Mike Craw

I got started in 1981 while assigned as a Special Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department in Philadelphia. I had been carrying a handgun on and off duty for eight years at that point, as a local and then a Federal officer. I could never find a holster that I really liked. It didn't hold the weapon in close enough to conceal, or it sat at the wrong angle, or something. I walked into a Tandy leather store in Cherry Hill, NJ and asked the man how many lessions I'd have to take to learn how to build a decent holster. He said, "Well, there's a book on that shelf over there for five bucks that will teach you all the basics." About a half hour later, I had some leather, a hand stitching kit, and that wonderful book, and Mr. Al Stolhman and I went home to get started. From that following weekend, through my retirement in 2001, and to this day I never wore another commercially made holster. I still have that first holster. It's ugly and embarrassing, but I still have it and the original book that taught me how to make it. Mike

I still haven't gotten an answer to where all the doughnuts are that I keep reading about, and we've moved on to getting rid of cookies. I'm gonna need a whole tinfoil suit! Mike

Let's see...being banned for life from a site that's smaller than this one that doesn't have the knowledge base and couldn't possibly have so many knowledgeable and incredibly helpfull people? Yeah, I think I'll risk it! I agree that Johanna being too modest is an understatement! "So I bought an IPB license and scribbled the forum outline on the back of somebody's homework." That's like me saying, "So I bought a used sparkplug and some copper wire and made a DVD player!" I'm amazed that I can even read and post emails. I even found the new area. Can't get into it, but I found it! Now, if I could just find those donuts everybody keeps talking about. Thank you Johanna!!! Mike

Brian, Not that it's a good idea to switch techniques in mid-project, but if you plan to to much stitching it would be worth your while to get a diamond shaped awl and get good with it. Production speed will be your reward. If you can use a high speed drill to finish this one, I have had success with a Dremel using a fine bit. If you try exposing only enough of the bit to get through all the thicknesses of leather, youi shouldn't have too much deflection problem. Take a small round piece of leather (use a three hold punch on some lining leather) and run it down over the bit and let it rest against the mandril on the tool. That way, if your bit goes through quicker than you expect, the leather washer will keep the mandril from making a bullseye around your hole for all the world to see... Semper Fi

Brian, I don't know the Osborne punches by their number designations, so I didn't realize that the punch was so small. Our punches are for saddle work, usually 1/8" and up. Are you punching for lace? I always hand stitch my holsters, but I know that some of the folks on this board drill their lace holes as they have discussed in other threads. Since you are in mid-project, that might be a viable alternative if you have a drill bit of similar diameter. As far as alternate manufacturers, the only other supplier that I know of is the Tandy/Hidecrafter style, which might not even be as good as the Osborne and those would be hand-held hammer driven punches. If you have any replacement tubes for your rig, I suggest dialing back on your grip...somewhere in the...well, I was going to name another service branch, but I've already stirred up enough stuff this week. Hope you can finish your holster without undue delay. Is it for duty or personal use? Mike

Hey usmc341, My first question is what are you using for a work surface under your leather? A rubber "pound-o-board" or one of those white cutting boards shouldn't cause cracking like you describe. If you have a really forgiving surface under your leather, you might have defied the odds and got two in a row. The problem we have had with Osborne punches is plugging. When Osborne drills out the hole they don't polish the inner surface at all. Sometimes I think the holes get smaller up toward the port. Leather gets wedged in the tube to the point that successive punches begin to drive the leather cores down into the cutting surface. We have some boards that look like they were shotgun targets. We got a set of punches from Weaver, and while they are a little on the pricey side, they shoot the plugs out the ejection port like a champ. I personally think the extra expense is more than made up for in productivity. Semper Fi Mike

rdb, That's a great looking guitar strap, and a good carving job. There is the outside chance that somebody with the same initials will show up, but if not, you can always be glad you didn't build him a saddle! Mike

Welcome to the forum, Dave! When you get a chance, please post some photos of your work. Mike

Have any of you built a saddle on a Steele flex-tree? We had a lady come into the shop and ask us to build her a barrel racing saddle. She had been using a tree-less saddle, which we repaired and she sold on ebay for a pretty good price. Once I got a look inside a treeless saddle, it called into question everything I thought I understood about saddle making. Foam padding taped together with cellophane tape, covered with fake sheepskin. Progress, I guess. So now, after we agreed to build this saddle, she has come in with a Steele saddle tree. The fork and cantle are standard issue wood covered in fiberglass, but the bars are some sort of semi-flexible material covered in a rubberized coating. The ground seat pan that she got with it is roughly 3/16" fiberglass. Naturally, there are no instructions as to how to affix the pan to the tree, or more importantly, how to build a ground seat over top of this whole contraption and have anything stick to anything else... Anybody with experience, please jump in here!!! Mike

Hey SmilinJim! Without going over the same ground as Randy, I'll add my 30+ years of wearing a gun everyday in law enforcement and my experience as a holster maker and firearms instructor. Your instincts are correct, the thumb break should operate the other way. Your friend is causing himself all sorts of problems trying to save a little money. If he is used to carrying a firearm, he has strong "muscle memory" already ingrained as to how the retention devices work, and under stress he will revert to his old habits. If he does, that backward thumb break may be the difference between winning and losing the most important contest. Randy is also correct about what I would term "the requirement" of getting rid of that metal belt clip and securely sewing on a belt loop. A metal belt clip is terrible idea on a combat holster, from relaibility of drawing in a gunfight to weapon retention in a scuffle. We don't even want to get into the age old debate about an open-top cross-draw safety for the officer. I don't know of any departments that use, or allow their officers to use, cross-draw holsters without at least one retention device. All in all, I'd say the money your friend saved on that holster is about equal to the money he would have saved on a pair of size 7 boots if he wears a size 9! Randy's right, make him a proper holster. Mike

Hey Leatherworker! This past September in "Other Specialties" CitizenKate posted a site on Bespoke Shoemaking. If you click on her post, it will take you to a series fo smoe fascinating videos about hand making footwear. I highly recommend it! Mike

Happy Birthday Marines, Happy Veteran's Day tomorrow to all Veterans, Semper Fi! Mike USMC '69-'71

Hey Regis! As a general rule, I don't form the front of a tooled holster much. I dampen the back more than the front, and I only use the bone or deer horn on the back. I gently form the front around the slide/barrel and trigger guard with my finger tips and perhaps the background tool (inn the backgrounded areas), but no more than that. Hope this helps... Mike P.S. I only dampen the INSIDE of the front, so I don't screw up the tooling if I can help it.

Hey Rawhide! For what it's worth, in our shop we don't bother to re-braid that rawhide neck wrap. We do a leather cover and bullhide wrap. The reason is that, besides being time-consuming to braid, it's impossible to get the new braid under the swell cover without doing a complete re-construct. Not worth the time or money. On a Billy Cook, I always very carefully remove the engraved concho on the horn cap by removing the leather cap and then cutting away the leather around the three prongs on the back of the concho. Whatever you do, don't try to straighten the prongs, because they are copper wire, and they'll break off...guess how I know? I then make a horn cap piece and punch three holes for the wire posts. They are all bent at an angle, so I insert the tips and then twist the concho to seat it. I then Barge the back of it, stick it to the horn cap filler, and stitch it. It's a pain in the , but since Billy Cook made it, I figgure he ought to have his name on it. Hope this helps. Mike

Hey Roncal! Sorry nobody responded to your question, but I missed it somehow. I think a lot of times when you do some sort of post, and then somebody posts a different question or photo right after you do, only the more recent post gets viewed, and I'm guessing that's what happened with yours. I feel extra bad that a new member got ignored, because we all really appreciate questions from folks who just joined, and everybody here is really interested in helping out everybody else any way we can. Anyhoo...how do we deep clean a saddle? I help out a buddy at his saddle shop in Kingsland, GA a couple days a week. While we will jump all over an order for a custom saddle, we get way more repair and restore jobs! Most saddles come in looking like they were dragged behind the pick-up rather than riding in it. We use good old soap and water...lots of water. We use liquid Ivory soap almost exclusively now, since it doesn't seem to leave residue like bar soap occasionally does. I use a small fingernail brush, especially on tooled saddles, because that's where most of the dirt hides. I scrub until I get a really good foam built up, and then rinse with a sponge full of clean water. Keep this up until the foam is a clean white color, meaning there is no more dirt left. Rinse again, and then towel the area, removing all the excess water. A little water will remain in the leather, but it should dry fairly quickly. I like to oil the leather with "pure" neatsfoot oil or Leather Therapy. Some folks use Lexol, also. I think you'll find that saddlemaker have as many different ways of restoring a saddle as they do of building one, and their's is the RIGHT way. I don't claim to have the only answer, but I do believe that doing something is better than doing nothing! I'm amazed at the number of people who will spend good money on a nice saddle and then treat it like it was made out of Kevlar. They never knock the dust off, never wash it, never dry the rain water off it, never oil it, and then they are shocked at what you want to charge them to replace the rotted and work out parts. Hope this answers your question, and it may start a whole new discussion! Happy cleaning... Mike

It's happening again today. The member profile page appears and then flashes to a blank white page with some kind of code in the upper left corner. Or, maybe it's just me... Mike

Hey Skip! I think the design of the retention in the sheath is fantastic! Your sewing looks nice and even. Would you consider using that considerable talent to learning leather carving and tooling now? The only criticism I would have with your PVC embossing method is that the impressions run over past your stitching groove and off the leather. Once you learn some basic leather stamping, you can customize your design for any size sheath you are making. To pick up on another response, do you make the knives, too? They are beautiful. Mike

Leatheroo, After more than thirty years in local and Federal law enforcement, I can tell you that most cops have no problem with private ownership of sporting and defence firearms. We, more than most, understand the phrase, "When seconds count, the cops are minutes away." You state that there is no need in your country for self-defence ownership of firearms/knives, but I'd be willing to bet that a sizeable portion of your "only 100" homicide victims might have seen a need... Mike

Even though I seldom take my own advice, I'd say don't fix it if it ain't broke! Looks good to me...ship it! In your own words, you've already learned something about what you would do differently next time, you are the only one who can see anything really wrong with this one, and if you do much more you'll screw this one up. Guess how I know that...? Mike

What, and spoil the mystery?

I am always hesitant to mention a problem with a computer because, well to paraphrase what Monkey said, more often than not, "It's not you, it's me." Mike

Thank you...I think. Mike

I may be doing something wrong, or there may be a technical problem with member profiles. Every time I click on one to view the profile, it appears on the screen for a split second, and then it disappears and all I have is a white screen. I clicked on several different ones, and it happened every time. Mike

If that knife cuts as good as it looks, I'd use it 'till one of us wore out... Mike

You'd think that, if they're standard issue, somebody at the company would know where they are getting them. Maybe when Clay goes out for doughnuts he could find some...