Every Day Carry

Legendary Saxon Cigar Carrier

Legendary Saxon 1For a while I’ve been seeing these great looking leather cigar carriers from Legendary Saxon and was considering picking one up. They were kind enough to contact me and I chose their Premium Oil Tanned Leather 3 Finger Carrier in a tan color. (In addition to the cigar carrier they make loads of other great leather products.) From there the creation progress began. Total production time was only a couple of days and then was shipped.

The packaged was shipped USPS Priority and arrived quickly. I opened the package and was immediately met by the smell of rich leather. I think I stood there just smelling it for about ten minuets, it was… amazing. After getting over that I decided to take it for a spin since I was headed out that evening anyway. I quickly loaded the carrier with three sticks in the main pouch and tossed a lighter and cutter into the small front pocket. The leather feels heavy but soft in the hands but the way it is stitched together I felt confident that my cigars would be protected well. I wrapped the ties around it and off I went. When I reached my destination I opened it up and as expected my cigars were in perfect condition. As I sat there smoking I began wondering where the idea for it came from. I’ve seen leather carriers before but nothing like the looks of this one. So to find out I asked. I had the pleasure of speaking with Scott and this is what he had to say:IMG_1347

“I got into leather working in fall of 2013 as an art therapy for combat stress from Afghanistan and Iraq. I was hand sewing everything and just giving stuff away to my friends and family. Someone suggested I try to sell it, and I very skeptically put something online and it sold. As it started to grow I invested in an industrial sewing machine. I’ve since expanded and have my college friend Philip as a business partner. I do all the leather selection, ordering, designing, cutting and tooling. I also do all of our digital brand management. Philip does all the sewing, finances, packing and shipping. Our shop is very small and is his garage. I can’t tell you how many leather samples I have ordered from different wholesalers and tanneries in order to find just the right leather I like. My design philosophy is simple. I design the types of things that I would like to have myself. The rustic and rugged nature of my cuts, incorporating the asymmetric edges and natural flows of the hide, the original cattle brands and barbed wire scars, comes from how I see myself as a combat veteran. Scarred yet resilient. I look for the absolute best quality leather, combined with a IMG_1352unique rugged luxury look, in order to tell my story.  My satisfaction comes from customers loving their cuts, and from knowing that my cuts support the customer’s lifestyle aesthetic.”

I’ve had this carrier no for about two months and it has taken over as my everyday carrier this thing goes everywhere with me and has started many conversations due to its uniqueness. The leather continues to hold up well and any bumps or bruises that it acquires only gives it more character. If anybody is in need of a one of a kind custom made cigar carrier I highly recommend making the small investment in one from Legendary Saxon. At $55.00 it’s truly a steal.

 

Website: www.legendarysaxon.com

Cost: $55.00

Rating: 5 out of 5 pints.

Drew’s Custom Leather Heritage Notebook Cover/Wallet

image2So back in October 2014, I changed Jobs within the company I work for, for information sake I work in the Power Generation field (AKA Making Power). Well I went from a maintenance job (AKA Fixing Stuff) to an Operations/Production job (AKA making sure stuff is running). That’s enough about me but the reason why I brought this up is to help explain why I started to look for a quality note book because, I found myself in my new job writing on myself with a sharpie I always carried and pretty much felt like I was back in high school. Let’s be honest in my field of work you have to have some professionalism about yourself, or everyone will take you as a joke and more or less your word and input goes straight to the poop chute, In My Opinion of course.

So I had been following various makers of all kinds of goods and people from all different walks of life. I saw some people posting pictures of these small books called Field Notes which are 3.5 X 5.5 pocket-sized note books for carrying around so you can write notes or do small sketches in that you would possibly need to remember. I started to research them and was almost ready to pull the trigger and buy a 3 pack of them ($9.95), but for some reason I kept forgetting to order them. Then one day checking Instagram, one of the people I follow @drewscustomleather, had a picture posted of a nice handmade leather covers for Field Note sized books, the one that really caught my eye was the “Heritage” style cover, he makes another one that’s called “The Drifter” which has a strap with button snap closure, and a d-ring to clip to but I liked the stripped down esthetics of the heritage and order one.

When I received my Heritage in the mail, the cover came with one Orange covered Field Notes book image3-2which I will explain what that means later but, I brought it with me the next day to work. Now initially it needed a break in period because it wouldn’t stay closed but don’t worry me consistently keeping it in my back pocket and sitting on it made short work of that problem, next was the pen pocket sewn into the front needed to stretch and break in a little but Drew does warn you of that fact. Now another issue which is not Drew’s fault at all, it actually deals with the Field Notes book, remember earlier I said something different about the book being orange, well the orange stands for Expedition Edition. The Expedition edition means it not actually made of real paper, what looks to be paper is actually Yupo Synthetic paper, which is made from extruded polypropylene pellets, is water proof, tear resistant, chemical resistant, has been tested 12 different ways by Field Notes, and is made right here in the good old USA. Now I told you all of this because since it’s not real paper, some pens don’t work on it especially Gel pens which are what I usually write with. So after doing some testing I found a cheap pen one of our material suppliers cheap give away pens work great, so stick with cheap ball point pens and you’ll be fine.

I have carried this wallet with me at work every day and I couldn’t be happier with it! Sincerely the outer buffalo leather that the cover is made from has held up very well and darkens beautifully with age and wear, I have scratched the surface by accident on corners of sharp metal and with a finger nail or 2 and it will fade away in the leather like it ever even happened. The inside of the cover has 4 slits cut into the flaps to old business cards or even credit card sized cards, I keep my Mobile Crane and Forklift certifications in those slits. Not one thread of stitching has come out and it’s had some rough handling including falling out of an off road vehicle a few times. I have even had coworkers question on what it was and when I showed them, they were actually impressed…see what I mean about professionalism. I use this every day at work writing down tank levels, oil temperature, and valve numbers just to name a few. If you need to remember things thru the day or just need a book to write some things down in, I highly recommend this product, because I honestly don’t think the Field Notes book would have survived this long without the Heritage Cover from Drew’s Custom Leather. As always if you can buy from small businesses, I think you notice the difference in quality, and you are helping a person not a stock price.

Website: Drewscustomleather.com

Price $109 includes Field Notes Book

Website for refill note pads: Fieldnotesbrand.com 

Rating 4.7 out of 5 pints

Smith Elite Aegis Echo Glasses

image4So I strolled into the Gun shop I frequent, and Spartan Firearms have been a Smith Elite dealer for a little while now but I never really bothered looking at their products. On this day I just happened to get talking to my buddy Gary Ahlers who runs the shop about Smith Elite products and why he started to carry the products. After some conversation (and cash) I walked out with a Smith Elite Aegis Echo Deluxe Kit in Tan.

From my Initial look at these glasses, I was impressed with the quality and innovative design. I mean most people think that “hey any pair of Z87.1+ safety glasses will do the same job at a whole lot cheaper”, and in some ways I use to believe that. I always had a couple pairs of cheap $5 safety glasses or I used my Oakley Holbrooks as shooting glasses when I went to the gun range. In reality that was a very foolish way for me to think. I wear safety glasses daily at my job and for what I do at work, they are adequate but unlike most safety glasses, Smith Elite tests their glasses to a higher standard than regular safety glasses. They even exceed MIL SPEC MIL-PRF-31013 which is the U.S. Militaries Ballistic Eye Protection Specification. If you know anything about MIL SPEC, it’s overly specific to the point of insanity and this particular Mil Spec requires a projectile of 5.8 grains in weight and .15 inches in diameter to be shot at 640-660 Ft/S at protective eye wear and not crack the eye wear or allow any material to pierce a witness sheet that is behind the lens. It also requires the eye wear to be resistant to a whole list of chemicals as well as hot and cold climate testing, UV protection, and optical clarity. What’s the point if you can’t see out of them properly? So what does this mean to you the regular guy, who isn’t enlisted in the military and is a just weekend warrior at the gun range, hunter or the many other hobbies where eye wear is needed. It means this eye wear will take just about everything you can dish out and more.image2

Smith Optics Elite line makes multiple different styles of eye wear that is ballistic rated. One reason I chose the Aegis Echo Deluxe Kit is for the almost completely unobstructed field of view. I mean seriously unless you cross your eyes, there is no part of the frame that creates a blind spot. Second reason is the ability to change lenses in a few seconds with no tools. The frame is designed with these two pivot lock bars that you pull up on, and then with a downward pull the Lens separates from the frame easily. The kit I bought came with 3 different colors of lenses, clear, yellow and gray/tinted so you are covered for any lighting condition you may come across; another nice thing is the nose pads are attached to each lens so no need to swap those between lenses making it that much easier to change a lens out. The kit also includes a nice black nylon carry bag big enough to hold the frames and all 3 lenses, 3 lens pouches to protect the lenses when not in use, an elastic strap to hold the glasses on if you do a lot of movement and Smith Elites anti fog cloth that actually does that job very well (the humidity is a constant down here in the swamp know as South Florida). Only drawback is for sunny Florida they’re gray/tinted lens isn’t dark enough, but down here you could use a #4 cutting torch shade regularly in the summer time no problem, so maybe it’s just me.

image1There are a million things I could say about these glasses, but I won’t. If you like to go shooting and take safety seriously, Smith Optics Elite is a good investment. Could you seriously say $100 is too much to spend on your eyes, if so then I don’t think you know the value of your eye sight. Do yourself a favor buy quality eye wear for the range because one preventable range accident shouldn’t hurt you for the rest of your life, Should It?

 

 

Brand: Smith Optics

Website: www.smithoptics.com/elite/

Rating: 4.5 pints out of 5

Would I recommend this to friend: Yes