TexasJack

A friend bought one and brought it to a knifemaker's hammer-in. He gave a demo, making a simple sheath. It was surprising just how easy it was to set up and get going. It's still machine stitching and not hand stitching, but it's pretty impressive for turning out quick and decent results.

Doesn't look very big to me. We had a very wet summer with lots of skeeters and the spiders thrived on them. Big webs that stretched 15 to 20 ft across. I saw an interview years ago with Vincent Price. He said that all horror movies have the heros (or victims) walking through cob webs because tests have shown that men hate walking through webs and showing that on-screen made the men in the audience jumpy. I do know that walking through one at night bugs me pretty bad! It is interesting how folks get all wired about big spiders - which are usually harmless - and don't worry at all about small ones like the brown recluse that can really tear you up.

Lots of things are 'recycled' into energy. I did some work on a wood chip and sawdust fired power plant in Maine. Lots of lumber and paper mills there and they generate a lot of bark, chips, and sawdust. A modern facility with good pollution controls can burn that stuff up just fine. Quite a few odd hydrocarbons (off-spec paint, for example) get blended into No. 6 oil for power plants or cement kilns. Oddly enough, trash is hard to burn for energy and most places that tried it failed miserably. It's too inconsistent unless it is pre-processed. Monday's trash will have far more grass and leaves than other days of the week. There's an interesting method that separates trash into different components - recovering glass and metals while compiling all the paper, wood, etc. for combustion. Someone tried to build a plant for that near Pittsburgh, but whiny locals shot it down. Quite a few things - including used cooking oils and fats - can be compounded to make biodiesel. The stuff works pretty well and will clean out the carbon deposits that normal petroleum diesel leaves. Far better energy recovery than making ethanol.

A gunsmith showed me a horribly corroded stainless steel revolver that had been stored in a leather holster for about 1 year. Yeah, this is a high humidity area. Nylon may be less of a problem because it doesn't have the residual acids, but nylon will absorb water. Kydex is probably the least likely to contribute to a corrosion problem.

Just had to stop and say that I really like the look of that checkbook cover! It may not be a complex pattern, but it looks great!