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welcome. all hobbies start somewhere. good luck in your holster. if you get interested there are seveal stholman books on making holsters from scratch. just a hint. Remember to mark your patterens which side is which and which side is up on the leather. iF not, you will end up making some lefty holsters.

welcome. if it is really the "halter bolt" you seek, then weaver has them. I go to my local leather suppler and they also have them. Dont know of other places. iirc, there is a "suppliers" list at the home page. maybe others will give their 0.02.

i enjoyed the show. and i also miss riding alot and those horses that have taught me alot and those that are alive and those that are not. Whats nice is that if i need my "horse fix" i can go up to one of the boarders' barn and get my fill.

whats probably more funny is that those titles probably wont offend anyone today.

funny, i thought Marines were Jar Heads and DOD had troubles with bridles fitting them? LOL. btw, nice job in any case.

great pics. nice horse too. LOL

+1 the al stohlman book (pattern book) has a 1911 holster pattern. also, why just make your own pattern? If you dont know how, then get his book and it will show you. Then you wont have to look for them, but have to tools to make them youself. iirc, i used the same technique to make a flapped holster for my 1911. The only oops was that i made it too snug since i added a lining and i forgot to flip the pattern over for a righty. btw, get some heavy paper/craft paper and make your pattern with that. if you need to cut/tape on the other parts. theres another book with 1911 patterns, but its out of print.

you sure those "dogs" arent really "horses". I never seen those size D rings used on dogs. iac, did you look at the normal tack sites? also, try your local Rigging/sailing shops. worst case, you can try making some yourself. iirc, there are some wire bending "jigs" fs.

iirc, there was an article in LC&SJ by the late Verlane (sp?) on the subject.

welcome. good luck in your seach. afa Oregon Leather in eugene, you maybe disappointed. the last time i was there was in the mid 80s and at that time it was a small store. they had some stuff that i needed when i was at UofO,but also back then there were several Tandys around too. just dont expect the same size. depending on what you want to make will determine who you want to apprentice with. i would say that leatherwork is leathework,but if dont want to make horse tack, then why would you want to apprentice with a tack maker. So, if you figure out what you want to make/do, then search out those poeple and ask them. BTW, you have Saturday Market with crafts people there. if you find someone, ask or even ask them where they learned. SInce youre a noob, joining the group at Tandy/TLF is going to HELP you more then hurt. you can learn the basics tools and handling techniques and terminology. Then when you get board, you can leave and look for whoever. also, fyi, there are schools out there that cover saddle/tack making and maybe some others. also, fyi, there is a leather trade show in Pendleton in November? i belive its put on by Ferdco? anyway, there will be crafts/trades people there too. another also, if youre into books/reading about the subject, try Powells and the many used book stores around the area including the Library. Our library system can "order" books from other libraries if they dont have it locally. at one time it was free to do the "order" but i havent done it in a long time. fyi, Powells has a section on leathercraft. look for the "Texttiles" section near the NW corner entrance. i was there a last weekend and it appeares that either its been cleaned out or someone got alot of the books. also, fyi, you may just have to do the T&E approach.

there are some holster patter books/guides out there for you to use or base your designs on. your local library may have some books on the subject too. fyi, as others have pointed out the low slung/buscadero rig you are thinking of isnt really ideal for the user on the back of a horse. the person that has requested this, if they do intend to ride with the rig, they should barrow one and try it. they will see real fast how it isnt the best solution. if you check out the CMSA participants, they dont wear one either. imo, if you client want to pack and ride, id look at one of the high ride styles like the Duke wore in a couple of his movies. btw, he wasnt packing a buntline, but a shorter barreled SAA. if you have the opportunity, try some rigs and ride. its the best teacher and you will see why.

well, imo, youre screwing yourself by purchasing 4 oz bottles of a dye. i can see that if someone want some really odd color like green, then i would buy a small qty, but if youre using any dye in any quantity, buy in bulk. only you know how much you use. i buy most of my dyes in 32 oz, but when it comes to a handful of colors, like BLack, i buy in gallons. theres no shelf life or epiration date, so i dont worry about it going bad. i dunk dye my projects when possible. if its a small thing then i will dauber it if its black or wipe it if its not black. btw, go to your local thrift shops, goodwills or garage/estate sales and look for containers. Baking pans, Cake pans, or even shallow pots. We have a palce call "city liquidators" that sells overstock and some used stuff, but alot of odd things. I try to find Stainless pans, but if i cant, it will be aluminum. I also try to find ones that nest so they dont take up alot of room. i get different sizes since the projects will be different sizes. if the pan is way oversized for the project, it will take alot more dye to fill the bottom of the pan to do the job..

welcome. im not sure if it will make a dif to some, but what type of saddle are you speaking of? Most of my riding has been done in an english saddle w/o the suede seat. So, i know how well a non sueded seat/breach can buff a saddle. I would belive that a suede seat on the saddle will help in minimizing the buffing action of the cover. however, if one is more sticky then the other, i think that some laws will come into affect. the one with the least stickyness will be the one to slip sooner. i think youre going to have to deal with this issue in steps. 1. make patterns of whatever you do so you can replicate it when you wish. 2. do it by T&E. 3. dont worry about making it "pretty" or for "blinz" in the beginning. theres time for that AFTER you get your pattern down pat. Securing it to the saddle is going to be limited. If its an english saddle, there isnt alot of attachment points other then some D rings in front/back. You can try to make it slip over the Skirts and use the girth/stirrups to hold it on the sides. i think youre going to have to do some T&E testing in the saddle. I would make several samples and spend some time trying them. afa the staining on expensive jeans. i like to look at a nice tush and if it has a saddle wear pattern, it makes it better imo. but if you dont want to attact that type of attention, there was someone that gave info on how to minimize that rub off of the black. > i do have an idea the construction tho. Instead of using 1 type of material, why not make it using 2 or more? if you make the back/cantle part out of leather (weight?) and follow the shape/contour of the existing cantle, and stitch/attach the suede to it, it should be rigid enough to hold your blingz and strong enough to hold some fasteners to attach to any D rings if any. when it comes to making things that havnet been done or seen, you have to think outside the box and do alot of T&E.

buy some scrap material and begin trying some different techniques on wetting and drying. ime, using any heat source to dry the leather can cause issues. when i was working @ my cousins clothes store that sold shoes, we always told the buyers that if they got them wet DONT PUT THEM NEAR ANY HEAT SOURCE INCLUDING CAR HEATERS!. of couse you would always get someone that didnt pay attention and would bring back a shoe where the leather upper was hard a concrete, but they didnt do anything wrong of course. you havent made anything yet, so do some experimenting. It will only cost you some time and scrap materail. try the hair dryer at differetn settings, temperatures and times and see what happens to the leather.

id just put some blank corner plates in.

of course. i sold some of my ooops holsters. They were either made for the wrong hand (forgot to flip t he pattern over) or were a tad too tight. btw, i didnt ask an arm or leg, but like they were used. i couldnt use them, but maybe someone could.

EXPERIMENT! i was doing the same for a customer that wanted it done to brow bands. Since the brow bands are curved on the horse, but straight when stitched, the beadwork will pucker if bent, then strightened. I tacked down the bead work every few rows/columns to minimize the puckering. i was never able to totally eliminate it. I didnt want to "glue" them down since eventually, the glue would work loose or degrade. if you can have the person try attaching the beads to a backing of sometype. it may make your job easier.

there are many ways to look at this problem and what you do may depend on what tools/resourses you have at hand or access to. > you can use a xerox machine and just photocopy them onto paper. If you need to +/- them, the machine can do that too. if you want something more robust, glue them to some plastic/aluminum/fiberboard/posterboard or whatever you have or can buy. > you can scan them and then play with the edges/holes and stuff. Then do the same as above. > you can also project them onto your leather if you have a projector. you have to think inside and outside the box too.

for some of the leather halters i repair, i use some of the black binding tape. iirc, it comes in 3/4 and 1" widths. not sure about the other stuff.

+1 on the thinner. if you decide to try it again, buy a can of thinner. i have no problem using the brush in the can to spread the glue if its thinned. if you do, give it a day or 2 to settle in. you can also stir in the thinner and then let it sit. any type of spray adhesive its going to go where it wants. even the barge will too, but you have more control with a brush then a spray. if youre going to use the spray adhesive, i would suggest to mask off the area youre going to spray. that way it should keep the good areas clean. afterall, if you do it right, there should only be a small boarder that isnt glued. i fix alot of halters and bridles and have no problem with the barge other then the smell. if you have simple stuff that needs to be held togeather you can try some sewing tape. i got mine from seattle fabrics. its like 2x sided tape and does a good job holding together. the last leather item i used it on was to replace worn out zippers on some chaps. it was strong enough to hold the zipper on the suede until i sewed it togeather.

good luck charlie brown. I tried making some repelling gloves out of elk hide many years ago. i forget what weight the skin was, but the hunter turned the hide into a seive so i got it at a good price, but iirc, it took me several attempts to sew the gloves so that they were a somewhat nice fit. i still ended up with one just right and the other tight. if you look at the ones you could reverse engineer them. I sewed mine inside out. the fingers in the space between them were the hardest since my machine wasnt made for the delicate and close quarter work. for the ovals, i would sew one side and then form/roll/stretch the leather to the other side and sew again. im sure it wasnt done in one pass. if it was, id like to see the tool/person that did it.

ALs comes to mind. but why the "best"? there are Libraries still and USED book stores around. why limit to ONE book where you have the whole world at your fingertips?

imo, air is fine for blowing up tires, but for your application, i would look at hydraulics. Air is compressable, hydraulic fluid isnt. im thinking youre exceeding the limits of your system somewhere and its blowing the seals so the equipment doesnt. look at Parker. We used alot of their stuff at work and what we had was a foot peddal style resevor assembly that connected to your air and then to the hydraulic cyinder. It ran off of iirc, 90 psi (out regulated max at work) and we were using them with tandom cylinders. they were portable and nice units. They maybe spendy, but they worked and i dont ever remember having any of of them fail in the 10 years working there. one feature they had was that to relase the pressure, just press on the top part of the pedal like you do to brake an airplane.

the size/type of machine will be dictated by what you are going to sew and how thick/layers. vegi tan leather doesnt mean anything other then its vegi tan. hobbies, professionals, it makes no dif. if you want to sew leather, get a good machine. you will save $$$ in the long run. btw, you can keep on buying those 20 dollar machines and keep on testing them to see if they will do what you want. In the end, you will have to try and sell/unload them and start all over. buy once and cry once. i did the same thing you are about to do. but i spent years buying/selling machines and finally just put out the $$ and got one.

if you want an inexpensive machine youre going to have to do your own homework and leg work. try: > craigslist as mentioned. > garage sales > rummage sales > estate sales > Goodwill or similar stores. > school sales. sometimes they sell off some of their equipment. > go to your local fabric stores and see if they have a f/s board. look there. > look at any antique sales/gatherings. > check your local Police department if they auction/sell any stolen/recovered property. you may find a good older machine that isnt necessary made for leather, but may work on it. be prepared to have some sample material ready to sew too.