Jimmie Leonard Lawson
My grandfather believed in working hard for an honest wage to provide for his family. He was a machinist by trade and in 1950 opened his first machine shop in Carson, Ca. He apprenticed his three sons in this shop and ultimately opened a new shop with his sons called Lawsons. After many successful years they closed up shop and my grandfather moved out to Joshua Tree, Ca. and worked from his garage until the day he died. My father, Floyd Lawson, has carried on the tradition of machining by hand from that same garage in Joshua Tree and is now teaching me the trade. Together we are creating high quality, stainless steel and steel goods that will be passed down for generations.
The process
Your product starts with a bar of stainless or cold rolled steel and is milled by hand using my grandfathers machines that have been in use for decades. That’s pretty much it. Seems pretty simple but it’s actually a complicated process. There are no masters or molds to work from, it’s all about measurements and patience when it comes to machining. A machinist requires a certain skill set that is becoming rare, my hope is to keep this tradition alive by taking the trade in a totally different direction.
Steel v Silver
We are certainly not suggesting that steel is a better quality metal then silver. What we are suggesting is that it’s a nice alternative option. So why do our rings cost as much as a silver ring? There are many factors involved here, the main being labor. It requires just as much labor to machine a ring out of steel as it does to hand forge a silver ring and more work then casting a silver ring. What about the cost of metals? Silver is worth more then steel but how much of that $150 silver ring is actual silver cost? It’s pretty simple to find out, weigh your ring and do the math. Even with the high cost of silver these days the metal value of your average mens ring is around $10-$25 depending on the weight and quality of silver you have. Not all .925′s or alike. So your decision shouldn’t come down to the value of the metal but the craftsmanship involved in creating the product.
