In my pockets

What's in my pockets? Haven't done one of those posts in a few years...

Pretty standard stuff (please excuse the coffee stain in the background. Cleaning that up in just a sec!):

Wallet
Smartphone
Streamlight ProTac 2L
Spyderco Tenacious with zip tie mod
Colt 1908 Pocket Hammerless

I was out and about town today with family, and didn't want to go full-hobo, so I picked a smaller gun than the G19, which makes it easier to conceal without a shirt 3 times too big.

Also, I have two tourniquets... why didn't I have one on my person? I need to remedy that.

What's in your pockets?

Floral #4

A quick update:

Mostly done! I grabbed a quick picture before the sun went down. I still have a lot of "finish" work to do... finishing edges, wet forming, sealing, etc, but all the hard work is done.

I even managed to sneak a commemoration into the design!

More to come, as time allows!

Time to Dye!

Actually, I'm done dyeing, but who doesn't like a play on words?!

First, I mixed my own dye. The tan dye I had was too light, and the brown I had was too dark. I cut the dark brown dye with alcohol (about 1/3 dye to 2/3 alcohol) and tested some scrap pieces, continuing to add alcohol until it was coming out the way I wanted. Then i used this mix to dye all the tooled areas.

After that dried, I covered all the tooled areas with hi-liter, and after letting it sit for 30 seconds or so, wiped it off. This let all the impressions get a little dark in the deepest parts, lending debth and a bit of an aged look.

Next, after letting that all dry overnight, I dyed all the remaining leather black,  being careful not to get it onto the tooled areas. After getting close, I used a thin brush to get up next to the tooling lines.

Lastly, I used the thin paint brush to put dye into all the textured background areas of the tooling.

I'm at about 15 hours in at this point, and soon I will be able to start the actual work of constructing this rig.

More Floral

I finished up most of the tooling. There is still a lot of work to do, what with 3 separate dyes, hand dyeing the background, radiusimg edges, Burnishing edges, finishing edges, sealing the whole mess, punching holes, adding tie downs, sewing, final cutting... etc....

Anyway, at least I'm done with step one of this rig. I've got about 12 hours in it so far. I even got the wax bullet deflectors carved!

Progress is being made!

Floral

A few quick pics of a floral belt and holsters that will end up being a prize for a raffle. Proceeds go to the Shoot For The Stars foundation, who give out scholarships for students.

Glock Commander

If you surf the gunternet, you have seen today that the G19x is out. Which is basically Glock' s submission to the US Army MHS program, which they did not win.

While this is nowhere near the most interesting firearm  released in the last week (that honor goes to the Ruger PC Carbine... I got the wants!), I have to say, I think a better name has already been attributed to it.

Over a year ago, Pawpaw said they should do it and it should be called the Glock 17 Commander, and damned if he wasn't right.

I think a G19 longslide would be more practical for a lot of people, but apparently Glock thought this was... Perfection?

Interesting the way shit plays out, isn't it?

Guns, Leather, and Vinyl

I've been texting back and fourth with a buddy of mine. He lives about halfway between my place and my Dad's. He asked me to do some leather work for him, specifically a stock wrap and sling for his Marlin 1894, much like the one on mine, but for right handers.

I just so happen to have a pattern for that (heh!), so I told him I would be happy to. He has a maker's mark that he wants in the leather, and I know he has a vinyl cutter, so I told him to make me a cutout of his mark, and I would dye the stock wrap, apply the vinyl, then dye it darker, leaving him a two-tone image of his mark after removing the vinyl.

He liked the plan, and agreed to it. I told him to go ahead and make me a cutout of my maker's mark too, while he was at it.

He gave me a sheet with multiple sizes, so I applied one to my truck, and we put one on my Dad's van today. It's nice, I think.

As part of the payment for the leather work, my buddy gave me a set of round to square rosewood grips for my 686. He has one, too, but keeps a set of Hogues on his, so has no use for the rosewood ones. I picked up the grips when I was there, but apparently left something.

He sent me this pic with a text reading "Santa came early this year!" Looks like I need to swing back by his house later.

Anyway, there's a random blog post for you. Somewhat rambling, no point, but a snapshot of my last two days, at any rate.

God is Good.

Sometimes, life throws a curveball at you, after you have been dealing with lots of uphill battles. All you want to do is curl up and weep, because you have no idea how to fix THIS problem, on top of all the other ones you are trying to manage. And you know if you can't fix it some way, you simply don't have the cash flow to pay someone to fix it.

But you push down the self pity, and apply yourself, and throw all the knowledge you possess at the problem, and somehow, you get it fixed, with only having to outlay about 50 bucks.

I'm not a deeply religious person, but I do believe that there is a God, and he is benevolent. Sometimes, we witness miracles, even if it is as small as God gifting you with ability beyond your skill, just long enough to fix the problem.

And you offer Him thanks.

God is good, and he helped me today.

Thanks be to God.

Random Notes

1. I got to go hang out with Murphy and Aaron last weekend. It was great to meet Aaron and see Murphy again. Also got to shoot a real Full-Auto Thompson. Thanks, Murph.

2. I love it when steaks go on sale. They will be good tonight.

3. It's hard to beat Jim Beam and eggnog.

4. I'm looking forward to my upcoming trip to Branson.

5. I'm glad I got a brother that doesn't mind helping me. He's gonna save me a bundle by applying knowledge and sweat.

6. The older I get, the more I enjoy Christmas. It's a lot of fun watching kiddos opening crap and seeing how excited they get.

Stack-On

Horse-Traded a buddy for his old safe. He bought a new fire-rated one, and this one is more of a "lockable storage cabinent" than an actual safe. Still, having another option for locking up hardware is nice.

I gotta make him a holster now. So not a bad deal on my end.

Also, I'm loading up to hang out with Murphy tomorrow, and he mentioned the range... and a few Full-Auto guns.

I have 6 or 7 guns loaded up, and right at 900 rounds of .38, .380, 9mm, and .22...

And about 100 rounds of .38 is loaded from bullets Murphy gave me, so the ammo gets to come full-circle.

Tomorrow looks like it should be pretty fun.