He started engraving in 1980, after one of his partners, Hells AngelKenny Baker, told him to hang up the standard scroll style of engravingfor the tattoo kind of work, which he has since become well known for.C.J. was rumored to say, “Ya don’t have flowers and doilies tattooed allover yer body, so why the hell would ya want em all over yer fuckinbike….? I do traditional engraving on traditional things, and love toengrave the things that reflect my lifestyle, and identify me as who I am,on the bikes I ride……..!”
C.J. is currently engraving and numbering 10 Billet Pulley Clocks.They will be available on his website for $150.Click on the banners to reach his site.
Also, as a 20-year member of the American Mountain Men, he learned andbecame a respected builder and engraver of traditional weapons, guns andknives. He knows his way around muzzle-loading firearms and all that goes with them. He does restoration work on antiques and modern styles on the newerweapons.
While I was searching for the elusive C.J., one bartender with a gnarled nose plastered on the side of his face began to sweat when I mentioned his name. Stroking his face nervously, he muttered that Allan had some five black belts in various styles of martial arts. (That’s just what I wanted to hearabout now.)
The barkeep suddenly snarled, “Who wants to know?” and reached under the bar.I scrambled for the rear entrance and that fast-as-hell Big Dog. I spentmost of that evening at Harold’s Dive Bar in Pedro kicking back beers andwondering what kind of trouble I’d gotten myself into. By the end of my first six-pack, I figured something out: People might not particularly like this dude, and some may even go so far as to hate him, but they ALL respect him. He’s handled his life the best way he could, faced the toughest, did his time and kept on truckin’. He’s a legend on the streets. He’s a talent not only with a hammer and chisels for engraving, but can also handle a spray gun, pin striping and lettering brushes. Since the early ’60s, he has built and ridden some of the badest bikes you’ll ever find. This is one dude who has a hell of a lot to offer in this computer-driven world.
If you have an engraved piece by C.J. on your motorcycle, it’s one of akind, engraved by one of a kind. It would be like having a gun built byold Sam Hawkins himself. He is the real thing, doing the real thing.
I found out later that Bandit has a couple of C.J.’s engraved pointcovers and a few other really cool items on his bikes. If he sells thebikes, the covers don’t go with em. So if you ever wished you had an aircleaner or some other neat part pinstriped by Von Dutch, C.J. is theengraving equivalent. I was stunned by my clarity and curled another beer.Just then, I heard some bikes pull up out back. The door crashedopen and in walked a mountain of a man. “Snake!” he shouted at the room.I flinched. “You lookin’ for me?” C.J. said, sliding a shiny metal objectdown the bar at me. Dead accurate, it split my Corona bottle and the sudsyliquid spilled across the bar. I shoved the shards of glass aside andreached into the foam. I came away with a flamed and polished sterlingsilver money clip with “Snake” carefully engraved in the hard surface. “Let’stalk,” he said, lumbering in my direction. I didn’t know whether tohaul ass for the Big Dog or shake the big man’s hand.As my clarity faded into another drunken stupor, I learnedthat C.J. is, in fact, a pretty cool human being who has made his waythrough life by his wits, talented hands and sheer determination. PlusSS the man can party!– (Editors note: We’re still lookin’ for Snake and the Big Dog, but you canreach C.J. at www.cjs-engraving.com. Tell him we said “hi,” and to sendthe Snake home, Bandit wants to have a few words with him.)
Back to Page 1………
