JLSleather

looks good croc? caiman?

I like the look, just wondering if that wont catch a shirt purdy often

HEY BOB -- howya doin? This is one of those "curved panel" holsters... wraps around the hip. Guy showed up to clean out the garage for me, got talkin bout guns n stuff... and wanted this for his Dad. 8 oz Wickett-Craig leather with Cowboy thread from Bob 'n' friends

that design look a bit familiar ..

pic just in from happy camper, fits like a new skin on his BG380

I didn't draw it. That's an "oldy but a goody" from a [maybe] 1950's leather craft publication. I was kinda on a mission to carve ALL the patterns in that booklet, and this one fit a pattern for a Ruger very nicely. I'll see kin I find that one around here...

I like the pattern to go beyond the center line, but carving the 'back" or inside isnt' something I'd normally do. And yeah - carve it, let it dry, then line it (on a curve).

I aint a big fan o' snake, but that looks nice

$90 for THAT?@! Amazing the things people will throw their money away on. That's like $5 worth of leather and a few minutes labor. Click it out like 10 per minute, a little cement to hold it for a minute while it's sewn.... ughhh...!!!!! But, not my problem what the other guy does with HIS money, I suppose. I like LINED myself. There IS something to line with, ALL the time, in various thickness / stiffness / style to suit anything. NO LEGIT reason NOT to line a project... usually always about COST (the MAKER'S profit, not actual cost). Everybody wants to "maximize profit" and some can't see that lined DOES.

'attaboy, Chuck

call tx custom dies and have em make you one. it'll show up sharp and ready to use.

Not going to call this "scrap", cuz folks seem to think that word means the leftovers, the not so good, the waste. This is not that, and I dare say my "scrap" is nicer leather than many are using routinely. Most is 7/8 oz, so think holsters, sheaths, and similarly sized articles. Could also make some pet collars, billet straps, and maybe a belt fer the younguns. I will have some Hermann Oak belt strips to dig out before long, so feel free to keep that in mind, but not in this batch. This is ALL FIRM AND USABLE leather ... NO belly leather and no "spongey" stuff. Forms and tools BEAUTIFULLY. I just need the space more than the stuff at teh moment. This is about 45 sq ft of good leather. That's a 6 foot measurin' stick and a 24" square in the pics. Wickett-Craig skirting spit to about 8 oz in black and chestnut (retails at $11/foot), and the natural is Hermann Oak, mostly 3/4 oz. $150 I'll figure out how to ship it in the US

Depends on teh size of the carving. On small fish, a "veiner" works well. If you have bigger fish ta try ( ) maybe a mulefoot, or maybe swivel knife cuts, dependin also on the type of fish.

I don't do anything to the inside of unlined belts.

that was a ROOT issue for ME (not speaking for anybody else), that was a catalyst for an issue,... but my actual complaint was getting a product that DIDNT do what I was told it WOULD, and then getting a crass, unprofessional, downright childish response to my legitimate complaint. And that was BEFORE any 'covid' or Ukraine, and I didn't buy from a middle-man retailer. Can't keep your help, or lost people due to lockdowns, or your "good" people retired, or your wife is nagging so you went fishin'. Whatever.. flat tire could happen to ANYBODY. But if YOU'RE (the seller) having these issues, STOP advertising your wonderful product and even better service. The truth actually carries you further than a polished line of BS. I can imagine how that would go if I sold something (at 10% of the cost of one of these machines) and it didn't fit the customer, or looked nice "mostly, except maybe just the inside was't so great", or ....whatever - and my response was to say YOU did something wrong, or it would work, tell you call me again next week, then just don't answer the phone. So I have no desire to bash folks, but when somebody asks, I'm quite honest about my experiences. If your selling point is your service, and your service is not good, then you really can't complain when I tell the truth about it. In fact, maybe YOU (the seller) should have been honest yourself - from the start - and just said "we had the "good" ones retire, and covid, and Ukraine, and I think I heard my mom calling, or whatever excuse you're using... and just said "our service may be a bit slower until we get that worked out".

That's a LEATHER issue, not a dye issue. Don't give that supplier ANY more of your money. You want to work with leather, get good leather. I recommend Cheryl and Carlos at Goliger Leather. Never got a piece of leather from there that wasn't TOP SHELF... ALWAYS satisfied with what they send.

Oh, wait.. you wuz talkin' HOLSTERS in chocolate ... The first and third are chocolate dye ONLY. Teh middle one is done with Fiebing's "dark brown" (thinned) and shown here to show the difference in color... teh dark brown is clearly more reddish ...

full on chocolate looks almost black. Thin the dye and it's one of my all time favorites (now they have 50 shades that didn't used to exist). These were done ONLY with chocolate Fiebing's. The background of the top one is FULL STRENGTH chocolate, the rest is thinned about 30:1. Same thing on the belt with the 3-piece buckle set. This belt is chocolate ONLY, about 15:1 if I remember right, and the notebook binder background is the same dye, applied with an airbrush.

got tan-kote? mix a bit of tan-kote with a dollop of chocolate dye. bit and dollop are generic terms for SOME, depending on the shade you want. this is not "supposed to" work.. mixing a water based product with an alcohol based thing, but i'm telling you that it DOES very well (assuming you'll test on scrap to get the right shade anyway, so you'll then know it works)

Umm.. YEP! Buy a car, you'll probably have to adjust the seat, the wheel, and the mirrors. But not the transmission

nobody can "guess" what you MIGHT do SOMEDAY. I'm pretty sure if you call Bob (Toledo) Kovar about a leather stitcher, among his FIRST questions will be WHAT do you want to sew and WHAT SIZE THREAD do you want to use. Now, if you don't know, I don't know how it would be possible for somebody else to know. To continue the analogy of buying a car... If you need a vehicle, you go to the guy selling vehicles. You say you don't know what you need. So the guy is going to ask... some place to START FROM. Do you want a vehicle that looks shiny 'cruising the strip", or do you need it to GO FAST and don't care about cosmetics, or do you need it to haul dirt and gravel for your landscaping business? You generally DONT buy a Porsche to go grocery shopping and generally don't use a dump truck to pick up your date (though you theoretically COULD do all of those things). Point being, it's up to YOU to tell them what you want. I KNOW Bob K is quite good at helping you match a machine (and accessories..) to your STATED GOAL. He's also very clear that ONE machine is unlikely to do EVERYTHING YOU EVER want to do. The dump truck hauls heavy stuff very well, but not much good in the quarter mile. So, they know what you're sewing because you TELL THEM. If you tell them you're hauling big rocks, they'll likely quote you a price on the dump truck. Tell them you want to go fast and sporty, maybe they quote the Porsche. But I CERTAINLY WOULD AGREE that if you order one, you can't complain that it wont do the other.

That's a great observation - one I'm sure many didnt consider If he has the bodyguard 5-shot, it wont affect the holster at all (unless there's a thumb break, maybe)

this machine is SOLD

Oh, I have some pieces - black drum dyed, chestnut drum dyed from W/C, and natural from Hermann Oak - big enough for about anything but portfolios or handbags, mostly 7/8 oz, I'll sell for about $2.50 per foot. Let's be clear, this is BETTER LEATHER than what you're getting from "resellers", and better than what is shown here. Seriously, $100 get you about 45 square feet. Firm leather, pieces would work great for holster or sheath makers. Even the stuff with "marks" is FIRM and SOLID, great for lining exotics - forms well. I laid it on the floor, covers about 9 feet x 5 feet. Come pick it up and skip the shipping You know, just for reference. I CAN NOT GRASP why people pay $12 AND UP (often more $$) for leather that looks like the pic in the original post.

My advice is dump the ant-streak, clean out the jar, and use it as a pencil cup on your desk.