DoubleKCustomLeathercraft

Beautiful gun! I read dikman's response and I disagree. I like deer/elk antler anything just about, but I'd rather have those spalted maple grips any day. But then, spalted maple is one of my favorite woods.

Here's my first rig I built 7 years ago.

Awesome. My first holster build was a gunfighter rig from Tandy's pattern pack. Because I carry such a long revolver I did the curved belly with a drop loop that I adjusted to ride even lower than the pattern suggested. It's hard to draw a 7½" barrel if the holster rides too high. I think this was my third project, maybe fourth because I got hooked immediately and dove into this leathercraft world has first into the deep end. I'll post a picture of the Hand of God (Russel Crowe) rig I made from the "3:10 to Yuma" movie. My client just happened to have the same model gun from the movie so I couldn't resist talking him into this build. He just wanted to show off to his "cowboy" friends in Texas when they drive cattle.

Nicely done. Wheat kind of camera you using? Those pictures are crisp

Rough out might solve your slipping problem, but it will polish and become smooth like top grain over time. There's pros and cons to everything. I would do rough out before suede personally. Rough out is basically flipping the leather. Instead of the top grain being facing out it will be the "flesh" side of the leather. Nice thing is it can be sanded without damage to bring back the "roughness" if it does start to get too polished and slip.

Expand. Try different types of leather. I was hesitant to do the same, and only wanted to work with veg tan leather. But then I got into making shoulder holsters and chest holsters and I wanted to line the harnesses with something softer. I first went with a crazy horse pull up from Tandy that was ok feeling, but didn't edge or burnish well at all. I recently started using Water Buffalo from weaver. That stuff is awesome up work with. It makes great wallets, and it's a very nice feel for a liner on belts and shoulder straps. It's durable as all hell. As far as personalization goes. How far do you want to go? Just initials? A hot stamp machine should be more than sufficient for that. But if you are willing to practice and sacrifice a bit is leather, go with a thin veg tan that you can tool yourself. This allows you a lot more variety of font available. The sky is the limit there. I don't even own a set of letter stamps because I want to be about to offer any font (old English styles I refuse to do) Again, expand. Variety is good. Getting sick on just one type of product can really freeze up your business. Phone cases to laptop bags (not just sleeves) might really help expand to different clientele. Small practical items are good, little investment good return when they sell. But that's niche and it's constantly changing. Key fobs are always being redesigned as an example. The problem is if you make up too many of one thing and it suddenly falls out of style, you're stuck with it. So being able to adjust to a ever changing climate would help and it's hard to predict. I started out only wanting to make belts. They're fast easy profit in my opinion. But belts are not a sought after here so I had to expand. I them started making knife sheaths and simple holsters, hoping to keep my time invested lower. That didn't work either. I ended up having to really change my way of thinking. Getting calls for shoulder holsters was when I really changed how I was going about drumming up business. I listened and I got into designing my own products. It took me a month of cardboard and tape designs, 3 different leather harness designs and a small period of testing out the ergonomics of my shoulder straps before I settled on what I thought would be best. This is the sacrifice I mentioned. It cost me probably a half side of leather and a total of a few months of my time testing and adjusting everything. It's my number one selling item. I've now personally designed a fully modular shoulder harness system and chest harness system that can accommodate anything from a cell phone case to a holster and with a little adjustment they can be used for cameras or binoculars. I've even venture out into exotics and bag making. (I hate making purses but I will) So what I'm getting at here is, get out and explore new avenues. Ask your customers what else they would be interested in. You'll be amazed at how many will be thrilled to help if you ask. Sell some of your new products at a way lower price than normal and inform the customer that you want them to help test the product for that discount. Then get their feedback on what might need improvements or what's perfect. Not all projects are going to work but when they do it pays off ten fold.

If you sharpen knives, or use any kind of file on metal and don't get it all cleaned up. This is exactly what happens. The little microscopic shavings will stain the leather. I ran into this problem and it took me a few months of research to digit it out. I no longer allow filling or sharpening in the leather shop and it solved my problem

I have a customer that ordered a gym belt from me a few years ago. He tried a couple new styles and he wasn't comfortable so he asked me to reproduce a "classic" style from when he was a body builder (40 years ago) The belt itself is even older than that. It was his dad's and made in the 60's I guess. He liked it enough to order a second one with a full western theme carving on the back support. And I liked the feel of it (two lower back surgeries) that I made myself one as a core and back support I use when felling trees, splitting wood, anything that's going to require strain on my back. And some days I just wear it because it is so comfortable and supportive. Ok, now that I've explained all that I have a couple questions. Is there anything else in the construction of these belts? I used a stiffener in all 3 that I've made to help add extra support. You can keep it "thinner" without compromising support. Do you really want suede? It's soft and comfy at first bit it can absorb more sweat and become kind of rough to the touch over time. Full grain will still soak up sweat but if softens it a bit over time. Almost like oiling a baseball glove. My recommendation is to get it full grain veg tan. Double layer will always reduce stretch and sag over a single layer. Thicker isn't always stronger or better. You want tight full grain, no mushy stuff. It's hard to shop for something like this online. Getting your hands on them and feeling the difference would really give you a better idea of what you want. Of course these companies do have a reputation to uphold so I'm sure they use great quality stuff. I probably didn't help much but maybe there's a couple things I mentioned to get you thinking.

I make my carry belts around the 18 oz thickness, with a stiffener between the two layers. They take a month to break in but they'll be the last belt you'll need to buy. Casual belts are also just a thick, but no reinforcement. The reason is 100% durability, quality, and feel. I haven't met a person that doesn't like the feel of a nice heavy belt. Whether it's for work, day to day wear, special occasion... doesn't matter. Thin belts stretch and sag right away, and in a year or less they need replaced.

I really appreciate that. Thanks

It's been a busy week for me. I fell behind on some orders due to a chimney fire. That's all taken care of. So I have to give this last week a good push to get caught up and ready to ship out some orders. A few of the holsters still need the belt loops cut and and edge work done. But I'm delivering the two woodsman holsters and snapping turtle knife sheath today and wanted a picture of all these orders together. The rest get shipped Monday and I'm on to the next project. Some of these were already projects being worked on before falling behind. Holsters: Glock in the background (left), 2 carved 1911 (skull, Bull elk) carved Taurus 65 (fish), 2 colt woodsman holsters with rampart colt carved (this is #3 and #4 for this customer's order of 5 identical holsters) and a colt anaconda in the background (right) Snapping turtle tail inlaid knife sheath, and filet knife sheath with deer antler closure Entry welcome sign on the natural edge with elk carved and wrapped with twisted copper wire. I mounted this on a piece of blue pine I milled with my chainsaw mill, the planed it by hand to is final thickness. This is came out pretty cool because there's a big wrinkle that folds in the leather that is perfectly for the elks shoulder

Very interesting to see a camo to used to create a serpentine pattern. This is why I come to this site. Get to see different ideas that I wouldn't think to do. It's nicely done. The only thing I can think of that finishes any leather project is edge work and stitching. I think you could improve on the edge work a bit. It can take some time to get it right depending on the leather. Every piece is different to. All in all nicely done. Hope it gets a good showing at the school auction

There's a leather company up here in Montana that does custom belts. I can't remember the name of the top of my head. They have 3 piece belt, and what this does is allows them to produce the two ends (buckle and billet) at standard lengths, then the custom part is sewn on and sets across the back. They also refer to these as 3 piece. Dunno if there's a right or wrong answer, because any belt with 3 pieces essentially falls into this category.

I use 4B-6B for marking or drawing patterns directly onto the face. It marks well without too much effort and can be erased easily enough.

The problem I've run into when using silver or white pen for marking any side of the leather is drawing the ink through while cutting. Then not realizing it's on the cutting surface, and it marks up the face. I've started using soft charcoal or graphite pencils to mark natural, and white color pencil for dark leather. That way they can be easily cleaned off the surface if my knife draws it through the leather