$$hobby

thats not going to happen. im making him a belt/holster and he just wants the buckle. it doesnt have to be a real one, a copy/reproduction is fine. thanks anyway.

the customer im making the belt for is not concerned about reenactors. he just likes the US. unfortunately hes too lazy to do any research himself so i have to try and find one. i just love trying to buy/shop for other people - not. Sutlers was one of the sites i found earlier. they have some nifty stuff, but non of the buckles i could see. like i mentioned before, he just want a brass buckle with US on it. thanks for the link and help

i have access to weavers, but they dont have any buckles. US buttons and such for tack/bridles. but no buckles.

i should add that i googled for the buckles, but didnt find much. i hope that someone has purchased some and can direct me to a retailer.

I would think that "soak" it in neatsfoot oil would eventually harm the leather? Someone posted that casing the leather in Hot water will cause it to harden. I wonder what would happen to it with the neetsfoot soaked leather.

theres a good book on making holster/belts. "How to make Holsters" by Al Stohlman. there are also pattern books out there too. It all depends on what style holster you want. Dusty Johnson has a DVD out that covers Holster too.

Hi again, Im looking for a retail supplier for reproduction "US" civil war type buckles. I found some suppliers that had lead in the buckle, but i think solid brass will be better since its for use and not need to be an exact reproduction. TIA.

sometimes, you have to roll your own to get what you want. i think its a great job.

i like it. you can never have too many horsey type stuff.

i use neatsfoot on all of my bridle repairs. it will temp darken the leather and then lighten up to where it was before.

no. i havent been sealing w/anything. however, im goingt to try some stuff soon.

Hi cindy, sorry i cant help you on the western stuff. I do alot of repairs on english and see alot. but as you know the english stuff can be sort of bland. one thing you may want to ponder is the brow band. for a while i was making alot of brow bands with beadwork. I didnt do the beadwork but i incorporated them into the browband. i thougth they looked real nice, but eventually some of the judges DQed riders with them so they are not as hot anymore. but for just hacking around and looking nice should be fine. you could always try some english tack.. oh and i forgot to say, welcome. rc

english or western?

nice job. if you make it, they will come?

There are domestic US schools too. I think Spokane Washington has a community college with a degree in leatherwork? then, there are various private saddlery schools too. of course if you had the $$ to take the classes in the UK, it would be like a working vacation.

IIRC, the 241 was one of my many machines that i purchsed over the years. Its a sump type machine where you have an oil bath in the bottom. when you run the machine, the mechanical pump circulates the oil around the various parts. Mine had a window with sometype of drip tube where you could see the oil circulating. one thing i noticed on my machine was that that oil was also on the needle. im not sure if was intentional,but it was. So it may end up staining your leather. i didnt use my machine on leathe, just nylon and such. ALso, one important part. Its a "high speed" machine. at least faster then youre use to. I did get use to the speed and after a time, it was tooo slow for me. as far as pressor foot capacity, i think my machine was the -13 and had like 3/8" under the foot. i cant remember what the -12 had, maybe 1/4~5/16"? i think you could use it for such projects, but if you can, i would ask to run the machine. take some material over there and maybe even some leather you want to sew. IIRC, i was able to use at the heaviest #138 thread for my nylon projects. that would also be a good time to see if the pump is working. you didnt say how much he wants?

Well, i decided to make another holster. But this time for my utility knife. I used one of those clips that i had around for a long time. For the holster itself, i used some heavy scrap. The outside and inside is 12oz and the back that supports/holds the clip in place is approx 6 oz. i did the casing technique on the outside as can be seen and it holds the knife body in place real nice. of course its hand stitched. it actually came out okay eventho i thougth it was going to be too large compared to what its holding. this was a fun and fairly quick project.

you know the saying "practice makes perfect"? the more you do, the better you will become. also, you will find areas that need improvment and/or ways to do it easier. with that said, i think the holster looks fine. I must say tho to tone down the gloss please, i had to find my sun glasses...LOL.. you may want to look at protecting the mag release since it may get accidently depressed when unprotected.

Hyper, Yes i do have it in my dirty little hands. Sorry it isnt for sale, but if i see it at the bookstore i frequent, i will let you know. $$

TwinOaks, Thanks for the link to the post. I saw and read it with interest. It would be neat if you could do something similar for different colors. JCCD, you are correct with my OP. I thought i had read somewhere here in one of the posts that IIRC was a recipe to mix some leather dies with some other ingredients to keep the die from rubbing off the leather once dry. im asking now since i only made leather items for me, but am now making them for some others and i dont think it would be nice to make something for them only to have some of the die rubbing off on their clothes. it maybe me, but i wouldnt appreciate it and i dont buy expensive clothes either. i will keep on searching for the post, but if i cant find anything, then i guess i will have to do a work around.

I learned how to make holsters from the book: " How to make Holsters" by Al Stohlman. once you learn the basics you can learn the others. thers another book too thats probably what youre looking for: "how to make practical pistol leather" by J. David McFarland. If you have a Tandys/Leathercrafters and/or independant leather craft shop, i would check them out and see whats available. if not, you can order online, but its sort of nice having a real person to show you. Our local Leathercrafters is now offering some classes on leathercraft. I would suggest you get some "scrap" leather if you can and practice cutting/working on it. at my local leather shops, they offer "scraps" for sale. They can be as small as straps or as large as half a hide. it all depends on what was wrong with the leather.

hi all, there was a post/reply several months ago regarding some recipe to use with black? dye to keep it from rubbing off when dry? i find that after i dye my projects, there will be some residue? on the leather. I do buff the surfaces, but sometimes it take a while before that residue is gone and wont transfer to your clothes. btw. i use the fiebings alcohol and oil dyes. TIA.

If the frames are broke, it would only be good for demo. if the frames are good (not broke) then some saddler could probably reuse them. Are the frames wood or plastic? some/most of the english mfgs are using plasic frames now. I have a Passier and AFAIK they use wood frames.

McMaster has the t-nuts, but not in black. you could have them black oxided.

+1 when i worked at my cuz clothing store, shoes was one item we sold. Alot of people had the habit of heating their wet shoes with heaters/ovens/hair dryers and such. the end result was a vary hard shoe. eventually they cracked and wanted their $$ back. acetone most likely stripped any oils left in the leater. btw, that german? body exibit that had the skinned bodies, immersed the bodies in acetone to remove the fluids in the body. didnt someone post recently that if you soak your leather in hot/warm water, it will harden? if so, it would be interesting to see if the leather cracked or would hold up to bending.