Johnny B

Love this and hope u don't mind if I borrow the idea. I carry an old Ruger Blackhawk into the woods and have had that old trusty pistol snatched right out of my holster from horseback before. Luckily I found it. I am more into securing my pistol than having a fast draw.

Gun Broker.com has a retailer on the auction side that sells them. You can buy just one as I do sometimes for knife handles. They also sell all sorts of horns, antlers, teeth pretty much anything you need.

Never worked with Horse hide but I can say that if I want the thread to stay looking the same I simply glue up my holsters, sheaths,etc with contact cement. After I have completely finished dying, I then sew up the sheath or holster. After dying I have a crock pot with hot bee's wax/mink oil/neats foot oil mixture that I dip the item into. Once the item has soaked for about 30 seconds I put it into a toaster over on warm for about a minute. I then buff with a very soft buffing wheel, one I use strictly for buffing leather. This process waterproofs the item inside and out and gives a nice satin finish. The heat from the oven hardens the leather giving me a rigid holster or sheath.

I have air brushed about every dye out there. Seems they all work fine for me.

LMAO thanks for the laugh!

I make several knife sheaths for fillet knives and sometimes I will use a fish hook to brand the sheath with. I simply heat it up with a propane torch and brand where I need it. On vegi-tan I brand before dye. On other leathers I simply brand then apply a finish or not depending on the leather. I get the hook red hot then wait a few seconds before branding. It only takes a second to burn the brand in. Any longer and you will burn to deep. I branded a wallet once and burned all the way thru the thin leather. Practice on the leather you plan to brand first. Branding is a cool way to embellish leather. You are only limited by your imagination.

Tandy leather has a discount club. I am, I think, am an Elite member. It pays for itself every time I walk into that store.

I have had some decent results using my drill press and the burnisher I made to go into it on the highest speed with bees wax/mink oil. I get the edge so hot I am basically burning it.

U R truly an artist. Please post more of your work.

Looking good. LOL you are like me me thinks. I make sheaths and cases for everything around the house.

This post is no good without pics of someone wearing this costume. Great looking work especially for the first time.

Looks 100 years old or more. Great work!

Fido be pimping with one of these collars on. Nice look work!

It is hell getting old. I think after I turned 55 everything started to go down hill from there. At 60 all hell broke lose. I turn 61 in November and I don't want to think about what will stop working then. I am already having to drink prune juice every night just so I can have a pleasant morning.

As someone has already mentioned, vinegar is good for removing odors. Used it on a saddle once. Afterwards a good cleaning with saddle soap or a good rub down with mink oil might do the trick. The misses uses this stuff called Fabrez (?) to remove the smells from our dogs on the couch. That stuff can take away that smell maybe it will work on your belt. Blue Tics smell pretty bad. LOL

I have found it is best to keep the leather clean right from the start. I wear nitrate gloves whenever I work my leather if I am concerned about the finish. Most of what I make is sheaths and most of them are distresses in one way or another so It doesn't matter as much. I use raw hide a lot and lot of my vegitan gets antiqued with stains, oven cleaner, hydrochloric acid and such. I do wash clean my leather before stain with alcohol. That pretty much cleans off anything left on the leather.

Morbid as hell! Love it!

Yes I was hoping to form it to my head and face. The problem is my head and face is rather large. I wear a size 8 hat. I may have the misses do the wet forming on my on head. That aught be fun.

How is everyone doing this fine evening? A quick question for someone. I will be acting in a Haunted house come Oct and they want me to be Leatherface from the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" I have a whole side of 2-3 ounce vegi tan I thought would make a fine mask. I just don't know how to go about making one. Are there any tutorials around on making mask? Thanks Johnny

Paul, I was surprised to receive the tails you sent me . I am sorry I forgot all about them coming. I will get the funds out to you on monday unless you do PayPal then I can get you payed this weekend. My wife says my memory is getting bad. I now have to agree with her. They look great. Thanks!

Looking great there!

I am working on a filet knife sheath right now and trying to get the fish scale down before I stamp my sheath. When I get around to finishing this I will post pics. This is what I think I am going with:

Sent you a message about your tails. And love your sheath!

Looking good.

There is a reason they make wood stain and leather dye. I have tried this years ago and never got good results from wood stain.