Eric Pikey

Just to clear the air, this maker did his own testing on unfinished blanks and two other finished knives and couldn't repeat the effect. On his own, he's concluded that he must have forgotten to oil the knife after its final polish and not noticed the pitting when he grabbed it to test the fit of my sheath. For the record, he seems like a stand up guy. Thanks to all you who responded!

So I sent a prototype sheath to a knife maker for testing. He put a finished knife in it, and after two minutes found that the knife had small pitting all over the blade. No rust to speak of, just pitting. He describes it a something that salt or acid would do to steel. The knife is of 01 tool steel, and only had a light coat of WD40 on it. The sheath was of veggie tanned leather. The inside of the sheath had been stained with Eco Flo water based stain, timber brown and applied with a Preval sprayer system. All of the above bought from Tandy. The attached image shown is AFTER and attempt by the maker to polish out the pitting. I'm at a loss. Can anybody help me identify the cause of this problem?

I hadn't intended for it to turn out so dark. I was trying to match the grip better. That's actually just Tandy's Dark Mahogany Dye. I probably should have used Mahogany Stain to match the wood grain.

I gave my first holster to the guy I made it for before I took any photos. I didn't make that mistake again. Hope you all like it!

A concho would look good, and there are a lot to choose from. Or you could use this 3D Stamp from Tandy... http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/search/searchresults/8553-00.aspx?feature=Product_7&kw=cross

Do you have a picture or a drawing of what you're trying to do?

I'm also thinking of starting a small time business and I'll need a name too. So my question is, once you have a name, how do you go about checking to see if that name is already taken? I would think a Google search would be a good start, but is there a more comprehensive list to check?

The corners are actually just a craftaid I purchased at my local Tandy store. But I think I'll look into the Florid Victorian Ornaments you mentioned. And yes I will someday add a sewing machine to my leathercraft arsenal some day.

I just finished my first concealment holster for a friend at work. I used a Food Saver vacuum bag. I put the pistol between two pieces of cased leather, then put a paper towel on each side to absorb some of the moisture, and to prevent the texture from the inside of the bag from imprinting on to the cased leater. This I figured out after a failed attempt. It worked perfectly! In seconds the leather pulled down onto the pistol. I tried it with a kife and of course, it worked just as well. Of course the leather will not dry inside the sealed bag, so I left it set for about 20 - 30 minutes before I cut it open and layed the pieces out to dry. The machine I used was a borrowed one, but they can be bought for under $100. I'll be buying my own soon.

I'm new to the site, but am enjoying learing from all you pro's out there. This is my first Bible/book cover. I'd be glad to hear what you all think. Thanks.