Origins

Since 2018 it has been my distinct pleasure to collaborate and conspire with many of my customers in the process of creating beautiful, one of a kind displays for all sorts of old weaponry. Throughout this time and many encounters I have been asked numerous times, “How did you get started doing this?”. Generally I give them the short version of a long story but since I have the platform and a few minutes of time on my hands, I will elaborate with just a little background on how Wood-N-Lead came to be.

(Cue the dream sequence music) My name is Brian and I was born in a small town in what was once called Dakota Territory, USA, in 1958. As a kid I played Cops & Robbers, Cowboys & Indians, had dirt clod fights with my friends in the summer and played king of the snow pile in the winter. I remember President Kennedy getting shot and the Beatles coming to America. But what really sticks in my mind is helping my dad in the workshop. Early on he instilled a sense of safety with dangerous tools and pride in a job well done. In all these years I still have all 10 fingers, but a few pretty nasty scars.

By the time I had wood shop class in high school, I could have taught the class. In the coming years I embarked on a 20+ year career in radio broadcasting and another almost 20 year career in industrial maintenance. And through it all, I always had a workshop where I tinkered and built and repaired. I love taking old junk and giving it a new purpose. Old Harley parts turned into a wall clock, that sort of thing.

At one point about 15 years ago, I got interested in black powder pistol shooting. With the nearest place to purchase supplies some 50 miles away, I embarked on becoming self sufficient and cast my own lead rounds, made my own lube and wads, even made my own gun powder from scratch. As with all my hobbies over the years (that’s another long story), I threw myself completely into it and found a love for the history of these old firearms. One day in the shop I built a wall plaque to display my Colt Walker. I wrote up a brief history and attached it to a board with a couple of pegs to hold the pistol and up on the wall it went. Before long I had a display plaque for all 3 of the pistols that I had at the time. Friends and family all remarked on how cool they were and there they hung for a few years.

Then I got sick. Real sick and wound up in the hospital for a while. I pulled through but I was done working and medical expenses piled up. I started selling off non-essential belongings to keep the bill collectors off my back and my beloved plaques were sold on ebay. They sold immediately and the buyer asked if I could make more of the plaques for the rest of his collection. When finished I basically had the template for 8 of the most popular old west pistols. Along with my ’51 Navy, ’58 Remington and Colt Walker, I could now made a Paterson, a Dragoon, a Colt Pocket pistol, a 58 Remington Navy and a ’60 Colt Army. Andwhen I made the plaques the that first customer, I built an extra of each one and put them up on ebay. Again, they sold rapidly and within a month I had another customer who wanted more for his whole collection. This time it was a Flintlock and Caplock, a Colt Single Action Army, an Anaconda, a Colt M1911 and a Colt 1898 New Service revolver. I added those to my repertoire and I was off to the races. I started Wood-N-Lead and because I didn’t keep good records in the early days, I’m not sure exactly how many I have built and sold, but it is somewhere over 800 shipped worldwide. In the beginning it was for the money but when the bills were paid, I kept going for the love of the history and the fun of meeting a lot of great and interesting people.

Oh, and the Wood-N-Lead name? I tell people its because the plaques are made of wood, and the non-cartridge pistols have the lead rounds attached to the plaques. The fact is, when I first started I also sold lead for guys who cast their own bullets. I got too busy with plaques to do the lead so I quit that but the name stuck. And the rest, as they say, is history.