MacGyver

I gave this one as a gift, so it's truly one of a kind. One thing is for sure - the process makes you appreciate the work that goes into a true custom and the price associated it.

Yeah, the blade shape turned out well for a simple jig. You'll notice a little low spot in the blade. I'll adjust my filing in the future to correct that.

So for the last few years, I've kind of wanted to get into making some blades, but haven't. Time and lack of tooling really put a damper on my plans. I told myself that I would start when I could find a decent deal on a grinder, but never got around to it. Well fast forward to the holidays last year, and I had a little time on my hands. I decided to give it a go without the expensive tooling and do it by hand. Here are the results of my efforts with nothing but hand tools - hacksaw, a couple of good files, and various sandpapers. This started as a piece of 3/16" O1 tool steel. Cutting it with the hacksaw didn't take nearly the time I thought it was going to. I have a bandsaw, but in the spirit of "handmade", wanted to try it with the hacksaw. I'd say it took about an hour to cut the profile. I then proceeded to clean it up with the files, and let me just say that a good file, kept clean can really remove some metal. I put together a jig to hold the blade, and each side took about an hour and a half to get where I wanted it. Mind you, I likely could have cut this down some, but my kids wanted to help and I went slow to keep from screwing it up. I finished the blade by getting it non-magnetic with a torch and a quench in warm oil. I then heat treated in a small oven a couple of different times. I wish I had taken some pictures of the blade at this point. The scales are some cedar heartwood I recovered. I sharpened it on a standard Lansky set and finished on a strop. I really put it through some torture and it held its edge better than a lot of factory knives I've owned. I'd say my overall time spent was about 8 hours. Here is the finished product: I guess the moral of this story is don't let a lack of power tooling stop you from doing something fun.

Man, I'll keep you in my prayers.

I haven't heard of anyone getting left out.

In the words of the late, great southerner, Lewis Grizzard, "come on down here. Eat our food, breathe our air, marry our women. There's just one thing we ask of you. Don't tell us how you used to do it back in Cleveland. We don't care. Cleveland's so great - Delta's ready when you are. We'll have you back there by 6:00 this evening if that's where you want to be."

I love the Browning takedowns.

When the ninth circuit is ruling in favor of the second amendment, that's probably a good sign to start looking for the seven horsemen of the apocalypse on the horizon.

That's really nice!

A Ruskie double rifle?  That seems like some kind of heresy they don't even have a name for.

Those are generally made good on, or at least offered. Interestingly though, a pretty good number of people end up not accepting a reward for simply doing the right thing.

My vote on the 10/22 goes to wood.  Classic gun deserves a classic stock.  Nothing wrong with polymer, but if I have to choose one, I'm choosing wood.

Love my 300.

Nothing appears to be wrong with your account.  I don't see Benefactor status, so that'll take David's involvement.  It's been reported, so he'll see it when he logs in.   Thanks for your patience.

Coca-Cola has been very clear over the years for their desire for more diversity within their own company. They filed amicus briefs supporting affirmative action last year in both Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. They've shown their commitment by their hiring practices; you'd be hard pressed to find a more diverse management team in a publicly traded company. I think the commercial simply reflects their values.

Wait...are you sure He can translate?

I hope so!

The WalMart at Nolensville Rd and Old Hickory Boulevard had an all-you-can-eat buffet of Federal 9mm the other evening when I was in there.  They probably had 300 boxes on the shelves.  And almost that many boxes of .45acp.

If there's one thing that I hope for and truly try to foster in this community, it's asking better questions of ourselves as individuals and as a community through good conversation. We all gain so much when we check our preconceived notions at the door and just engage with people who aren't necessarily like us.  Maybe if we build that ability in small communities, then we can work to affect the larger dialogues in our nation.   I'll illustrate with a personal example.  For years I was dismissive of the homeless population.  They're all drunks, drug addicts, there because they lack personal ambition, whatever...  It was a personal problem that they had somehow must have brought upon themselves, and I distanced myself from them by both my attitude and my actions.  But then I got involved with them because I along with a few others recognized that this attitude was in conflict with other things in my life that I like to present myself as being.  I got involved with Room in the Inn, a local homeless "ministry" here in Nashville.  Basically, once a week my family as well as a few other will share a common table with these guys.  Once a month, I'll spend the night in our church building alongside some of these guys so that they've got a warm, safe place to sleep.   I don't share that to say look at me, I share it to say that getting to know someone changes things.  You see that yes, there are some of them who've made really bad choices in their lives and are trying to figure out a way forward.  You meet many who are simply under-employed and don't have any family or community to fall back on.  About half of our population in Nashville are veterans, many of whom are disabled.  Bluntly, as a country we've failed these veterans in a way that ought to be criminal.  But, by getting to know them, I'll say that I've benefited way more than they ever will by spending the night in our building.  My children who are 2, 4 and 7 are happy to come share a meal with these men.  They are not okay with the fact that there are people who are sleeping on the street because they've got nowhere to go.  When they pray, I hear them pray for these men.  We'll never solve the problems that cause homelessness, but maybe their generation will see them as something other than a blight that needs to be eradicated.   So, I'll simply encourage folks to check their attitudes at the front page.  We encourage debate here.  With 20,000 members, there will never be total agreement about anything.  But, while we try to foster good debate about ideas, we demand that people act with respect towards one another.  Failing to do so is frankly the one offense within this community that you will not make a second time.   Has something gotten you fired up?  Great.  Bring the discussion.  But, as I've said many times, if you can't bring something constructive to the conversation, you probably ought to ask yourself whether or not you should be participating. 

This is a guy who had a lot of money donated to his defense during his show trial. I'd be willing to wager that if word went out that here's a guy who was involved in a terrible event and is looking to quietly move on and feed his family, there would be no lack of people willing to put him to work. That's not what's happening here. Instead, we've got a fool who's looking to cash in on what he perceives as his fame. I think that his fifteen minutes is about up.

I've always thought it a weird juxtaposition of civil religion that many of our hymnals contain America the Beautiful. I love the song, and it's made me tear up many times, but it's always made me uncomfortable when it's done in church.

Just ask yourself if out country is stronger economically when we find a way for people who want to be here to pitch in and contribute or when we spend our time trying to get them out. I figure you can only really choose one of those.