A knife a day 1

Posted by Greybeard on Jan 1st, 2009 in Days of Old | Comments Off

Now don’t get the idea that I’d ever consider bringing a knife to a gunfight,  or even bringing anything other than a gun,  to a knife fight.  But,  I used to consider myself a handmade knife maker.  I still have a few of my past wares,  and will be posting a photo a day of them,  with a little back round info.  They are not for sale,  nor do I entertain the idea of making anymore.  Just a little history.

  This is one of my early works.  The rough shape was cut on a band saw,  out of high carbon tool steel.  Then shaped with a course file.   The finishing was done with finer and finer files,  then sand paper,  then a buffing wheel.  As you might be able to see,  this one is double edged,  with a brass hand guard.   It has a walnut handle,  with brass and aluminum spacers,  then a heavy brass butt.  It’s full tanged,  pinned, and industrial epoxied.   The blade is 4.5 inches long, and hardened to Rockwell HRC55.

A little more on Wild Bill.

Posted by Greybeard on Dec 27th, 2008 in Days of Old, Shootist | 2 comments

As promised in a previous post,  I have a bit more about the Ellis side of the family.   Wild Bill,  being the most famous Ellis, as a  Deputy U.S. Marshal, (previous post) had a decendent that wound up being a lawman in Arkansas.  In what must have been a fairly long tradition, his name was also William Ellis,  remembered as Billy Ellis.  This “Billy” was my Grandmother’s Brother.   At the present time,  the only tail I have of this relative,  is how he lost half of his left ear.

It seems that Billy had been the Sheriff for a while and had the reputation of being somewhat of a ruffian.  A kind of “my way or the highway guy”.   As the story goes,  there was a well known bootlegger running a profitable Still on a small island on the local fast running river.  Revenuer’s had tried a couple of times to bring him in, and shut down the Still,  but with no luck,  and at least one of them got dead trying.  Seems the old fart was mean,  and also a pretty good shot.  With the fast running river  between him and all takers,   it wasn’t easy getting the jump on him.

It seems that old Bill,  had closed up the town for the night,  and stopped by the backroom of the General Store (dry county) for a couple of night caps,  when another patron,  mentioned, that it was a shame about loosing that revenuer a week or so ago.  Well,  Bill had taken a bit of flack about this Still, being a dry county and all,  and I guess he got a bit worked up over it.   The evening ended with Bill heading down thru the sawgrass toward the river,  carrying his Winchester Rifle,  and everpresent Colt Peacemaker.

They didn’t get much snow in Northern Arkansas,  but it was still pretty cold.   Bill didn’t want to get his Rifle wet,  so he stashed in on the bank and waded into the darkness, Colt firmly in hand.  The current pushed him a couple hundred feet downriver of his entry point,  but he made it across, wet to his armpits.

Once ashore he picked his way back upriver,  to the point where he thought the Still was located.   It was dark,  but there must have be some bit of a moon,  because as he cleared a bit of undergrowth,  he could see a large bearded man tying a small barrell, between two logs.   He knew that this was the “Shiner“.   He stepped into the clearing,  Colt at the ready, and yelled.   The “Shiner” was quick and snatched up an old sawed off percusion double,  then rolled to the side out of the way of the .45 slug headed his way,  and pulled both triggers.  One barrell misfired and the other was off target enough that Bill was only grazed by a couple of pellets,  but the Colt was knocked loose from his hand by a more solid hit.   The “Shiner” charged him using the sawed off as a club,  but Bill got a hand on it when he swung ,  and they went down in a tangle.  They wrestled, bit,  punched and clawed until Bill whacked the “Shiner” a solid blow with a river rock.   Bill tied the “Shiner’s” moaning body to the logs and barrell,  then floated them back across the river,  leading the “Shiner” back to town at Rifle point.    Total cost of the adventure,  Bill got half his left ear bit off,  and had his Colt busted.  The “Shiner” lost his right eye to a thumb,  and his Still was smashed the next day, by, very enthusiastic Revenuer’s.  (I expect that was the least of his worry’s considering the previously murdered Revenuer.)

I don’t much have more about the elder Ellis’s,   just that my Uncle Billy was  a farmer in Northern Arkansas. 

ELLIS:  Sept of the MacPherson Clan,  HIGHLANDS,  SCOTLAND.

Athblian shona duit !

Things I have done.

Posted by Greybeard on Dec 6th, 2008 in Days of Old, News and weather | Comments Off

Taking the lead of another blogger ,  I’ve decided to try to list 100 things I’ve done.  So far I’ve only gotten to 50 things.   Either Glenn has done more “things” than I,  or else he just spent a lot of time on this list?   Oh well,  I’ll keep working on it.

64 Things:

1. Fell out of a large boat in deep water, while alone and wearing heavy clothing, then had to struggle to find a way to get back aboard.
2. Ridden an enduro motorcycle 60 mph, on a slick twisting trail, thru a forest of closely packed trees.
3. Fell off a motorcycle, in a manner that would make Evil Knievel  proud.
4. Jumped a Harley a distance of over 100 ft.
5. Caught a freshwater fish over 38 inches.
6. Restored a  Jeep CJ-3  from the frame up.
7. Driven a Jeep CJ-5,  soft-top,  100,000 miles.
8. Found a dead man in the woods.
9. Taught your children to ride trail bikes,  at 4 years old.
10. Stayed awake and active for 56 hours.
11. Retired from two different careers.
12. Saw a LIVE Harry Chapin concert
13. Built precision tools and components, from a singe block of metal.
14. Replaced the rear leaf springs on a large motorhome
15. Worked on a machine,  4 times larger than your house.
16. Found a sleeping young lady,  in the woods
17. Had a dog, that was like your best friend, and right hand.
18. Been spanked with a hickory switch.
19. Shot a 1 inch group at 300 yards with a rifle.
20. Won a major pistol shooting contest.
21. Built a 2000 computer, 6 server network, from the ground up.
22. Totaled a Car without being injured
23. Loved so powerfully, that it actually hurts.
24. Had to watch a loved one,  die very slowly
25. Driven a motorcycle and a car, over 160 mph.
26. Climbed a 14ft smooth wall, without a ladder.
27. Look back and known that at times you were an idiot.
28. Split a heavy bag with your fist, and broken bricks with a side hand blow.
29. Kicked out an overhead light fixture.
30. Felt sorrow for killing a wild animal.
31. Seen a very large falling star light up the entire ground and sky.
32. Been stung by 8 or more Yellow Jackets, in one instance.
33. Had sex with the same partner, many times in one night
34. Seen the summer night sky,  with absolutely no interfering artificial lights
35. Have your life, saved by a dog.
36. Nursed a bird back to life after it slams into a window.
37. Given away a large sum of money, because someone else needed it.
38. Run through the woods by Moonlight.
39. Sat in the woods after dark, without Moonlight.
40. Been in a position unarmed, wishing you were armed.
41. Saved someone’s life.
42. Had your own life saved
43. Been a Pallbearer, and receive the fallen Veterans’ Flag.
44. Been out ridden and out ran by your teenaged son (on a dirt bike).
45. Rappelled down the side of a large building.
46. Seen the love, in your children’s eyes, for their own children.
47. Swam in water, where no land was visible.
48. Built a hand made knife from scratch.
49. Cut down large trees in a forest
50. Had a heart attack.
51. Worked in a room so hot,  that you had to wear gloves to pick up your tools,  or get blistered.
52. Worked in a deep stinking tunnel,  linked with caked animal fat, mixed with jagged metal spikes sticking out.
53. Backed down from a fight,  fearing the damage you would do to your antagonist.
54. Been stranded miles from shore on a sinking boat
55. Voted for the wrong politition.
56. Read the Constitution and Bill of Rights
57. Respected and trusted an employer,  and wind up getting screwed for that trust.
58. Been failed in a college class while carrying a 3.9 pt. average (in the class)
59. Had a surgery,  without the benifit of anesthetic.
60. Eaten Haggis,  with Glenfiddich and  Banger’s n Mash
61. Programmed an Internet switching router
62. Terminated fiber optic cable
63. Been President of a large organization
64. Been Secretary for a medium sized organization

Flashbacks

Posted by Greybeard on Aug 7th, 2008 in Days of Old, News and weather | 1 comment

Today I looked back over some of my archives.  Some of them are junk,  some are pretty good reading.   It’s funny how your blog can keep a bit of personal history for you.  I also updated the header to be similar to my original header.  (Blue and Green,  my old Kawasaki KDX colors).

Looking back,  brought thoughts of IGOGG .  Things have changed,  but one thing remains the same.   Thank You, Mr. Grey,  for hosting all these years.  Where’s Blu Hatter?  It was occasionally fun to disagree.

Finally,  not a “Flashback”,  but very interesting.

And speaking of Books, guess I come by it natural.

Posted by Greybeard on Feb 25th, 2008 in Days of Old, Shootist | Comments Off

A while back I wrote about a book I was looking into.  A book that was supposed to have a photo of my Great-Great Grandfather.   It’s called “Badmen of the Old West” by Robert Elman.  I found it at an online antique book seller,  and sure enough Granpa Billy was in there on page 149,  just like my Dad was told years ago.    There’s not a lot about him other than this picture of him,  (Wild Bill Ellis,  in the center), and his two fellow Deputy U.S. Marshalls (for the Arkansas Territories),  Wess Bowman on the left and John Tolbert on the right.  John  and Bill are both holding Winchesters,  while Wes is holding a Henry.  They all have Colt single actions on their belts and Bill has the cartridge loops on his belt full of rifle ammo. (suggesting to me that the revolver was mainly for quick, close up work and that unless they moved their holsters around front for the photo,  they didn’t do much work on horseback).  Great Granpa Bill actually looks a lot like (or the other way around),  my Uncle Billy Ellis,  who was GGpa’s Grandson. 

I have a story or two about him passed down by word of mouth,  and I plan to get them posted here in the future,  along with any other tidbits I might find in the book.