As you can imagine, SHOT Show is hectic. On Monday, I started to receive phone calls and texts from my friend Andrew Ho saying he had something for me. I didn’t know it at the time but he was working as a courier for Derrick Obatake of Steel Flame who had him carry a surprise to Las Vegas for me. It took several back and forths before we finally linked up, and by that time the ‘package’ was burning a hole in Andrew’s pocket. Unbeknownst to me, he had even gone so far to post a photo to my Facebook wall and handed out some of the contents to mutual fiends. Once we linked up, Andrew handed me a small ziploc bag. I opened it and it turned out to be filled with copper dogtags. Each one was carefully stamped with the SSD logo. These beauties were accompanied with a simple card (seen below). I was floored.
Derrick had asked me months ago for a copy of my logo and said he would have a surprise for me one day. Truth be told, I had completely forgotten about it. What a guy. While we gave most of them away at SHOT Show to some really great people, we’re holding a few back to give away to our readers. So keep your eyes peeled for that.
Even though we’ve only met a few times, Derrick honored me by doing something completely selfless. He is one of the most giving men I have ever known and I can only hope to make it up to him. I’ve been wanting to thank him for a few weeks now but I felt it best to wait for things to die down a little.
If you’ve got a jewelry project and need some top notch work, I cannot recommend Steel Flame enough.
Tags: Steel Flame
It looks awesome. Kingly gift!
Very Cool! Looks great
Derrick and Len certainly broke the mould. If karma is real they have maxed out the contribution limit.
Looks great! You are lucky to have such a good friend.
Derrick is awesome and a fellow LA Hitman. He makes amazing stuff!
Derrick is great people.
Derrick is as generous as he is gifted artistically. Humbled to know him and be the grateful recipient if his generosity on more than one occasion.
Derrick and Leonard are amazing people. I try to think about WWD&LD all the time as a guide to being generous, thoughtful and compassionate. What they do and how they do it might be a surprise but that they do it has become an expectation in my world view. Congratulations on SSD having it’s very own tag. That’s quite a recognition of the value of what you’re doing!
That is pure awesome.
Checked out their website. Really cool stuff but it is very expensive. I’d love to get my hands on the crusader takedown pin and bead but there is no way I would ever convince myself to shell out the cash. It’s a shame because it is very beautifully done.
Saw one in the possession of a lucky recipient just last night…very cool!
Looking beyond the incredible works of art he creates, he is genuinely a great human being. Proud to count him as a friend!