The drums are calling...

This hand drum is a two headed hand carved wooden drum, reportedly from Africa. The skin of the heads is oddly patterned - not sure if it's goat, cow, dog, or what. There's a vegetable fiber cord/strap for carrying. You could almost use it to dress up like this guy.

It's Fish Knife Friday #19

And, at the time of this writing, only have 19 fish knives. This is why next week will be my last Fish Knife Friday unless I get some more!

"Wait", I can hear you say. "If you only have 19, and this is the 19th post, how can next week be the last Fish Knife Friday"?.

You're quite clever for working that out. The reason, good reader, is that I inadvertently posted a fish knife twice. If you're the first figure out which one, I might even give you something.

Another little parlor pistol

Like this post, this little fella is a parlor pistol, designed for indoor and/or gallery shooting. It's got German proof marks on the right side of the barrel, and has an elaborate little breech loading system to keep the itty bitty 6 mm (.22 caliber) CB or BB caps in the chamber. As soon as I get some Flobert cartridges, I'm going to give it a shot. This little guy will also probably be the piece I use to introduce the kid to shooting - low noise, single shot, no recoil, "safe" muzzlle velocities, little cartridges for little hands, and a little frame. This he will appreciate more than a shot with my S&W 625.

Old coins 7

Now these guys are really old. How old? Well, there's a high probability that they are older than your religion, whatever that is. These are old Roman coins from various periods, found as dug relics in Europe. This, evidently, is quite common over there. I don't pretend to know much about them, although I've had friends identify a few of them by sight (I really don't care, myself). I think they are cool - makes you wonder what happens to our coins in 2000 years, huh?

Most of these are copper, brass, or bronze, although a few are slightly ferrous as they stick to a strong magnet (not as strongly as steel, but enough to be lifted off a surface without falling).

Jet Man!

OK, OK...this is NOT something from my collection. But this is one of two or three local L-29 Delfin and L39 Albatros enthusiasts that routinely do groundpasses at an airstrip near my home - and it's really friggin' cool.

I first saw one of these guys pop out of the tree line as I was moving stuff in back in 2000. I thought the guy was crashing! They do at least one pass nearly every weekend, giving us our own personal air show. The best is kicking it in the inflatable kiddie pool (in the summer, of course) when they come over. Awesome.

P.S. My apologies for the drain pipe at the end of the clip - my stupid camera only does Quick Time, which I can't edit or shorten without "Going Pro". Pltpppt!

A painting on driftwood

This is another version of the Ringgold Brothers - the research boat I worked on for a while and discussed in this post. This one was sold a few years back to one of the fisheries scientists working on the boat.

Old coins 6

This one is English, with barely discernible busts of William and Mary - 1691 - 1693.