Cowgirl

My sister recently got into the Cowboy Fast Draw game. My dad, Pawpaw, started into it about 2 years ago with my step-mom, and more and more of the clan is slowly getting into it. First was my Nephew, who I recently made the Bowie knife sheath for, then my Brother in Law, Greg. Now his wife, my sister wants to get into it. She has been going to club meets and practicing, and asked me a few weeks ago to make her a rig.

She wanted a medium brown leather setup with fancy border stamping and teal highlights. And she wanted her CDFA Alias stamped into the belt. Also, she wanted the holster made on a Mernickle pattern, meaning with a certain cant and ride height. My dad had one of those holsters handy, so I borrowed it to get an idea for a pattern.

Her holster is a single layer of very heavy, dense hide. It probably runs 12-13 ounces and is cut from the shoulder of the hide. This means  the leather is very, very dense and is about a quarter inch thick. Mernickle uses 2 thinner layers sandwiched together. Both ways have their advantages, but I personally prefer using a single thickness when possible, so that's the way I went. I also made her holster slightly longer than the Mernickle, as on theirs the barrel of the gun ever so slightly stuck out the bottom. That will not happen on mine. Lastly, I omitted the bullet deflector. Not because they are not a good idea, but because I didn't have suitable material to make one, and they are not required for competition.

This is the end result. I think she'll like it.

Finished

Now I have a cowboy fast-draw holster to make...

Next Step

Phase 1: Design and Layout, and Phase 2: Construction, are done.

Phase 3: Finishing and Dyeing are next.

9mm round for size comparison.

Sidebar

I updated the folks in my sidebar just now. Removed a few folks who stopped updating, and added a guy I've been following for a year or more. Frankly, I have no excuse. I've just been lazy. Check out Langiappe's Lair in the sidebar, and meet a fellow gun nut trapped in a beautiful, diverse, colorful, LIBERAL city. He moved to New Orleans recently, and seems to be having plenty of misadventures.

I've hung out with him a few times, and he's a blast. If you don't already read him regular, you should. He's a hoot.

Bowie

With a prolific and large as my clan is, we throw all the children's names into a hat every year, and draw names to see who you buy gifts for. In this way, we each only buy presents for 2 or 3 nieces or nephews, rather than having to buy gifts for a dozen.

One of the nephews that I got this year wants a bowie knife. He got into the Fast-Draw game with Pawpaw, and all the other teenage boys have bowie knives. I scouted around for a bowie at a decent price, finally finding one for not too much money. It's a cheap one, but it's more "costume" than "survival, so I'm not too worried about it. Thing is, it came with a truly horrendous, pleather sheath... in brown, no less. The boy has all of his fast-draw gear in black, so I'm going to make him a proper sheath for the knife. truth be told, when this is all done, the sheath will be worth more than the knife... but as I said, since it's for costume more than function, doesn't it make sense that it be clad in a really nice sheath?

I hope the boy can appreciate good leather.

Louisiana comfort food

In lieu of actual content on this wet, rainy day...

Gumbo

And bread pudding!