colt1911

Thanks for the input y'all! I should of clarified this upfront though, the holster is very firm and rigid, I meant soft and supple as in the surface texture.....it felt like 400 grit sandpaper...even before I dyed and wetmolded. The Bick 4 conditioner I applied helped this alot, but it still has somewhat of a rough surface feel compared to the rest of the hides I've had.....not sure why this is....I just chalked it up to “getting what I paid for" with the tandy bargain single shoulders.

Hey y'all, I haven't posted in a long while so I figured I show off a few photos of an avenger I finished up last week. I took the pictures with my Xoom tablet so the picture quality isn't that great. Sorry!! The color was light brown but I had to put an extra healthy coat of oil and conditioner on it to get that nice supple feel from the tandy bargain hides lol! I think I'm ready to graduate to better leather like W&C or H.O. What do y'all think? Any and all feedback is welcome. Have a great day y'all!

Im sorry Particle, it was late last night when i wrote the post....the Defender is the longer of the two...i was just looking at the two side by side a few minutes ago and i THINK the dust covers are the same, its just the barrel on the Defender is a little longer. Im not home right now, im on here through my phone, but Ill try and post a few pics tonight or tomorow of the two side by side for ya. On another note if anybody is wondering, the Para Ordnance line of 3" bushingless barreled 1911's are the same size and the Springers as far as the barrel length goes....ask me how i know...lol. I traded the Para off for the defender and now i have a drawer full of unusable holsters

Ive had a Rings Springer 3" for a while and i just picked up a Defender from a local gun show. When i got em home thats one of the first things i noticed was the diference of the slide length....both are considered "3 inch" guns, but the Springer is about a an 8th longer that the colt. I also curl the leather around the muzzle and ran into the same problem of the gun not seating all the way. I ended up haveing to make a new holster for it because of that....im not complaining...im just sayin....

My very "small" collection consists of a Wilson CQB, Para LTC, Cold Defender, Beretta 92, Beretta Storm, S&M model 60, S&M model 360, Ruger SP101 and a Glock 17 Blue Gun.....and still in the process of adding to my collection

Lookin great as always Particle! I always look forward to seeing new pictures of your products. How is the Angelus dye workin out for you? the reason im asking is because one of my friends wants a belt and holster done in pink with black lace As far as i know, Angelus is the only ones to make pink dye. Ive never used the stuff before and was wondering how it compares to Fiebings oil based dye? Is it water based? Spirit or oil based? Any tips and hints will be greatly appreciated because my efforts to try and talk her out of pink have failed miserably lol.

Thanks for all the feedback yall! I was messin with it all day today and i managed to get it tuned a little better, but nowhere what i think its capable of. I checked out the thread about the problem Particle had with his. I tightened the thread takeup arm screw about a half turn and that fixed the majority of my problem right there. It made my stitches tighter and looks alot better, but im still getting a few random stray ones every now and then. Ive still got some work to do on it and practice...lots and lots of practice!!! But i think im on the road to recovery. Thanks for the help guys!!!

Im having trouble keeping my stitches uniform all the way through. On some of them, the knot part of the lock stitch pulls through on the top and others pull through the bottom, and yet others are perfect....all in the same stitch line. Ive called Tippmann customer service twice and all the told me is i need to add tension to my secondary tensioner. Hows that gonna help if some of the stitches pull through the top already? Its erratic and random, no matter how much tension i put on the thread or bobbin its still an inconsistant stitch. Ive lubed the machine as per the owners manual and went through the troubleshooting section on the dvd at least a half dozen times. Ive made double sure im stroking all the way up and down. Ive ruined 4 projects trying to use this satan-inspired machine and have since resorted back to sewing by hand untill i get this issue resolved. If i cant get the problem fixed, there will be a slightly used Boss for sale in the classifieds section of this forum. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Zack White has precut leather strips from 2/3 ounce all the way up to 9/10 ounce in any width you want. Theyre $6.00 ea. for 10-24 of em and $5.25 ea. for 25 + of em in any thickness for 1.5. I use a 8/9 ounce belt blank with a 5/6 ounce inner strip glued and sewn flesh to flesh to i can finish both sides....sometimes 2 different colors if thats what the customer wants. I hope this helps ya out!

I just recieved my new Boss about a week and a half ago. I took advantage of the holiday sale they had goin on. One problem i noticed right off the bat is my primary and secondary tensioner adjustment nuts kept backing off. I ripped out and resewed 5 or 6 stitches because they were way too loose. I bought 2 nylock nuts to run down on top of the tensioner adjustments to keep them from backing off and that fixed it right up. Other than that, i love my new boss....it sure cuts down on sewing time compared to hand stitching.

I wouldnt recommend it. All it takes is for the back stitch line to be off half a hair and you'll end up missing the groove and ruining your work. I tried that on a couple of pieces of scrap and the 2 out of 6 grooves that was actually lined up perfect came out looking good, but the other 4 looked hideous. I dont see anything wrong with not grooving the back, maybe someone else on here will have a different perspective....

I took advantage of the holiday sale Tippmann had goin on. I took the big leap and got a new Boss. This is the first holster ive done with it. What do yall think? Any comments or advice or tips on the holster AND Boss would be greatly appreciated. I took me a few hours of playin with it to get the thread tension set right, but after that i knocked out this holster in about 5 minutes and then did a belt in about 20. Very happy with it. Anybody that has one and knows of any tips or anything please let me know. Thank yall!

Thanks for the warm welcome yall! Im using 7-8 oz. leather.....the lowest grade leather Tandy had...it was on sale. I didnt see any point in spending the extra money at this point in the game for top grain when i wasnt sure if this hobby would turn out. Plus i kinda liked the visible grain and scars...lol. Will top grain mold and bone easier or finish better than the cheap stuff? Is it easier to work with? Is there any difference in em besides the visible attributes? I bent the sides in a little but not near enough. Thats one of the many things i learned after the fact. The crinkle lines might be the remains of the barbed wire border i stamped around the holster pocket. They faded alot after the molding.....another lesson learned.

Thanks for the input!! Thinking back now, the leather was too wet....plus i couldnt find anything smaller than the rounded end of my stitch groover. I looked for half an hour for a sharpie and couldnt find one for the life of me....my girlfriend keeps tellin me i need to put stuff where it belongs.....im startin to think she might be right!!! lol. Ive got 2 more in the works....one for my Para P10 and one for my new XDM 3.8. Ill post them when i finish em up on my next days off

Ya sorry about the huge picture....i wasnt aware i had to resize it.....not much of a computer guru.... What pixel size do yall usually use when you upload pictures? The one thing im not happy with is when i cinch my belt tight, it crushes the holster pocket making it hard to draw the pistol...and almost impossible to reholster afterward. I think moving the belt slots a little farther away from the holster pocket might remedy this though. Here's a smaller picture....hopefully