the one-income mindset for some reason. This means that we’ve been living on the cheap (a.k.a. like poor people), and I’ve been working a lot of hours, and dragging the cash home. So, we found ourselves with a household export deficiency.

When Christmas was coming around, we had this grand idea that we were going to have a gunny Christmas. The fat man was going to come down our non-existent chimney with a bag full of shooty goodness, and he was going to leave a precision air rifle for the kiddo, a DAO Beretta PX4 Storm .45 for Jenni, and a Saiga 12 for Your’s Truly. But, that didn’t happen. Life got in the way, and we took care of life instead. We made it right for the kiddo, but we vowed that we’d take care of each other later.

Valentine’s Day came and went. I was unemployed. This weekend, we found ourselves together with a little excess cash. So, we took care of each other. We found a great Nikon camera that Jenni couldn’t go on without, and we made our way to the range to return some loaner gear to my friend, Will.

While we were at the range, I looked over that 12-gauge AK that I’ve been imagining owning. They didn’t have the exact model that I’d like to own, the price was a little higher than I remembered, and I was thinking of all the mods I’d have to do to it before I loved it. So, after much deliberation I didn’t go that route. Instead, I bought a brand new Smith & Wesson M&P45c.

“Why that particular gun?” you might ask. Well, I’ve been a fan of Smith & Wesson since I’ve been even fascinated by guns. They haven’t let me down yet. Jenni has the 9mm equivalent of this gun, and although I was thinking about getting a nine, it made more sense for me to get a different caliber if I was getting the same model – and I don’t believe in .40 or .357 Sig. Bang for the buck, it’s really hard to argue with S&W’s M&P guns. They’re really fantastic firearms for the green they command.

While at the range, I rented a S&W M&P45 full-sized model, just to get the feel for the thing. The rental gun was well-abused, with many thousands of careless rounds put through it. And, its countenance showed it. The sucker was visibly mal-handled as a lifestyle. The polymer frame was warped away from the muzzle, and everything in it that could rattle was. And yet, it returned fuzzy hole after fuzzy hole in the way of groups. The gun felt remarkably solid in the hand and all actions were consistent – safety, slide, trigger, etc.

Smith & Wesson is currently offering a $50 or two-free mags mail-in rebate on this line of guns, so the economics made perfect sense. I went to the young man who had showed me the Saiga and broke the news that I would not be buying that shotgun – but asked him if he would sell me a pistol instead.

Over the weekend, Jenni and I took the little big bore to the range. She performed perfectly over the course of 200-rounds. I resisted the urge to be horribly stingy, and let Jenni shoot her a few times. Although the users weren’t perfect, the equipment itself performed flawlessly. There were fuzzy groups returned when we shot our wellest, and adequate-to-kill-teh-BG for our worstest of shooting.

This evening, when Jenni was out to church choir, I walked down to the range at the corner and picked up some defensive .45. It’s the Bonded PDX – or whatever bullet, as loaded by Winchester. Now, I need to work myself into my holster-making schedule. My real customers come first, but this girl will have a name and be riding in good leather in no time flat!

Jenni has taken some very impressive pictures with her new camera, and the new pistol shoots wonderfully. So, for a VERY late Christmas present, Jenni took some nice shots at my new pistol. I very wisely did not reciprocate. There are pics of the new gun which will come out shortly, but you aren’t missing anything as it looks like a very generic, polymer, striker-fired auto-chucker.

So, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Happy St. Patrick’s Day and Merry Christmas to both my readers!

To both my faithful readers: I give my sincerest apologies for not writing a blog entry for over two weeks. These are the actions of a n00b, and I hope you can forgive me. Now, please allow me to explain myself. Right now, I’m receiving my 100-proof therapy after my fifteenth consecutive day of work at the new place. I’m not much worried about getting Dooced right now, as I don’t think anybody there has any time to find my blog, much less read it. Week one wound up around fifty-two hours of labor. Last week tallied in at a little over sixty. Fortunately, I will not be working this weekend. I’ve made comment and had coworkers say that they thought ‘we’ would be working. I’ve explained that I have scheduled the time off, and will be taking it, as I have already purchased my tickets to the Appleseed shoot that I’ve been wanting to go to for two years now! I’m friggin’ excited and dead tired all at the same time. The weather looks like it will be great (although I don’t put any faith in a forecast beyond 72-hours).

The wife, child, and I will be well-overdue for some challenging rifle action. I hope to learn some tricks that will make my shooting go from adequate to astounding. From what I’ve heard and read from other Appleseed attendees, this is exactly what I should expect. It was about two years ago that there was an event near my home, and that’s where we are going next weekend. I inquired, and there were no assurances that there would be another event at said location in the foreseeable future. So, we ponied up, paid the admission, called in some favors to complete our gear, and we will be storming our stores for the remainder of what it will take to go to this magnificent event. With our awesome .22lr’s in hand, we will drive to the gun range where the three of us will learn to reliably hit a man-sized target at 500-meters with a rifle equipped with iron sights. Yeah. I’m psyched! The range also has an area reserved for some real-life, 600-yard shooting, so I imagine that we’ll also drag our AR’s along for the ride. We’re going to have a really nice, soopah awsom, rifley weekend!

Besides the obvious complaint about the hours, I REALLY like the new job. I thought that I was working with an outstanding group of people at my last job. But, this company is 10x bigger than the last, and I can’t find anybody that I have had any significant head-butting with. Having crammed three weeks worth of work into two, that’s really saying something! As far as the hours are concerned, my one saving grace is that it is temporary. The factory is:
1 – Moving from one computer system to a distinctly different one.
2 – Changing warehouse and manufacturing locations to streamline production.
3 – Going through a meticulous inventory of like a quarter million distinct part numbers (I may be exaggerating a little there).
and:
4 – Implementing a massive overhaul of the part numbering system.
The bottom line is that they need all the help they can get. My position is the obvious help there. Salaried employees put in free overtime, and they perform accordingly. Hourly employees must legally get paid time-and-a-half for their overtime. Consultants (a. k. a. ‘contract labor’), such as I, may be paid straight, hourly pay for any and all time over the Federally allotted, forty per week. Therefore, they will make their hardest attempt to work the snot out of me for the duration for the ninety-day contract. I must say that I don’t mind the extra pay, even if I do mind the extra hours. I am rapidly wearing thin, but I don’t think that it will be a problem to deliver at least their money’s worth through the end of the week. I have even managed to get a little of my holster work in on the side! Granted, I have not completed a huge amount of that work, but it has been progress… As far as more traditional work is concerned, I like them a lot, and they seem to like me as well. The people at the new company express in many ways that they are really impressed and appreciative of my presence there. Apparently, I have not offered disappointment since my interview. I don’t plan on offering any.

On the holster end of things, I’m just about to unveil my first exotic-skinned holster as well as the much-requested, much awaited, pocket/IWB convertible. And, I’ve got a few tricks in store there! I’ve also freshened up my belt-optional IWB holsters and added a matching magazine carrier for the weak side. True to my previous promises, I’m about to show off some beautiful new products! For a teaser, please look at what Caleb has to say about his new Red Racer! I’m trying my hardest to make the best holster you can get, regardless of price – and a .2-second drop in draw speed over kydex for a Bianchi Cup competing IDPA shooter is nothing to scoff at!

Yes, friends. I’m very tired. But, the ride has been a good one. I’m looking forward to some much earned R&R, but for now, I believe I’ve got enough fuel left to get through the demanding part. Once again, I’ll try my hardest to not let it get to two weeks before my next post. Thanks for reading. Regards,

ERM

Tonight, at 2000 my time (Central Time Zone), I will be the guest on Gun Nuts to talk about my holsters! I’m really stoked about this, as this may be the push I need to really make a living out of this endeavor! Caleb sounds really stoked about the holster I made for him, even if he hasn’t yet seen it in real life…

The holster can be seen here. Make sure to read the comments! Note that last sentence:

That is EXACTLY what I had in mind.

Folks, that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. That’s my goal in this business. I want to make holsters for people. I’m not at all trying to make holsters that you can buy, I’m trying to pull the most fantastic creations out of your head and make them reality.

Anyway, please tune in to Gun Nuts this evening and hear me stutter and ramble on live broadcast! (J/K, of course!) It ought to be fun!