DoubleKCustomLeathercraft

I was a bit too late, and my explanation was a little off. Glad you got it figured out

That's freaking badass! What a perfect match.

The edge kote made the project pop a bit more. That really finished the project off nicely. I'm sure you'll get years of enjoyment from this

Thank you. I used 4/5oz Water Buffalo along the sides. The water Buffalo will show for some stretch if necessary. I really like working with that leather. Extremely durable while being soft to the touch. The body is one piece of leather. I skived the bottom where it folds to make it easier to form since I did use a 9/10 oz veg tan. I also skived the cover flap with a slight taper from the fold to the tip. I'm very well practiced with my skife since I primarily work with heavy leather. I also took a small "finger" plane and set it up in a way that I can take any imperfections from skiving and flatten them out. Something i haven't seen anyone do, but it does work with some adjustments to the blade angle.

Now I'm itching to make another gun fighter rig. I'll have to find a knife to compliment the setup. Thanks, you got me spending money now haha Looks good. Enjoyed watching the process through your posts. Thanks

Fancy weights you got there haha. Those are sweet Mike. The dye work looks mint. I'm using the factory tow hooks off my (3rd gen) power wagon lol. I glued leather to the face, so it's not bare metal on my protects

I finished my customer's order with the moose carved holsterthat I posted about a week ago. I ended up having to make the elk holster a second time because I forgot to adjust my pattern for the suede lining. I figured it out right away, and the entire time I was making it i thought something was off. The phone case was my first that I've been commissioned to make. My customer was absolutely ecstatic about it. Mainly I think he was more excited about the grizzly. The knife sheath is for a little damascus pattern skinner. We decided to go with the snapping turtle leather inlay because it's such a small window to carve on. I still have some of the leg leather left from a couple of tail inputs inlaid orders. Elk holster- Ruger P85 Moose holster- SCCY CPX2 Grizzly- Galaxy S+ series/size phone Snapping turtle inlay- unknown knife maker, small skinner

I've ordered from all 3. Tandy is OK for some things, hardware, tools that don't break the bank. Great place to start a collection. Their signature series swivel knife is my go to out of the half dozen I bought beforehand. I've only ordered from Springfield 2 times, and the second time is all it took. They held up my order of nearly a grand in hardware and some tools, for a $3 belt buckle (if I remember right). They didn't contact me about it. I had to email them a couple times with no response until they shipped it. I do like their pattern packs they have available. I just haven't needed to buy any since learning to make my own. Weaver is my primary source for all things leather. Now that they've acquired Ohio travel bag they've really increased the variety of hardware from economy to high quality. They have a great selection of leathers, I use Hermann oak and/or the water Buffalo for almost anything I make. They're prices aren't fair. You'll be looking at more invested into quality products. They make great tools, especially the machines with their name. Made in their factory in Ohio so you're getting true american made. Weaver has a video on YouTube with Chuck touring the machine shop. Check out montana leather company in billings. They're my second choice, sometimes my first depending on what the leather prices are. Best customer service so far. Any problems or any questions and they're going to answer. They have contacted me to offer a different selection of leather because the sides they had left weren't the best. Hard to beat that anywhere you go these days. They also have a good selection of bison if you ever wanted to dabble in something fun to work with.

Diluting only really helps make the due to a bit further when you are using feibings pro dye. I tried doing that but found it wasn't really making much of a difference, if any. What's great about pro dye is that it will not "over dye" for lack of knowledge on what it would actually be called. In other words of you get a variance in shades you can go back and dye the lighter spots, or even the whole thing to make it more uniform. Where as other dyes you try that and you end up with hard over lapped areas that can make a piece really blotchy. So basically what i guess I'm getting at is, if your saturate the leather enough the colors come out very evenly without getting darker and darker with every try. You'll reach a point that it just doesn't change the tones anymore. Hope that makes sense

Oops, meant to say until I get the heat flowing. It gets -30's f here every year for a few weeks with it dropping as low as -54. So I even worry about dyes and the such, but haven't had any freezing issues with them. My shop is solar powered, off grid cargo trailer conversion and i do have to worry about batteries too

Did it ever freeze? I know most the finishes can't freeze, but I've never found out why. I'm not experimenting either lol. I have to keep my finishes inside the home during winter because my shop will be just as cold as the sub zero temps outside until I get the gear flowing

For those that want to see the grizzly. None of these are fully finished yet. I just got the antique stage done. I'll give em about half hour to 45 minutes to set good before I put finishes on top.

Here's the two holsters before dye work went in. I was in the fence on dying then because I really love the burnish Hermann oak produces.

Right now I'm currently working on a customer's order, 2 holsters, an inlaid exotic knife sheath and a phone case. He's really into hunting which of course is right up my alley too. So it's a fun project for me since it's something I truly enjoy. When I first sunk a stamp into lathe I never thought I'd get into figure carving, but it's becoming one of my favorite parts of the craft. Here I'll post a picture of the moose holster in wiring on. I just got done antiquing it with Sheridan brown. It's not finished yet, and if you're familiar with finishes you know it will mellow out some and get a little richer color at the same time.

There's a set!? That would have saved me so much headache trying to figure out what I want.