camano ridge

Jimbob, check with David Carrico he is or was making McClellan saddle trees http://www.carricoleather.com/mcclellansaddles.html, Also check Weaver they had a lot of parts for restoration of McClellan saddles. In Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal there are a couple of articles with information on the McClellan saddle, I will look them up if you are interested. I f you have some woodworking skills and some basic woodworking tools I would think you could get measments or a McClellan reduce thos down to the size you w want and build a tree.

JLS, whats the password?

Red, here are two items that might help you although I believe that any grading system can and is loosely interpeted by some tanneries and or resellers. The second one is a free ebook from Weaver, it does a pretty good job of explaining the grades and other information you might find useful if you have not already seen it. Page three gives a explanation of grades. THere is also a page that gives the attributes of the different areasof a hide and there is a page on costing out leather and on yield. Here is a link to a post by Chuck Burrows over on cascity with his explanation of grades and some other good info. http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,24427.0.html As to Tandy grades as near as I can find out Royal Oak is what they believe to be there A grade Oak Leaf = B grade Craftsman = C And Economy grade is their bottom I looked at some Royl Oak the other day and it was worse then a comparable size Crafstman both were marked Brasil http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/infoandservices/leatherguide/leatherguide.aspx http://offers.weaverleathersupply.com/insiders-guide-to-leather-learn-to-work-with-leather

Cajun, the OP may not respond this was originaly poster 2008. However go to post #2 and save and print the pattern it has measurements. Then go to post #10 and download the PDF instructions. You should be able to build it with that.

J Hayes, that is a very nice border stamp. When you say you are thinking of making more if you mean of that same stamp to sell let me know. I will order one.

I have not used Renia, how ever Electrathon a member on these forums has. You might PM him and ask for his input. See his post #6 at this link http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=50905&hl=%2Brenia+%2Bglue#entry329444

When doing inlays I use the same thread I would use if I was not doing an inlay. I use waxed thread on most all of my holster, sheaths etc. I have an awl blade chucked in my drill press (not turned on) that I make my holes with, it slides through the stingray and gator backs with no problem. The way i sew and what I use does not change wether I am doing inlays or not. Except the awl blade in the press makes it easy to put holes in the stingray. Not sure how your needle will do.

A few months back Weaver sarted a retail site. They sell to the public as well as business accounts. They raised the 1st order minimum for new business accounts to $500.00.

Red is that a ball on the end of the shaft. If so is there a set screw and can you remove tha ball from the end of the shaft. On my shaft I have a hole drilled on each end (different sizes) the shaft can be flipped over to accomodat a tool or die with a different size shaft.

Looking good, very nice items on your web site.

To burnishedges just basic a piece of hardwoo dowel with a groove in it (or different sized grooves will work. You can even chuck it in a drill press. For ready made inexpensive burnishers check out Tandy. There are many people who do holsters as their first project. It just depends on yourcomfort level and if you can live with the fact that the first holster may not be a holster just a learning experience. Here are some links to a couple of decent holster making how to's that list basic tools toget started. http://gunleather.webs.com/holsterbuilding101.htm http://www.jdlawhon.com/tutorial.html There is a pinned topic on how to burnish edges I think in the how to forum. Also there are some pinned topics on making cowboy holster and I think a slim jim holster. may not be the type of holster you would want to make however they show how to draw your own pattern. If you decide to make a holster PM me with what you want to make it for and I might have a pattern to help you get started. You will want to learn to draw your own pattern though.

Red if you do a search on these forums you will find many ways the arbor presses are being used. Mine is drilled so that i can insert dies for setting rivets, snaps, eyelets,grommets etc. Just depends on die sets you have. As Dwight said it can be used for lettering. THere is a thread on here some where that shows how to set up a fence to guide your belt etc when lettering. There are many uses for it.

If you give us an idea of the type of projects you want to start off with we can make some suggestions for the bare basics for that project. FOr instance if you wanted to do key fobs then you would need something to cut with, a hole punch, a rivet stter unless you decided to use chicago screws, Optional would be and edge beveler and something to burnish the edges, stamps if you decided to put on a design. Single layer belt pretty much the same. If it requires stitching you would need needles thread, a diamond awl, stitch groover and overstitch wheel. There are other techniques that canbe used as well. Any hting that will need pounding such as stamps, rivet setter etc will require a maul or mallet. If you give us the type of project you want to start with we can give you some basic get buy with these tools lists.

You forgot the final and most important step, take a picture and post it here.

Treed, do you know where the one in Seattle is located. I can't find a listing and there site only shows Portland and Eugene. The only company I know of in Seattle besides Tandy is Macpherson leather, they sell Herman Oak. Would love to shop at Oregon leather if they had one closer to me then Portland. Ok answered my own question looks like Oregon Leather, Montana Leather (Billings Mt.) and Macpherson's Leather(Seattle) are all owned by the MacPherson family.

Tall, the important thing is that since you won't have 47 years to become as proficient with leather working as you did wood working you won't get bored with leather like you did wood. The big question is did you learn what went wrong and do you know how to fix it so it won't happen again. We all have junk holsters that did not turn out the way we wanted because Murphy stepped in or the shop elves got a hold of it when we were'nt looking or what ever. You said your self you had occasional fails in woodworking. Hen you get done beating yourself up over it. If you need help figuring out what went wrong show us a picture of the holster maybe we can help. If you have it figured out make a new one and show us both holsters and tell us how you overcame the problems maybe some of us can learn something from you. Like they say the most important thing is to get back on the horse.

As above, when using USMC black you need to buff the heck out of it. If you do not you will get rum off. Some people oil first as they believe it helps with the dye. I have found oiling after dying and buffing works better for me. It seems to help make the black blacker (again just my perception) and it puts nutrients back into the leather that tends to get dried out abit from the dying proscess.

COGS, in your first post it sounded like she made it out to be in pretty good conditon. The pictures make it obvious that that is not true. The first picture shows the cover to be a little rough, the second picture looks like mildew and or mold. The first picture also makes it look like there may be several loose pages. I don't know what your ultimate goal is, to me as a coffee table display it would not be appealing to me. As a collectable item it does look like it may be an early printing however myself ( not an expert but a collector off many things including books) without examaning it in person I would have to say that it is on the low side of fair and headed toward poor condition. I would not be inclined to pay anything near $500.00 for it. If you are interested in it for the patterns then I would go with a newer complete one. However I don't know if you have seen the patterns in this book, while there is good information and some nice patterns many of them are dated (obviously since it was done in the 50's). Just my opinion and less then 2 cents worth.

Dwight, that turned out well.

A new one at Tandy is $299. elite price is $180.00 occasionaly on sale for $149. at Christmas it was on sale for $99.00 to prefered customers. Look to see what printing it is. As stated before four pages cut out and two of those missing definately detract from the value.

Or you can put a series of holes and attach the loop with chicago screws making it adjustable.

Again not disagreeing with you, just saying someone can still cause a problem they can send anoying cease and desist letters or even file a frivolus law suit with the hope that he would not take the time or money to fight it. The bigger issue to consider would be the commonality of the name. If there are other Johnson Leathers I would think it would be better to have something to try to set your self apart from the others to limit confusion and misidentification by customers. However now we have realy side tracked his original post.

In Washington State when you get a State business liscense you are ask if you wish to register a trade name if you try to register one that has been registered by some one else they will not accept it. If it is accepted your trade name is protected in the state, at federal level you would need to register it as a trade mark. We just had an incident localy (you can find it on the internet) where Absolut forced a local Hairstylist to change their business name of Absolut Hair Salon to something else. Absolut trade marked the word Absolut and all alternative spellings so that suposedly it can not be used as part of another business name. Not saying he would have a problem just that it is possible.

If there is no J. Johnson Leather or J.A. Johnson leather there won't be any legal issues. Do you have your business license yet, if so when you got the business license did you register a trade name, if not register your trade name. They will tell you if it has already been taken.

Problem with peg board and nails you need a wall mine are taken up by cabinets. Rob I have seen those before and they are nice problem is at 8 guns per rack and I have about 120 dummy/blue guns I could almost buy a kimber solo for that price