This Could Cause Carpal Tunnel

Worked on a belt today. I've made belts before with limited tooling, but this was the first time I did all the tooling - - started with a leather strip, ended with a finished belt. It still needs a little keeper loop, I'll pick one of those up on Friday.

The Wonder of the Internet

I purchased another antique belt buckle off of eBay:

Photos taken after polishing, by the way. The buckle still had its original varnish coat, and had a patina underneath. The markings on the back of the buckle intrigued me: a central star, with the name "Laurie" on one side and an obliterated area on the other, where a name or word had been removed with a grinder. Aha, a mystery, I though to myself. I pictured a cute blonde hippie chick named "Laurie" who had carved the wax model of the belt buckle.

I looked on the internet, and found that the cute blonde hippie chick was actually a man still alive, and his company was the Star Buckle Company of Spinnerstown, Pennsylvania. Apparently Mr. Laurie started his business with a buckle in the shape of a peace symbol, and it took off from there. He does other stuff now, of course, since hippie belt buckles had a limited popularity and eventually went out of fashion.

Still... to be able to dig out this information with just a few clicks on a keyboard... amazing. It would have taken a major investment in time and money to research this in pre-computer days.

Don't ever say we aren't living in the future.

Meanwhile, Over In Colfax, NC...

...a blacksmith hammers out "mule hooks."

From his cinder block blacksmith’s shop, Don Dillon hammers a red-hot iron bar into the shape of a comically exaggerated mule – his nose jutting out like a mailbox , his ears bent and waving like a bug’s antennae.

In a week’s time, Dillon can turn out 40 of these decorative beasts, each one fitted with a hook at the bottom that’s perfect for hanging a hat.

But mostly, Dillon would like all Democrats to notice that mules are practically donkeys and that North Carolina will be crawling with donkeys come Sept. 4, and a custom-made donkey hook might make a dandy convention souvenir.

For some reason, he can't sell elephant hooks:

You might have seen Dillon demonstrating at the State Fair. He used to make lamps. Then the furniture factory shut down. So now he makes mule hooks – mixing humor and politics with lop-eared metal.

One version comes equipped with a crank, which Dillon calls a wind-up key for a liberal Democrat. You’re supposed to insert the mule end where the sun doesn’t shine. Another serves as a toilet-paper holder. Another hook combines the ears of a mule with a pachyderm’s trunk.

“This is a donkey-phant,” Dillon explained. “That’s for the undecided voter, the split-ticket man, the quiet man that don’t make a lot of racket. I made a few elephant hooks, but couldn’t sell any of them.”

Pic:



You can buy his mule hooks, should you want one, for $25, click the link for his address.

Who You Callin' A Glockenschmiede?

Eligius Schelbert, that's who. He's a Glockenschmiede if I ever saw one.

And I've never seen one, but I'll take his word that he's a Glockenschmiede.

The Bag Lady of York, SC

98-year-old Flossie Matthews, who lives in a nursing home but still crochets strips of plastic bag into useful objects, such as hats and doormats.

Really great human-interest story; the sort of person who would appear on the old Tonight Show when Johnny Carson was host, usually closing out the last five minutes of the show.

Here's a pic of Flossie, wearing a hat she made herself:

Flossie Matthews

Prison: You Got Yer Nation of Islam, Yer Aryan Brotherhood, and...

...Yer Dungeons & Dragons Gang.

Or you did until first-degree murderer Kevin T. Singer lost his lawsuit against the Wisconsin prison system, which had banned Dungeons and Dragons materials from the prison.

Singer was in prison for murdering his sister's boyfriend with a +3 Sledgehammer of Smiting. The man apparently missed his saving throw vs. hammers.

I'm sure, though, that the D&D gang will persevere and find a way to play their game, possibly carving dice out of pieces of soap, or something.

I tell ya, though, what's prison coming to these days, buncha murdering nerds...

A Lot Of Years Cobbling

In a shop in Ocala, Florida, a team of cobblers is working busily. Business is good for cobblers when the economy is down.

John Heinold, Cobbler.