JLSleather

I'm willing to admit I may not be understanding your question, but click the drawing ...

Nah. Been there. Ordered a couple shoulders just to see what quality looked like. When it got here, I gave some away and used some for testing new holster patterns (and then pitching when the pattern was verified).

I've been getting by so far on just gentleman's agreement. Guy wants to borrow a gun, or loan one, just send it. There's postage to be paid going out, and postage to be paid coming back. Seems reasonable that the guy borrowing the gun would pay those, but not always necessary. I've loaned guns. I suppose there "could" be a problem, but I've never personally seen one. I returned every gun every borrowed, and every gun I've loaned has been returned. No worries.

Yep, I'm in the 10 and under crowd too That's a LOT of holsters (for one guy), and with 20+ sides I worry about controlling the humidity until I can get it used. Really don't want a bunch of dry leather where I have to condition each piece that goes out. But I think I'm just at the point where I'm going to go PICK the hides I want. What I save at the tannery will get used up in plane tickets, but at least I'll be getting the stuff that I want. 20% waste is expected. 40%-50% is unacceptable. I would never send that stuff out, but apparently not all of us have the same commitment to quality and looks.

Any Sig P250 subcompacts? Yeah, I could buy one. In fact, if you have one to sell, that would be fine OR, you could loan it, and get it back complete with the pattern I draw from it.

Yeah, I heard o that one, too! Fortunately, my fing -- uhhh.. that guy's finger wasn't in the way when those "extra" stitches formed

Wait.. what??

Yeah, if it was just up the road, I'd go pick the hides I want. But that's a pretty good day's travel for me. I'm much closer to H.O in St Louis, so if I was taking a day to go select hides I'd certainly be tempted to go there first. I did buy two more hides through the mail.. one not so bad, one really not so good. Since we're discussing suppliers, I ordered a couple sides from Weaver - just to test the water. Best described as "MEH' -- I expected a bit nicer, but they aren't like 'send it back' material, either.

Where would a guy find this "factory" instruction?

Oh, well then don't try it. Suit yourself

plexiglass works great, if you want to stick with the same pattern for a good while. it's rigid, lightweight, cuts fairly easily, and most important you can SEE THROUGH IT, so you can see the leather you're cutting. Take it from me, that REALLY sucks when you cut a good size piece and then find you could have avoided a blemish or two by moving the template over an inch or two ...

Are you sure the problem isn't with the TUBE? There's always somebody looking for a cheaper way to make juat about everything. Try one of the tubes that worked on the other holes.

Not to worry -- it's in a box out of the way now,

Box for the bellies is abt 17" x 7" x 7" and weighs 6 lbs. Shipped from 50501

They're about 80" long and the 'skinny' part (where the tape measure is) is 18". I'm gonna say that makes for about 11 or 12 feet of leather. Still, it's just bellies. Pick it up here is fine if you like... I only took the second picture of the other end of the leather so you could see it's all nice light even color -- first picture is just a shadow making it look darker (it isn't).

This is just tooling leather bellies. I don't use the belly, but the folks in this discussion do, so instead of me moving it out of my way and other folks not having it.... Not me about the rawhide, though.. not sure who that would have been. And I'm in Fort Dodge.

Natural Hermann Oak tooling leather bellies. Paypal works. Still gonna git some pics.. soon as some of the neighbors go home

I bought a couple of sides. Not sure why, since I always buy backs. But, i wanted to see what the leather looks like from Weaver, and I didn't see where they sell backs. But, i'm not going to use them, so they are available to someone who does. Both are over 6' long, one is 7/8 and one is 8/9. BOTH for $40 and actual shipping. Pics shortly ....

According to some people who [at least claim to] know, the pistols most purchased in the last 90 days are the S/W M&P shield, followed by the Sig P938.

Squares on the floor are 12" x 12", if that gives you an idea how much leather we're looking at. Most is about 7 or 7.5 oz leather. There are 7 embossed strips - longest one about 37". The first (and biggest) piece is about 5- or 5 1/2 sq feet. Rough measure... 35x25, 28x12, 28x16, 45x7, 12x15, 8x10... and 11 other smaller pieces (not including the strips). For anyone wants to calc the shipping.the box is about 9" x 9" x 24" and weighs 13 pounds.

Thanks folks. But seriously... not ONE comment about where's the little elephant?

n Okay, here's some more. Small (ish) pieces, some better than others and some bigger than others. ALL of it for $50 + shipping. Much of this has those fat wrinkles that some try to tell you "add charm", but I must not be that charming, cuz I don't like the wrinkles I pad a LOT more for this, but I really need the shop space and I'm WAY too cheap to pitch it out! There are some 1 1/2" wide embossed straps -- too short for belts but fine for collars and cuffs. Longest one is about 37". Assorted pieces of trim from putting a straight edge on hides. Couple big enough to make a belt (but like I said, not beautiful leather). Larger irregular pieces of W/C black skirting - mostly the trim pieces. Still, some of these are large enough you should be able to cut around any marks on it. Largest piece is basically a single shoulder ~~ about 5 sq feet (ish).

I've seen quite a few different 'programs' used to make patterns. In the end, I wonder if some good ole graph paper isn't as good as anything

Sig P938 witha little elephant.

Looks like some tension issues? Or maybe squishy spots in the leather ...