Nail Carving?

[chuck123wapati]

found this in Al Stohlman bio on wikipedia for what its worth. Al did the same thing as anyone of the era, made what they couldn't buy out of the cheapest thing they could find.

 

 "He and a few friends used pocket knives to carve the leather and created rudimentary tools out of nails shaped into various forms.^["

[CharleyS]

2 hours ago, fredk said:

I now wonder if 'Nail Carved' is a buzz phrase to sell the item and the phrase is based on just a couple of lines in Al Stohlman's bio

I've no doubt that cowboys, settlers, farm workers, soldiers, anyone who had personal plain leather items spent time carving designs into that leather in their spare time and used whatever they had to hand, nails, knives, bullet shell cases. Archaeological finds are full of items where man left his personal mark, from neolithic stone markers carved with dots & spirals, medieval castles with game board designs carved on flat window stones, an ancient holy site with a medieval monk's carving on a stone near a doorway translated as 'Brother xxx was here (and the date)'

When I was young (yes, I was once) I used to do wood chip carving. I couldn't afford proper carving chisels so I reshaped and sharpened old screwdrivers which I scrounged off friends' parents. Someone always has an old screwdriver somewhere     Would that now be called 'Screwdriver Carved' ?

 

Well if it is a marketing ploy it worked on me lol. No I’m not going to buy one of theirs, but it got my mind wandering and looking at everything in my wood shop for how I can use it on leather.  Screwdrivers would work great on leather. Great idea lol

[DwightT]

I know that I'm late to the conversation, but I can remember way back when I was in elementary school and first started learning about the concept of leather carving, I wandered into my grandfather's shop and marveling at all of his leather carving tools.  I distinctly remember a subset of those tools that appeared to my novice eye to have been fashioned from from various nails.  Stupid me I didn't know enough at the time to even think to ask where those tools came from, but knowing him I always assumed that he had made them to meet his needs at the time.  He was an old fashioned farmer / rancher and was known to "get er done" with whatever he had at hand.  Sadly when I inherited his tools many years later those nail tools were not among the collection and I have no idea as to what happened to them.  I guess those tools could be included under the term "Nail Carving"?

    /dwight

[fredk]

Not leather work; a remembrance and it may not be totally accurate. My paternal grandfather served in a US artillery regiment in WW1. He told my father that in their spare time some of his friends used  to refashion used artillery shell cases using the horse and guns maintenance tools and they 'engraved' the brass shell cases using horse shoe nails. This 'tench art' was posted home to family and friends and some for selling. The makers got more money for the 'engraved' items than for the plain ones

[billybopp]

2 hours ago, fredk said:

Not leather work; a remembrance and it may not be totally accurate. My paternal grandfather served in a US artillery regiment in WW1. He told my father that in their spare time some of his friends used  to refashion used artillery shell cases using the horse and guns maintenance tools and they 'engraved' the brass shell cases using horse shoe nails. This 'tench art' was posted home to family and friends and some for selling. The makers got more money for the 'engraved' items than for the plain ones

I've seen a couple of those shells in the Smithsonian.  They're really cool!

- Bill

[AlZilla]

I think this is the holster to which the OP is referring:

https://www.riverjunction.com/5859

It reminds me of so called "Pawn Shop Engraving".  A very crude engraving committed about a hundred years ago upon otherwise perfectly good firearms. People today make a point of collecting these atrocities, while others see them as inexcusable (I'm in the latter camp).  "Trench Art" is another matter - some guy with nothing but a nail and a holster doing the best he can, I'm totally on board with that.

But, hey ... "art" is in the eye of the beerholder, so who am I to judge?

Edited April 8, 2023 by AlZilla