Want a revolution? Believe in flower power? Proclaim to the world you are part of a peaceful revolution with this slice of a cylinder taken from a dissected revolver style handgun. The size varies depending on the caliber of gun and the number of cartridges it holds. The most  common is a “six shooter. The infamous .38 Special usually holds 5 cartridges, but cylinders have been made to hold as many as 12 shots. You can sport this wafer as a pendant or place it on a key ring. We like to leave some of the scarring from the band saw but also polish it up a bit, a little nod to the idea of us as “wounded healers” as coined by Carl Jung and brought into theology by Henri Nouwen.

Speaking of revolvers and revolution, when was the last time you dipped into the writing of Pier Prudhon, that French philosopher known for tangling with Marx…the father of Anarchism, who railed against communists for stealing Christianity’s best social constructs and then kicking out God. Prudhon referred to the book of Acts and living in Christian community  “from each according to their ability and to each according to their need,”  and Matthew 25 where we are taught about the requirement of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, getting clothes to the naked, tending to the sick and imprisoned, or in short “caring for the least of these.” As a young man I did a little bender on Prudahon which led me to Jacque Ellul, and Vernand Eller which fit right in with that Chomsky seminar, and the Tolstoy. It’s really my old roommate's fault. Jerald Landary was a Fransciscan who ran around with the Berrigan brothers and started a commune with Dave Dillenger. Wonder how those books would land for me now? Write infosouth@rawtools.org if you're interested in this stuff, and maybe we could create a reading group?

But WAIT, I digress. Got to shout out to Matt Clarady!  Matt is a RAWtools All-Star Blacksmith and fellow Southerner from Tennessee whom we claim as one of our own. I was in his shop and saw how he sliced up a revolver cylinder and made flowers from them. “Brilliant,” I thought; and told him there, and then, “I’m totally stealing this idea from you.” Gracious Southerner that he is, Matt smiled and said, “Take it!”  And not only that, he sent me home with a couple revolver cylinders to help me get started!