Johnny B

Great looking holster. Can anyone direct me to a supplier for beaver tails? Would love to use some of this as a inlay on one of my sheaths.

Thanks for the info!

This ottoman is 6'x3' so it will be easier to cover being a rectangle. I have found that getting my hands on a piece of foam 4" thick X 6'X3' is my biggest hurdle. No one has any this big. I probably will end up glueing some together. The corners of the ottoman I am planning to fold over like a Christmas present nice and neat. I am going to fold over the bottom edge of the leather and use upholstery tacks to hold it in place. The wood base is painted black and I will refinish it back to black. I am waiting on the color of the leather. One day they are thinking black leather. The next day they are wanting to go with dark brown.

OK so today my boss gives me this 6'X3' ottoman to redo for him. It is covered with cloth now and he wants leather. The foam is worn out and will need to be replaced. I have covered some smaller items with leather tucking the corners and using upholstery tacks around the base before. I normally make holsters, sheaths and possibles bags. This definitely will be a new undertaking for me. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

This is a question that is impossible to answer. Various methods of application will use different amounts. I mostly airbrush and this uses probably the least amount of stain. That being said, I also thin my stain to make the color I want. I can take dark brown and make a 1000 different shades by using different amount of pure stain and mix it with alcohol. I would suggest to buy stain by the quart in the basic colors such as dark brown, dark tan, USMC black etc. These 3 colors I use 99% of the time. I have about every color out their but these 3 are the basics.

I have a rolling pin for large areas and I use a small hand roller that is supposed to be used for laminating counter tops, on smaller areas. "Sharpies" my best friend. I use them for many uses. The big fat ones are great for forming leather around guns. I also use the big fat ones for coloring the edges of my holsters. I use mostly black for this purpose and I get a nice black to my edges. I have also used the same color sharpie, as close as I can get it, to outline something or to make accent lines on my leather. When stitching some of my holsters or knife sheaths I use a real heavy white waxed nylon cord and the sharpie fine points work great for coloring this to match my stains. One thing I love about leather work is that you are only limitations is how far your imagination will let you be.

From a post I made over in the How Do I Do That section: Well todays lesson I learned to use something as simple as wax paper will make my life so much simpler. When I make holsters I use Weldwood Gel Contact cement to glue the halves to gather. As anyone knows that use contact cement you really have to be careful to align the two halves or the halves will be glued up wrong. I was making a holster for a Ruger Blackhawk and a light went off in my head. Why not put a piece of wax paper between the two halves, align the halves where I want them then slide the wax paper out. As I slid the paper out the contact cement did its job and now I have a perfectly aligned edge on my holster. Geese even at 60 I still can learn new tricks.

I let both sides dry then the wax paper slides out easily. I hold everything in place with one hand then slide the wax paper out with the other hand. I have used this method to glue up 4 holsters so far and it works great for me. I already had wax paper on my bench that I use to cover my bench when I dye a piece of leather. I also use the wax paper any time I am gluing up something to protect my bench top. This is just another use for it. I buy the wide 16" commercial stuff from Sams Club.

Well todays lesson I learned to use something as simple as wax paper will make my life so much simpler. When I make holsters I use Weldwood Gel Contact cement to glue the halves to gather. As anyone knows that use contact cement you really have to be careful to align the two halves or the halves will be glued up wrong. I was making a holster for a Ruger Blackhawk and a light went off in my head. Why not put a piece of wax paper between the two halves, align the halves where I want them then slide the wax paper out. As I slid the paper out the contact cement did its job and now I have a perfectly aligned edge on my holster. Geese even at 60 I still can learn new tricks.

Love this rig. It is different, not like every other cookie cutter rig out there. Is it your design?

I have ordered a couple of those in the past but I need good clean leather for holsters. Most of the horse butts was useless to me for what I need. I did make some really nice distressed holsters with those butts. I make holsters for some LEOs and they say nothing holds up like Horse Hide.

I am looking for horse hide something like a double shoulder. Anyone know of a source?

Hats? What Hats?

U can also use Acetone from any hardware store to clean your leather with. Lacquer thinner works in worse cases but will dry out your leather. For a cement I use Weldwood Gel contact cement and apply it with cheep paint brushes. The gel gives me total control and the contact cement flexes after assembly. I can use really small artist brushes on small items and never get it on anything I didn't intend to.

I make holsters and knife sheaves and always line them with thin 1-2 oz leather. I use Weldwood gel contact cement. I apply it with cheap paint brushes. I cut the lining large and after applying the cement and letting it dry I roll up the liner and roll it back on the leather I am making the holster or sheath with using a small hand held roller to smooth out everything. I never have any bunching up this way.

This is the reason I always clean my leather before even thinking about dying it. There are several commercial products out there that work fine. I find that using plain ole alcohol works most times. That is one fine looking wallet so it is now time for you to get creative. Instead of just a plain wallet make a work of art out of it. Some of my best looking work came after I made a mistake and had to get creative to cover up that mistake.

This is some great work here.

I have made several in the past and I line them with Saddle Shearling. The same stuff you line the bottom of saddles with. A full skin at Tandy's is about $68.00 I think. I can make 2 with one skin. The pile is like 7/8" thick so you have to allow for this.

You can build one of these for less than $20.00. All you need to do is go to Lowes and purchase a mandrel that attaches to an electric motor. Next you purchase a 1/2" paddle bit and a 1 1/2" wooden dowel rod. Measure the threads on the mandrel and cut a piece of dowel rod the width of the threads minus the width of the nut and washer on the mandrel. Drill a 1.2" hole thru the cut piece of dowel rod and attach it to the mandrel. Now attach the mandrel to the motor that you have scrounged from a junk yard or an old washing machines you found on the side of the road. You need to devise a way to attach the motor to a work bench. Add a power cord and maybe a switch and you have a power burnisher. To get the grooves simply use either various round files or you can even use different sized bolts to cut the grooves into the dowel rod. A little imagination goes a long way. Now I use the same principle but I have a burnisher that I put into my drill press that works basically the same way.

I glue up with Weldwood gel contact cement using an artist brush. It is a gel paste and has way better control when applying it. Just a little will do. I let the glue completely dry and then join the pieces of leather together. This way there is no chance of any bleed out. Sometimes I use wax paper between the layers and slide it out as I glue the pieces together aligning it as I go. This way you do misalign the pieces of leather.

Good question here and I hope you find your answer cause I am looking for the same thing. I prefer Horse Hide over Cow Hide for my holsters. Good luck.

If you ever walked thru the swamps and coastal marshes with a custom $300.00 knife you would understand why. I hate them too but my favorite hunting knife cost just that $300.00. I hunt in the coastal marshes for deer and coons and would lose a knife if it didn't have a strap. The surroundings have a way of stripping you of anything that isn't strapped or tied down.

Luckily I live close to a Tandy. I would have no problem using this piece of leather. The marks add character to my products. I make mostly knife sheaths and Black Powder items. Every piece of leather has its own character and I use that character to my advantage. That being said, if this leather is not what you wanted return it.

So how does one determine that the hide they purchase was in fact from a cow that had died of natural causes? ROFL So is this forum turning into a PITA hangout?

I would love to know how you did the recoil pad on this. Looking good by the way!