Finally I can get rid of that old piece of rope I have been using to hold up my pants...the new gear has arrived. From now on I will be styling with this rad buckle thanks to artist/blacksmith Wes Groot at Cityboy Forge. To use a random term I heard somewhere along the way, I have been desirous of owning a piece of Wes' work since being made aware of it quite a while ago. Holding off on purchasing something I really want is not a strong suit for me, but I decided that this would be a commemoration and self-reward for meeting some goals with Anglers Choice Flies. Goals met...buckle now in hand!
I had my eye on a buckle on the Cityboy Forge site from the first time I checked it out. It was similar to what I ended up with but with different materials. To more resemble the brown trout that I love to harass with big flies I asked Wes if he could change it just a bit for me. After a few back and forth emails I settled on the trout in copper on an un-treated steel background. He said no problem at all, and a few weeks later it has arrived...and I could not be more stoked about how it turned out. Being sized just smaller than a standard business card it is of a size that is big enough to be noticed, but not so big that it seems completely out of place in daily life
As part of the process you can customize the back of the buckle as well, so I took full advantage of that. In addition to the forge information, signature, and serial number I decided to impart a bit of practical knowledge for anyone who may happen across this at a later unfortunate time...or hopefully never.
I can not stress how easy it was to work with Wes and how pleased I am with the results. I expect that this thing will wear like steel since, well...it is. Check out some of Wes' other work at CityboyForge.com
-mike schmidt
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