Table saw

I'm not in the market for a table saw. Don't have the space to store one, don't have any huge construction projects on the horizon, I simply don't need a table saw.

But, I was surfing around on a local buy sell trade website, and someone less than a mile from me was selling a table saw for 40 bucks. I figured that no matter what brand it was, if it ran it was worth 40 bucks. I loaded the boy-o into the pickup, and we drove over.

The woman must have been in her late seventies. She was spry and moved well, which probably had something to do with keeping up with her beautiful yard. I shook her hand, introduced myself, and we walked to her shed in the back.

It was a Craftsman table saw, one of the contractor-jobsite table saws. While on the smallish side, it came with a hand built wooden stand that someone years ago took the time to build, finish, and paint a medium grey color that matches the table saw. I told her that as long as it ran, I would buy it.

I picked it up and moved it outside near an outlet, plugged it in, and pulled the switch. The hum of a big motor rotating the blade reached my ears.

"I'll take it, Ma'am."

" Oh, how delightful!"

"Ma'am, it's worth more than 40 dollars. How much do you want for it?" I pulled 6 twenties out of my pocket, and looked at her questioningly.

"Son, it was my dad's. He passed away a while ago, and it's just been collecting dust for 10 years. I want 40 dollars for it."

"Yes Ma'am. Thank you. I'll just load this up."

"Come back to the garage after you load it up."

I put it in the bed of the truck, and strapped it down. I approached the woman again, and she started handing me accessories! She had a rip fence, the blade changing wrenches, a sled, and a pusher.

"Ma'am, I appreciate it. This is worth way more than a few twenties. Are you sure?"

She gave a little half laugh, and shook her head. "Sonny, I'm glad you can use it. Better than it collecting dust for another 10 years."

It was quite for a moment. She looked up into my eyes "when you had your wallet out, I saw a card that said 'Agent'. Are you police?"

"Yes Ma'am"

She held my gaze as her lips tightened briefly. I could tell that she had a lot she wanted to say. In that moment, I could feel how much she cared for my safety, and I knew that if she could, she would tell me how the portrayal of some things that have been going on for the past few years were unfair, and that she was glad that some were still willing to be police in spite of news coverage, and community attitudes. She wanted to tell me how safe she felt knowing that we Rough Men were around, patrolling, keeping the community safe.

She breathed deep and held my eyes.

"Sonny, please be safe out there."

I spoke softly back.

"Yes Ma'am."

There are some things that are of an even greater value than a 40 dollar table saw.

Gun Shirts

I have been acquiring gun shirts lately. My wife asked me to give her a list of things I might want for Christmas a few months ago, and for whatever reason, I put "gun shirts" on the list. She picked me out a brown tee with a 1911 on it.

I enjoyed it, and wore it on weekends, and it seems I have been acquiring a few. I now have a Browning logo shirt and a Smith and Wesson shirt, too.

Now, for years, I have had an array of tee shirts, and as I have worn them out, I have been replacing them with simple, solid color tees. I looked up some time last year, and realized I had no more band shirts or shirts with crass sayings on them left from my college days. And really, I was okay with that. My music tastes have changed, and now that I'm a father, I don't find shirts with expletives on this as funny.

But I no longer have shirts that express ME. Until my wife got me a gun shirt. I now have three shirts that say "this is the tribe I'm in". And I'm happy about that.

**DISCLAIMER**  Before anyone tells me "bad guys will know you are packing" or "you'll be shot first" or whatever nonsense, know that I'm not an idiot. I wear tee shirts around my house or while spending time with friends, or when I'm in the woods, etc. I don't wear them to get liquor and lotto tickets at 2am in the bad part of town. I am aware of exactly what I advertise when I put on certain clothes, and don't go out of my way to do dumb things (ever, but especially not) when I am wearing pro-2A "advertisements".

Woods Holster

My brother wanted a "woods holster" for his S&W M&P. He wanted a straight drop, low ride holster for walking his property, hunting, and rambling about outdoors. Just a basic woods holster.

I've been pondering on the design for a few weeks, and honestly couldn't fathom why he wanted this style of holster. But it was what he wanted, so I tried to figure it out.

I cut it so that the top of the grip rides below the bottom of the belt, because he wanted it low. To help with keeping the holster close to the body, I planned a tie-down on the holster. I did some tooling on the leather to make the M&P logo, and dyed it a contrasting tan. The rest of the holster I dyed black.

The project was pretty straightforward, and it came together easily. After completing it, I tried it on.

Man, I get why he wanted a holster designed in this way! I live in a big, largely liberal city. While I'm in law enforcement, and can carry pretty much anywhere, most places around here wouldn't be considered a permissive enviornment. Because of this, I make a lot of holsters that hold a gun in tight, and ride close to the belt. Most holsters I make are concealment holsters.

My brother lives in rural north Louisiana, and owns acreage. He works in a plant, and does a lot of outdoors things like 4-wheeler riding. A holster like this is PERFECT for that enviornment.

You pretty much would have to wear a trench coat to hide it, but that's not the purpose. It's a hell of a woods holster.

Overheard at the Office

(I work with a bunch of cajuns.)

Coonass#1- "Ey, dey got dem big ribeyes on sale at de Winn-Dixie."

Coonass#2- "Yah? Which Winn-Dixie is dat?"

Coonass#1- "De one dat sells da trans-a-missions."

Me- "Wait, what the hell are ya'll talking about? I ain't never heard of a Winn-Dixie that sells transmissions!"

Coonass#2- (with a look and a tone as if explaining something to a 6-year old) "Look, you know dem half-gallons of da whiskey? Da glass ones wit dem handles built in to da bottle? Ya turn dem bad boys on dere sides, and dey look like one of dem dere trans-a-missions."

(They both look at me with an expectant look as if to say "anymore questions, ya silly redneck?")

Life in cajun country.

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!