wes

I would like to find and purchase a bluegun or metal replica of a Beretta 1951 pistol. Regards, Wes

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I have not forgotten about my holster, nor have I lost my enthiuasm for this project. I had to stop all of my projects to build and put up an electric fence, which took up several weekends. Then we had the school shooting here at Bailey, CO in the Platte Canyon High School, which cost the life of a 16 years old girl by a sexual pervert. Our little community, population of about 2000, has been shaken quite a bit by this. I had to sit down for a while, drink a few cups of coffee and mull over the state of the universe and our place in it. But next weekend, I will be working on my holster again.

I went to Tandy's today and purchased some stuff: an overstitch wheel w/3 wheels a diamond shafted awl 5/64 th edge beveller contact cement creaser/groover, adjustable gum tragacanth set of tool setter anvils and punches a package of 24 snaps for my thumb snap. (I have obtained an old holster that has a thumb snap. It has a piece of tempered steel as reinforcement for the pull tab. I am going to scavenge this piece of steel from this holster, which will save me quite a bit of searching for another.) This list of items is no where near my complete list of items that are required for my holster project. I will purchase more items as they are needed. Plus I need some information from you folks as to the type of needle that I need to get to do this project. (input wanted!) I have finalized my design for my holster. Thought out the minute details. Created a template of my pistol with allowance for the width of the leather. And am ready to go. Tomorrow I cut out the wood templates of cedar and begin the process of filing the template to the exact sizes and contours of the mould. I will radius the edges of the cutout template, as has been suggested by an expert in a previous reply in this thread. I will sand the surface of this template very smooth, as has also been advised to me in this thread. Then I am going to seal this wood template with polyurethane, so that it does not tear and bruise the surface of my leather. Since this thread has become very long, whenever I begin to post pictures of my holster building process, I do believe that I shall begin a new thread for the occasion.

Johanna, the link that you posted is probably the most powerfully convincing argument for Lexol that I have ever seen. On that site I went to this page, More Lexol Information, and their arguments are well presented. The following excerpt was the argument that caused me to use Connolly Hide Food initially. (I am easily convinced by hype and name dropping, aren't I?)

Another product that I use along with the wax is Connolly Hide Food. I had originally started using this stuff on the seats of my old autos: MGA, Austin Healey, etc. I most probably should have mentioned the Hide Food and not even brought up the name of the Renaissance wax. The Hide Food has lanolin, natural oils, but minimal petroleum based oils. I only put this stuff on whenever I think of it, which is not often enough. I believe that a year has passed since I last treated my holsters. I have several old holsters that were as stiff as an old board whenever I acquired them. The Hide Food put the oils and moisture back into them after a while and they are now pliable. Seems that the holsters that were in need of the most attention were those made of pigskin. I am extremely impressed that you people know your stuff and make suggestions with kindness and tact. Sorry that I did not mention the Hide Food initially.

Johanna, The treatment that I use on my holsters is Renaissance wax. The picture that I posted is of the holster whenever I first acquired it. Since that time I have treated it a couple of times with Renaissance wax and it is a shade richer than that which appears in the picture. And since you mention it, a little bit of time has passed since I have treated my holsters and will do so again this weekend. I live in the Rockies at an elevation of 9500 ft and the area has a very low percentage of humidity; between 10% and 25%. This is wonderful for metal objects but I do need to pay attention to my leather goods. I trust that you are absolutely right about the gage of my hide. If, after completing my holster, it is too flimsy, then I shall purchase another hide of greater weight and will have benefitted by my experience. I am most probably a great fool for not obtaining a different hide immediately.

The very best resource for open source softwares is SourceForge.net The software is written for various OS platforms: Linux, Unix, Microsoft Windows, BSD, etc, These programs are full featured and maintained. All softwares are void of tracking code, adware, external links, spyware, rootkits, etc. (Most free softwares on the 'net extol a heavy price of privacy invasion.) It will take a while to learn to navigate the site but the time spent locating just the right software is very well worth the effort. My computer operating system is Linux and all of my softwares are Open Source. I have absolutely no purchased programs on my computer. I have two daughters at Univ of Colo.: one will receive her B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering this coming May; the other is a graduate student working on her Master's degree in Computer Science & Engineering. Both have Linus OS in their laptops and desktops and use only Open Source software. I do not recommend Linux for the casual user, but I do recommend open source programs from SourceForge.net for Microsoft Windows OS.

I have no problem eating bovines, ruminants, and herbivores. I do not care to eat predators because of parasites and trans-species diseases. Horse meat offers fewer health risks than pork. I remember back in the late '60s and early '70s during the beef shortage that horse meat and earthworms were offered in the U.S. supermarkets and the pros and cons were discussed quite extensively on the national news at the time. There was even an episode on "All in the Family" about horse meat. That was the time that meat substitute soy products appeared on the market. It seems that soy was much more acceptable than horse or earthworm.

Thanks for the titles. I will order those books.

Could you discuss the illustrations a little more? I would like to understand what is being shown and my ignorance is hindering me quite a bit.

Please recommend the best book for dye or staining. I really need to read up on this subject very soon!

Lindsay, is there a particular commercial dishwasher similar liquid that you would recommend over all of the other brands. I read Bianchi's book cover to cover last night and enjoyed it very much. I am a collector of rare European pistols and revolvers. As a peripheral interest I have accumulated quite a few original European and American holsters circa 1900 in excellent condition for these handguns. Bianchi's passion for collecting old holsters struck a chord with me. I have several holsters for which I gave impressive sums. Pictured below are a couple of examples of my collection: 1. Biffar, Chicago 2. an Austrian holster for a 1901 commercial Austrian Steyr Mannlicher

Well, I am now all "booked up"! I received The Art of Hand Sewing Leather by Stohlman and How to make Holsters Book by Stohlman in the mail today. I will spend quite a bit of time this weekend reading those two books and then you will most probably see me in the various sections of this forum asking questions and soliciting advice. By the way, this is an absolutely wonderful forum. From the very first welcome, through all of the expert advice given to me, this has been a very enjoyable experience. Thanks to you all. I will make a wager right now that my first major mistake will be stretching the leather too much and destroying its inner fiber structure, destroying its firmness and rigidity after it has dried. Is this a hazard or possibility?