Birth of a Tank

Almost 30 minutes of Eisenhower Era awesomeness.

Hope this link is still alive

For Cambridge Typewriter Repair.

Time

L.S./M.F.T

Used to smoke there.  So round, so firm, so fully packed.  Just like I liked my dames.

Paper, Mister?

 Speaking of old print...  Here is archives of old newspapers.  LOTS of them.  Up until 1922.  So in case you want to know what the National Tribune was up to...

Apparently some local Ogden man did well and got his pistol or summat adopted by the army.  The town is proud he made good.  Wait!  Silk dresses only $13.50?!!

Book Report #1

How bout an author report with typewriters?

Holtzapfel

Another one of my loves.  Holtzapfel lathes.  They are beautiful and make beautiful things, but good luck affording one. 

These things were also important aiding to the further development of precision machinist lathes.  There is an old saying, "a lathe is the only tool that can make a more precise version of itself."  So you can dial down your tolerances from +/- .25 inches to +/- .001 inches.

If you really want one, I'd suggest going the easier route.  Become a master machinist and make your own.  Cheaper that way too, maybe.  And at the end you can use your lathe to its fullest capability, too.

Type Cast

Blogging with a typewriter.  Gotta do that again...

I'd go on and on about linotype machines, but I did that last year.

I think of a typewriter as the 'attainable' printing press and typeset hobby.   While it would be neat to have my own shop to play in, who has the time unless you can devote your life to what it otherwise a fleeting interest.  A shop with a Heidelburg press and a Mergethaler linotype machine.  All in a 80 year old 5000 squarefoot industrial space...

Yeah, I can dream about the unattainable, right!  Even if I won Powerball I don't know if I could do such a dream justice.  Half the fun is in the longing.

Blimp work

Aw, HELL no.  I'm not going up 75 feet in the middle of a big warehouse on a wheeled wooden ladder and stand on the top rung.  I even used to work at a sign company, hanging sign on walls, but not like this.

From here.

Out of pocket

Please enjoy some randomish posts that may or may not be gun related.

I ain't here to post for a bit.  Hush hush stuff.  You know how it is.

600,000

600,000 visits to my blog, too.  Just flipped that odometer this week!

Thats...  carry the 3...  Almost 100,000 visitors a year! 

NOT GUILTY

Washington man fires shotgun into the air to scare off threat.  Is arrested by the sheriff.  Cites The Veep in his defense.

"Not Guilty By Reason of Joe Biden"

I believe a VP outranks some silly sheriff!

And...

I always wanted gray tacticool colored firearms, cargo pants, murses, and shoot-me-first vests.

Years gone by

Been doing this for 6 years gone now.  What a wild strange trip it has been.

I reminisce back to when I was a rank n00b.  Black plastic pistols were black plastic pistols.  I had no idea which was which.

Now, at a glance, "That's a HK, it has the different hoosie whatsits for the mag release." or "Glock.  Look at the slide take down thingummers on the sides, plus that dimple" or "Ruger revolver, not a Smith.  It's the size of a canned ham"

The Last Hunt

Saw The Last Hunt on the Teevee.  It's about buffalo hunters near the end of the buffalo era.  And indian fighter enlists the partnership of a season buff hunter that is about sick of the killing.  The indian fighter is quick to shoot a man in cold blood, too.  So, bingo, plot conflict.

They hunt with very large/long lever action rifles with tang mounted peep sights.  Not Sharps, Winchester pattern.  Dunno the model, as this 1956 movie is not in the internet movie firearms database.  The timing of the movie would make them Winchester 1876 models perhaps.  If I had to guess the caliber, they looked like .45-70.  Though they could have been .50-95 or summat, and that 1876 model was chambered in 45-75 WCF, .40-60, .45-60 and .50-95.  Hard to tell which on the little screen.

Before they set out to hunt they pack up 100 pounds of lead.  They do all their own handloading, and, presumably, reloading.  All while smoking by the campfire.  Phew!  The 'presses' are small single pliers-like doohickeys for seating the bullet, or sizing same.

The buffalo herds are getting smaller by 1880, but they can still shoot a 'stand'.  This is where you shoot the alpha bull.  If he drops, and doesn't panic or run, the rest of the herd won't go anywhere, and you can nibble away at the outside of the group, working in, and get most all of them.  Convenient for your skinners.  The skins fetched 2 dollars, and the tongue got you 50 cents.  The rest was wasted except for some meat to feed the hunters themselves.  A bit later, in history, there would be a market for the bones that littered the prairie, to be used for fertilizer.

The hunters made all one shot drops.  I don't know how they simulated this in the movie.  Maybe they actually killed off a couple small herds for the cameras.  There was no "no animals were harmed in the making of this flicker show" disclaimer in the credits that I saw.  American Bison must have been pretty delicate if reliable one shot drops were possible.  Not like the reputation of African Cape Buffalo.  The mean character even kills a few with a single action revolver.