wizard of tragacanth

I used to use Tandy's Satin Sheen. Looking on their website now, I see Eco-Flo Satin Sheen. It appears to be the same product, but I am not certain. Probably is though. Not completely Matte but low-sheen. Instead, you could use Neutral shoe polish. With shoe polish, the customer can touch-up their holster easily. https://tandyleather.com/products/eco-flo-satin-shene?_pos=1&_sid=88e6f60ec&_ss=r

Absolutely unbelievable. You lucky duck!

I'm curious... what kind of "edge coat" was Nigel using? Nick

Brilliant!

More thoughts... Re: mineral content of water for wet forming. Distilled water has zero minerals. Tap water varies greatly from source to source. Las Vegas has fairly hard water, 291 ppm as reported by the Water District. Over 300ppm is classified as "very hard". It's well known that we have high Calcium. I think it would be important to know the mineral profile or at least the Hardness of the water used if planning to do comparison tests. Re: leather weight & detail molding. As Thadrick mentioned, a thicker outside layer makes total sense, if carving is planned, If no carving is planned then detail molding would set the priority. Here, I think two layers of equal thickness are called for because the the thicker the leather the more resistant to details. The simple fact that two layers are being used and being fixed with contact cement, contributes greatly to stiffness. As Dwight mentioned - a hot box. I totally agree. Force drying a wet mold with heat and fan, really firms up a build. In the end, every step in our process adds to firming things up: wet molding & force drying, contact cement, dying, sewing, edge treatment and top coat, all help toward this objective. Don't use NFO or any leather conditioner, oil, cream, etc. I tend to believe that waiting overnight between each of these steps, also helps, but I may be completely wrong. Nick

Welcome to the forum! Interesting first post. There are many factors affecting the stiffness of the finished project. I have often wondered about the mineral content of the water that is used for wet forming, e.g. high minerals vs distilled? I have never tested this though. So, lazy!

That's some quality work.

Hey Bruce, that's great! I am a resident of Las Vegas. Is anyone is interested in a meet-up? I would love to meet any members of LW forum for lunch or dinner at Baja Miguel's Mexican restaurant, inside South Point, if anyone is interested. I don't know if it is possible to coordinate a day and time but I just wanted to throw this idea out there, just in case. Baja Miguel's Mexican restaurant is open 11am to 10pm, Wed - Sun. I would be open to other suggestions but thought I would start with this one. My apology if this is a ridiculous idea. Nick

What kind of project is this? I may have missed it in previous posts.

Gorgeous! I love everything about that knife and sheath. Nick

BTW, many of my "belt slide" holsters are "flat back" a.k.a "saddle" style. They are the most comfortable design, to ride on you hip. However, on thick, blockish guns, using a flat back requires extreme molding of the front. It can be done. I've done it but I think your 60/40 front to back is reasonable... and really a true pancake is molded 50/50 and not that much of a disadvantage. Why? Because with a BTB there is very little leather around the perimeter of the holster... and in fact, a larger perimeter would get in the way of placement between belt loops, effectively narrowing the real estate. Whereas extra leather, such as an ample sweat shield, does help to keep the gun from digging in and does not limit placement.

Nice work. I would be inclined to "age" the band.

Very nice! What kind of foundation or frame (or whatever it is called) did you use?

Regarding vacuum forming... I got some of the smallest vacuum storage bags from Amazon (which came with a very poor manual pump). I paid around $10 a few years ago, so now probably $12. The smallest bag is still double the size that I need for a handgun, so I just fold the bag in half with the valve on top and it works great. The cheap plastic hand pump was wholly inadequate. I simply use my home vacuum cleaner. I place a green scrubby sponge directly under the valve opening and tuck a flat edge of the holster slightly under a corner of the sponge. The hose on the vacuum fits flat around the outside of the valve on the bag. Takes just a few seconds to evacuate all of the air from the bag. Seal the bag with the cap. Lube the outside of the bag with spray silicone and work in the contours with the modeling tools of your choice. Nick

All this time, I thought that I was slicking my edges... turns out that I was actually burnishing them. Couldn't sleep the first two nights after finding this out but on the third night, finally said to myself, "What's done is done" and drifted off into a deep sleep. Nick