[My Latest Holster]

It looks great! Nice even stitching, Good even tone one the finish, and Nice Clean edges. On over all a good clean holster! I hope to see more of your work soon.

[I Needed A Holster For My Snubby .38 Special]

Nice looking little holster.

A thought that I have done and it works ok, not the best but it works. If your awl will atleast pierce the other side then stab one direction and flip it over and stab the other direction. Remember the orientation of the angle of the awl and feel your way thru to make sure you stay in the same hole. Not the best idea but it can work in a pinch.

Another idea is a small drill bit. It works ok also, try to chuck it in a dremel and take your time and make sure your at a good 90 degrees to the work.

Try these methods on some scrap glued up tot he same thickness if you can.

First let me say Thanks for the feed back Max. I might try the idea for the awl as mine is just showing the tip on the back side and I can align the holes that way. I was worried about over sizing the hole so I did not think that would work. I am afraid of the drill bit idea because I don't think the holes will close up after I drill them out. What I would really like is to find a longer awl that does not fatten out so much and reaches all the way trough the welt. By the way I see you live in Washington may I ask what part? I live in the South Sound area myself and am always looking for others to share notes on local places to buy tools and supplies. Thanks Again for your feed back it gave me a few idea to try on some scrap. I will let you know how it works out.

[I Needed A Holster For My Snubby .38 Special]

I have done a few holster in the past but this is the first one I did any tooling on. As you can see I still have to sew the welt seem and am trying to figure out what to use as my awl is a bit short to go trough all four layers of leather. If anyone has a suggestion I would really be glad to hear your thoughts. Thanks for looking.

[My First Attempts At Tooling]

Sure you can wet mold it after tooling, but you may have a possible problem with the tooling distorting and/or losing it's appeal. It all depends on how much molding you are doing, where the pattern fits on the piece, etc. Most leathercarvers do the tooling after the leather is molded on anything where the leather is severely molded as on a saddle swell or a custom molded rifle scabbard. In that case you may well use the molding shape as the backup for the tooling in place of your usual marble or granite stone. Then you have to consider how much the tooling will expand the leather. It may be possible, depending on the shape of the molded leather, to apply packing tape to the backside in order to help the leather fron doing that. Really, the best advice I can give you is to try it and see. That way you learn from hands on experiance what will work and what doesn't.

Thank You! You have given me the courage to try the next project I had in mind. I have a large frame .45 1911 I want to do a Bianchi style pancake holster for and I would like to do the same basket weave pattern on it that I used on the straps. I will be giving it a try and will post my results once finished. Thanks again! Eric

[My First Attempts At Tooling]

First Tooling? Come on now! You must have done some practice pieces first, because nobody does that well the first time out. This is really excellent work for a novice. I am sure you will receive many compliments on your instrument straps and some requests to make more straps for others.

thank you for your compliment and I have actually had requests for both instrument and rifle straps so I am vary pleased by that. But I swear these are the first tooling projects I have ever done. I did Play around on some scrap for about 20 min to get a feel for how the stamps worked. But once I felt I understood how it worked I just kind of dove into the first one and once this was done I liked it so well I did the other two the same day. As I said I have done some wet molded stuff in the past so I understand about getting the core of the leather wet before working it and I know that really helped out a lot. Having said that I do have a question about wet molding tooled leather. Can I wet mold it after tooling or do I have to mold then tool it? Cause I don't see how it will hold it's shape if I mold it first and I don't know if it will effect the tooling if I mold it after. I thank you for any help you can offer in advance.

[My First Attempts At Tooling]

First I would like to thank everyone on here of all there posts. I have been a user of this site for a while now and learned a lot buy reading the questions and answers. I also truly enjoyed seeing everyones work. If it were not for all of you showing your stuff I don't think I would have the courage to post mine. Like I said in the description these are my first tooling projects. I have done a lot of basic stitching and molded stuff over the last few years but never had the courage to try tooling. I decided to give it a try when I needed a strap for my new Banjo and likeed the way it came out so much I made the Guitar and Mandolin straps the same day. Anyway Thanks again for helping build my confidence and in turn my skills. I look forward to hearing your feed back and hope to have more finished projects to post soon. Good luck with all you have on your workbench. Eric