wizard of tragacanth

If it were my project, I may not clean the medallion at all but if I did, I would try a step-by-step solution. First would try dish soap and water with a toothbrush. That may be enough to keep the "heritage" look but not look so rough. If I wanted to go further, I would try to hit just the high-spots using toothpaste (a mild abrasive) on a layer of cotton cloth in my palm and using my other hand to work the medallion around without pressing too hard. This would highlight the letters and the edges of the medallion while leaving darker areas around the lettering and make US stand out. If that wasn't enough, then use buffing compound on a wheel. Nick

I don't want to buy a side because I only want to make this one belt, for myself. I am about at the end of my leather "career" and do not want to stockpile any leather. I have a Tandy handy and could layer two of their blanks but I do not have a sewing machine. I said HO because if I am ordering sight-unseen. I want good leather and HO takes some guess-work out of the equation. Thanks guys. Nick

Looking for quality 12 to 14 oz belt blanks e.g. Herman Oak or similar from U.S. supplier. Minimum length of 55", Nick

I would attach the medallion to a round or square "patch" and sew the patch to the outside of the holster. Prongs will be between the patch and the holster body. You could make the patch and thread from contrasting colors or whatever e.g. a blue patch and gold thread.

Your top resources for learning leather craft are, this forum, YouTube and your local leather supplies store (such as Tandy). To give valid advice it is important to know what you want to make, other than a Batman mask. Will you be making other masks or wearable accessories like wrist cuffs or other costume stuff, like armor, etc? When I decided that I wanted to make holsters but was starting from zero, I assumed that I would need a swivel knife and a stitching pony. Fifteen or so years have passed without me owning either one. I don't do any tooling and a pony only makes sense if one is primarily stitching straight lines, as in a wallet and such. I bought a large 12x1`2 marble slab but later found a 6x6 was all I needed and much cheaper, lighter and more convenient. I bought a 12x12 Poundo board to go on top of the slab and later cut it down to four 6x6 pieces. Kits have many pros and cons. Often, the tools are lower quality. You've heard the buy once, cry once motto, right? You end up not using half of them and having to buy tools that were not included. A kit will get you started but I would recommend avoiding it. However, getting a kit may be the solution for some people. The old advice or buying what you need when you need it, is golden. There are several givens. Hopefully there is a leather shop near you where you can see and feel the leather. Leather choice is very important. You will need a way to cut the leather and most people have a generic utility knife that will work but if you are buying one, I recommend one that has multiple snap off blades, like an Olfa. If it starts getting dull, snap off a blade to get a new one. I use a new blade on every project now. It's nice to have a couple of sizes of knives, one for larger cuts and a smaller one for more maneuverability and cutting details. Some people use heavy duty scissors for some things. You need cutting tools. You will need a cutting surface. I use a Tandy Poundo Board. It's like a thick heavy "self-healing" black rubber. If you are making small, delicate work, there are the thin, green, cutting mats for sewing needs, sold at Walmart, Amazon and sewing shops. You will want a steel ruler for cutting, maybe a clear plastic ruler for other things, I have a special "centering" ruler that can be very useful. Also for measuring, spacing and marking, you need a pair of wing dividers e.g. Tandy Craftool $15... very useful. Now hear this... Harbor Freight has these same dividers in a set of 6 measuring tools for $10. OMG, what a deal. https://www.harborfreight.com/6-piece-technical-measuring-set-94447.html Need to know what you are creating to make any more suggestions for glue, thread, needles, hammer, etc. One of the kits that I saw on Amazon had maybe six type of needles. I have only used one type of needle since learning what I actually needed. This is an example of the waste in kits. Sometimes they include a rotary punch made of flimsy stamped steel. That was what I bought the first time. It was a joke. Lasted maybe three holes and the jaw went off-center. Paid around $15, totally useless. Must pay $50 to get decent ones. Expensive, but worth it. Still learning, I finally realized that my $50 rotary punch has a limited throat. I could punch to the center of a 1.5" belt but what if I want a hole in the middle of a 4" square? I could have bought, and did, both a Tandy mini and maxi punch set for a total of $30. Point is, you will buy some tools that you wind up losing money on. It is inevitable, but try to keep that to a minimum! I'm sure that I left out some important stuff but, I will leave that to the others of the forum! Nick

Fascinating shop! Love the atmosphere... thanks for the tour.

I think your friend's dad will treasure this sheath!

I have purchased two models from - branchworks3d - @ebay: S&W Bodyguard 2.0 and Sig P357. I am happy to report that they worked perfectly.

Thanks for your comments, Latigo. I did not use any stitch grooving at all on this holster. The leather is relatively thin and I did not want to weaken it.

Bruce, that's a great product recommendation. I just looked it up and it's on sale with 25% off but there is additional shipping cost. "Temperatures inside the cabinet can be set from approximately 135 degrees - great for finishing die-cast, other metals and wood - to approximately 100 to 105 degrees - ideal for plastic, resin and more." People have mentioned using heat up to 140° for holsters but I think that's too high. 110° is perfect. https://micromark.com/products/dr-dry-booth Nick

Nice work, great style!

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