Last week, I had to be in Buffalo, NY on business, and had made arrangements with Lou Alessi to drop by the shop and meet him. I've owned Alessi holsters and gear for several years, and traded emails and phone calls with Lou, but never had the chance to meet him face to face. "We usually open the shop around 10, so come on by anytime tomorrow morning" he said.
As I drove up Niagra Falls Boulevard, I finally spotted the store front in a small strip of shops, and pulled around back to park, as Lou had instructed. As I walked in the front door, a voice from over the partition said, 'That must be Buck!" Lou invited me back into the shop, a place of wonderful smells, sights and sounds.
Before settling in, Lou introduced me to the person who really keeps the place going, Mary Lou, who in turn introduced me to Joel, her grandson who was with her for "Take your Grandchild to Work Day." Joel was busy hand-stamping some leather on the bench, and at the end of my visit was nice enough to take some of the pictures here. Mary Lou has the wit of a writer, and the patience of a saint - she's an absolute gem.
I was so obviously dumb-struck by everything I was looking at that Lou offered me coffee (gratefully accepted) and proceeded to show me everything from the buffing wheels, mold guns and drying ovens in the back to the dies, hides, hardware, die press, and stitching machine in the main part of the shop. He also showed me a 30-year old piece of whalebone that he used to use to hand-bone his holsters to the molds, but which has since been replaced for duty by a smooth, heavy piece of stainless steel that John (5 Shot) made up for him last year.
When I pull a new Alessi holster out of the bag, it's easy to imagine a series of big machines that do all that perfect aligning and stitching. What I learned on my visit is that stitching like that actually takes TWO machines: an old sewing machine that pokes holes in the leather with an awl, then draws the thread through, and a younger, studlier machine named Lou Alessi, who skillfully guides the leather fore and back, around and down, until all the stitching is complete. I was mesmerized to watch him operate that (to me) incredibly complex piece of equipment. If you ever wondered why it took so long to get a holster from Lou Alessi, that's one reason.
This next picture is for Richard Heinie, who will please note the stamping on the piece Lou's working on. "Dick Heinie says I never work on his stuff anymore, so see if you can get a shot of his name on this one!" Mr. Heinie, I'm just the messenger.....
Since two new shark hides arrived in the morning mail, I was then treated to a tutorial on how Lou makes his belts (I'm wearing the first belt I got from him last year, in brown shark, in the pictures). The reason Lou's belts are so supple is that he treats the inner layer heavily with neats foot oil. Again returning to the subject of mechanization, he said that you can buy commercial machines for aligning and stitching belts, but that the cost is so prohibitive that he'd never see any return on the investment. So if you (like me) are waiting for one or more Alessi belts to get done, understand that there is a critical path item in the belt making process at the shop - that would be Lou, who insists on doing them himself.
You'd never know it from looking at the svelte guy with the sweatshirt in the last picture, but Lou's carrying a Ted Yost LW Commander under that sweatshirt (in a CQC/S), and insisted on unloading and showing it to me. He couldn't be prouder.
Finally, feeling slightly guilty that my education was keeping some poor souls from getting that much closer to delivery of their Alessi holsters, belts and other stuff (come to think of it, I'm in that group, too), I told Lou I had to get back to my day job. Instead of feeling like I'd just met a stranger, I felt like I'd renewed a relationship with an old friend. We even swapped a couple of Army stories from eons ago on the way to my car. I could not have been made to feel more welcome, a favor that I look forward to returning next year when Lou and the LTW gang are in my town for SHOT 2007.
I live a blessed life, and that life was further enriched last week by the time I spent in Lou Alessi's shop.
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Seriously, he is the finest of people.
