ropescourseman

I found a leather holster at a guy's junk store. The man said it was his, and he said he couldn't remember exactly but probably got it around 50 years ago. He said it could be anywhere from the 1940s to the early 1960s. The holster is a pancake design with basketweave and it has a small stamp that says "Handmade in Mexico" and "Viking" together. Does anyone know about Viking? What the backstory on it would be? It looked like a nice holster, but nothing extraordinary.

Really cool! Clean and simple; I like it!

Hello; I have two main questions. First, I have just started doing larger leather projects. Before, when I've done leather belts and wallets and such, I didn't notice a big change in the feel of the leather after dying. However, I recently made a shotgun shell bag that is bigger, and I noticed that after dyeing, the leather became rather hard and dry, cardboard-like feel, as opposed to the soft feel I am familiar with. Is this normal? Will the leather break in and become softer? If not, what can I do to make it so? Second, I'm having a lot of trouble finding a reliable dyeing process. There is such a wealth of techniques and methods out there, it is overwhelming and difficult to find out what is best for me, because I am still learning. Specifically, I see finished colored leather products all the time that were either mass produced or made by an expert that can get a bit wet in the rain without any major spotting or dye coming off. However, during my last few times of dyeing and finishing, I have had a lot of trouble with this. I've asked the folks at Tandy and explained my process, and they said using Fiebing's dye and finishing with Tan Kote like I've been doing should not result in dye coming off when wet. However, I have had that happen and recently I had a wet molded pouch that was veg tanned leather finished just with Tan Kote get rained on and it spotted BAD! I am looking for someone that can recommend me a good total step 1 to step n process for dyeing small to medium sized projects and finishing/sealing them to be able to withstand moderate amounts of water (normal use, such as getting caught out in the rain, not being submerged), because I live in an area with a lot of rain. One person recommended I oil the leather, dye it, and then seal it with a 60/40 mix of resolene and water. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan on it, and he said that would finish it and somewhat waterproof it. Any thoughts? Thanks very much!

I'm new to leatherwork, so I don't have a lot of experience but I recentlyade a belt pouch and the one you linked to looks to me like they cut an oval for the front and back and two rectangles that bend or flex for the sides and bottoms and another piece for the flap then sewed it inside out and then flipped it. The pouch I made has a more formed shape and I used MagiKelley's great wet form bag tutorial that is stickied on the "How do I do that" board.

Hi Phil. Welcome. I'm also a newb Okie.

*Edit* Resolved. I'm still in over my head though haha. Next year everybody's getting keychains! Thank you to the good folks in the chat that helped me out.

OK, thanks for the advice. What about the inside of the pouch? It seems like it would look odd to be natural color and the rest dyed. And it's for a hunter and skeet shooter.

Hello, folks. I don't have a lot of leather experience, and I've jumped in over my head here. I'm making a shotgun shell bag for a Christmas gift. Luckily, they know my leatherworking skill and it will be more the thought that counts instead of a really great finished product haha. But I have a question. For the bag part itself, I'm using a long rectangular shape of leather that will bend/fold to be the front, bottom and back of the bag part. I have two side pieces that I am sewing in. I am going to attach this to a "base" body which will include the slot for a belt with some tooling and a piece with shell loops. I am dyeing the whole thing brown using Fiebing's Tan dye and Tan Kote to finish. That's really all I have, so I hope I can use that somehow if I need to do something to the inside ha. Question: Do I do anything to the back of the leather which will be visible on the inside of the bag and visible on the back of the base body piece? Or keep it natural? It seems like it would look odd with the outside dyed brown and the inside a light natural. I'm attaching a picture of a sketch that explains everything visually in case I'm not clear. (I'm a very visual person). Thanks! P.S. the piece with the shell loops and the bag itself will strap onto the base body with saddle straps to give it a bit more bulk and a sort of layered "saddlesque" feel. Also, it's easier than sewing haha.

Thanks everybody.

Hi; my name is Jordan. I'm from Oklahoma, have been all my life. My first introduction to leatherworking was when I was a little kid. My pastor then worked a lot with leather and always brought his tools to our youth group and let us do simple things and showed us how he worked. I would also go to the annual chuck wagon festival here and the first kids booth I would always go to was the leather working one. And, in Scouts, I got the leatherworking merit badge :D So, the interest and distant interaction has been there for quite a while. This Christmas (2008) my parents got me a starting set of leatherworking tools (Marble slab, a few instruction books, a box kit with stamps, hammer, a few kit projects, and such). I was estatic. I've been working pretty much around the clock, making basic stuff like bookmarks, coasters, and using scraps to practice little designs. I've started a few of the projects too. My first "real" project was a collar for my dog. It's pretty bad, and I can already see many of my mistakes, such as choppy background, and badly placed stamps and such, but I'm not too worked up about it, since it was my first project ever. I'm going to try and figure out how to attach a photo so you can see it in all its glory, ahem, I mean awfulness . Since then, I've done the small wallet kit, and now I've started the checkbook holder. It's very exciting and I've already skipped sleep a couple of nights working on leather I love it. I can't wait to learn a lot from everyone here, because I'm going to need the help. Aside from that, about me...I'm 20 and l live in Oklahoma and go to college. I love the outdoors and work at a challenge course, as you may have guessed from my username. I'm not sure what I want to do with my life yet but it will likely be something with the outdoors, like outdoor education or maybe forestry. I love to backpack and ride horses. As far as leatherwork plans go, I'm just working on learning the basics right now and practicing designs and such. My next basic projects I plan on are a belt and a cell phone holder that came with my box kit. Looking off in the distant future I'd really like to learn to make a saddle...someday. Well, that's me. I can't wait to learn a lot from you all. I've already taken a look around and it looks awesome!