Recently a customer dropped of a crucifix for some repair work. It was somewhat small for a wood carving, but beautifully carved. It was carved in Europe from Lime wood, something similar to our bass wood. I can’t tell how old it is. The carved Jesus seems old, with a lot of patina, but the cross looks fairly new. This is how it looked when it came to me.
I had a nice piece of wood leftover from a customer job and a couple of free days so I did something I seldom do…I made an eagle for inventory. The blank was an odd size so I decided to enlarge a standard 25″ Bellamy. This eagle is 43″ long by 8″ tall and 5″ deep.
I originally tried using imitation gold leaf as a finish. I’ve never tried it, but it is much cheaper, so I figured I’d give it a try and give my customers another choice of finish that was cheaper than real gold leaf. What a disaster. Imitation gold leaf is much thicker than real gold. It didn’t stick and made a mess of the eagle. My only option was to paint over it. White is the most common color the original eagles are found in, so it is fitting. It is lightly aged and for sale at $750.
I like to look through old auction catalogs to see what antiques are selling for and to get ideas for carvings. I was shocked to find a two headed Bellamy eagle that was sold several years ago. It’s a weird looking thing but I liked it so I decided to carve one for myself.
Instead of painted pine I carved this eagle from mahogany and left it in natural wood. I will have a pattern available for sale soon.
Check out this custom Colt Mustang Plus II.
I bought this gun new in 1988 and carried it for years before retiring it to my safe and replacing it with a .45 ACP. It was a great little pocket pistol, but being a .380, it was considered too under powered for a safe carry gun. It also suffered from poor accuracy due to terrible sights.
The price of used Colts has gotten crazy in the past few years. I think I paid about $300 for the gun new but they are selling used for about $650. Advances in ammunition technology has made the .380 a much more effective defense round than when I carried the little pistol. Pistols chambered in .380 are some of the most popular carry guns right now. All this new interest in these little guns got me looking at my old Mustang again.
The gun looked dated now. It needed an upgrade. I’ve been fiddling with the thing for about a year now. I made a lot of changes both cosmetically and functionally. Here is what it looks like now.
