Danny Duncan

[bruce johnson]

       Danny Duncan was mentioned in another thread about a swivel knife sharpener he patented. He also came up with a handheld lace punch and a punch machine called the “Lever Punch”. I learned a bit about Mr Duncan when we toured the old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. I’m just going to say if you find yourself in that area - well worth the visit. The prison has a large craft program and across the street is the craft shop where these folks can sell what they make. Part goes to a victims fund, part to maintaining the store, and the remainder to the inmate. Leatherwork, horsehair hitching, and more. I came across a display case of leather tools and this history on Danny Duncan. They had a few versions of the Lever Punch on display. Chuck Smith knew Danny when he was in Southern California and we had a good talk about him. 
     There are several good leather workers trained in prison. Some still there. Texas has a good program and so does Colorado. Sometimes these guys have to go through a lot of steps to get tools they need and some are provided in the prison shop. I’ve got a lot of respect for these guys and the officers who run the programs and teach these guys. 

[AlZilla]

• Amazing. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

[bruce johnson]

  On 4/12/2025 at 4:39 AM, AlZilla said:

• Amazing. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

Expand  

Thank you! There is always a story behind something. One thing I found interesting was on the intake sheet he was listed as a 4th grade education. Life sentence originally too. He did well.

A friend told us we needed to go the prison there in Deer Lodge and then the craft shop. At the prison craft shop the makers price and describe their items themselves. Especially with the hitched horsehair you can see quality and skill differences. One belt  jumped out at me, really clean tight work, excellent color transitions, and priced about $200 more than most others. He described the size, colors used, and his comment section was "27 years experience hitching hair".  He had been there a while. Hope he got some good commissary with his proceeds from me. I bought a bag with 5 hitched key fobs. One had a pink heart hitched into the pattern. Tag said "Give the heart to a sweetheart, mine left me - why I'm here". How can you not buy that? 

I am not sure how other prisons operate. I know at one time in Colorado the inmates working in the Canon City leather shop produced stuff that went into interstate commerce and by federal law were paid minimum wage. Huge money for a prison job. The guy that used to run that program said almost zero disciplinary issues because the guys did not want to lost those jobs. One guy got out and buys from me for his own shop. 

[AlZilla]

I've seen people showing off their Texas inmate-made holsters, and pretty nice stuff it is, too. I can't find the specific link at the moment, but here's a link to the "Leather" page for the Hunstville, TX Musem shop:

https://www.txprisonmuseum.org/shop-2?page=9

You have to hit "Load More" 7 or 8 times see see it all.

[bruce johnson]

Got done early with some shop stuff tonight and pulled out some handy Danny Duncan stuff. Two of the "lever punch" machines, two svivel knife sharpening jigs, and one of the wooden handle lace punches. I'll probably just leave them out and put them in the Old Corner Museum of Cool S**t Leather Tools. 

[Chipster99]

So cool.