Tee Shirt Tuesday #14

 

I picked up my new Bazooka Joe tee shirt last week. The design on the front is the same as the other one I have of his except the color scheme is reversed. The other one is white with black designs. 

Joe's a really nice guy, had kind of a checkered amateur career but he did become Indiana Open Division Champion. Nobody works harder than Joe. He's always in shape and you never have to worry about him making weight. He's fighting pro now but like with a lot of other things these days, it's hard to get fights. There's a guy locally who promotes fights occasionally, but he's not too generous with the purses. Joe's last couple of fights have been in Iowa. I haven't been able to go due to the cooties but I think he's got a fight coming up in April. I might try and make that one.

I've got parts ordered for the jitney that are supposed to be here this week, but we'll have to see what mother nature has to say about that. They're talking rain today turning to snow. Last I saw, the local forecast is still talking about a foot for Wednesday and Thursday, followed by a cold day on Friday.

I worked in the shop a bit yesterday doing some clean-up work and a bit of welding and machining on the hammer for the black powder derringer in the photo. I got this thing from a guy I used to work with many years ago. I've been going through some of my odds and ends and I decided I needed to see about fixing it or tossing it out. I don't know if it started life as a kit or what, but it wouldn't do anything when cocked - lots of parts mis-aligned. I've had to do quite a bit of work on it but I've got it operational now. The trigger guard needs to be screwed down yet. Where the front screw goes, there's something broken off in the stock. It's not very big in diameter - might be a drill bit. Nothing's been done with the back screw yet. When I get the front screw taken care of, I'll then tackle the back one. After modifying the hammer, I'd like to try my hand at color case hardening it or else just file and sand real well where I welded.

When I get the rest of the mechanical stuff taken care of I'll pull the barrel out of the stock, get the rust off of it and then cold blue it or brown it. I don't know what I'll do with it after I get it finished. Maybe get some round balls and shoot it a couple of times. It's been fun working on it - beats sitting around in the evening watching the television.