Weaving shuttle start

I was asked by a friend of mine what got me started in Shuttle making? Well My soon to be wife is a weaver and so is her mom and one day last year. I was asked if it would be something I would be interested in. I first I thought no way this is crazy but after a few seconds of doubt I said sure why not never one to back down from a challenge. A case of the art finding the artist. I got the brass for my first shuttle from some reclaimed brass (bad idea to start with) however swords into plowshares and all I borrowed my soon to be fiance's jewelers saw and went to work on the material and I tell you it was work it took the better part of 3 months to make the shuttle and if you ask Noreen Crone-Findlay over at http://www.hankeringforyarn.com/ to show it to you she just might I think she has posted it a few times from Christmas on. Back to the story well I finally cut the brass and it was rounded cylinder from its former life which it was well suited to its new life as a shuttle if you know anything about structural integrity a dome is a hard thing to flatten. So I got out my blow torch and well heated and cooled and clamped and heated and cooled and clamped hit it with a hammer and gave it allot of yule time love or frustration (I was making it for a Christmas gift) something you should always start early. After a good day or two of that I got it somewhat flattened which is to say good enough for what I was doing to it. As this was a new thing to me I took lots of breaks as I was doing this as a labour of love. If you met Noreen or her family you would know why. I was given a template of one of Noreen's favorite shuttles so I copied it onto the brass using a somewhat transparent sheet of plastic and taped then after that did not work glued onto the brass and started to saw again now if you have never used a jewelers saw well as I have talked about before the inventor of it was a southpaw and never thought to make a right handed version of it. Lets just say the blades come in 12 to a pack and you need all 12 to cut your project. I went through the set I bought and a few of my wonderful soon to be wife's to boot. I now buy them in bulk a dozen dozen at a time. Well I cut and cut and cut some more but the more I cut the more the material spoke to me and I kind of liked it so I kept cutting making brass dust is fun if not tedious so I finally got through the shape it was a standard shuttle about 6 inches long by about 2.5 high give or take Next came the shaping and smoothing it was the easy part as I had cut it to rough and now was making the shapes I wanted to making sure that there are no sharp edges. Finally I got to the polishing part that is fun as it is something I know allot about a few years in the army and you would to. It was finished looking back it was not one of my most beautiful pieces but one I am most proud of as it is my first weaving shuttle and it was a labour of love and there were many tears of joy that Christmas. I later found some good thick brass at a local metal dealer and made one for my love it took the better part of a weekend something about knowing your material.