Sam I Am

Prayers for all of you down under - thinking of you from Pennsylvania, USA

OK, so now that I got this whole "getting rid of the membership" stuff, my humble opinion on why Corp decided to do this is because there were other places to go with competitive pricing (like for instance i do know of one individual who was quite clever. He paid the money for whatever membership gave him the biggest discount, stocked up on inventory, sold it for more than he paid for it, but less than i would have - and we were both happy campers. Guess this puts a bit of a cramp on his Adventures In Capitalism career, but I gotta give him kudos. Anyway, I think that corp is looking at that, and as far as closing stores, you have to go to where the market and demand is. I had one shop in Allentown, interest petered out for whatever reason, now the one that's north of my job in Jersey is hopping by comparison. So, that worked out well...

Hmmm... gotta check this put for myself. I know that they closed one store south of me, and opened a brand new one north of me, near where I work. And wouldn't ya know it - I JUST renewed my Gold Membership...

Have fun!

Found a great place for getting patterns for free (Who doesn't like FREE??) http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/

Here's a good pattern for leather tankard tankard.pdf

Tandy https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/plainsman-boot-pattern-pack https://www.tandyleather.com/en/product/adult-plains-boot-moc-pattern-pack

I know this is years after, and I hope you're still coming on - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Ducjes

Don't try to cut all the way thru thick leather on the first pass. Not only do you take the chance of moving the ruler, but you take the chance of the knife skipping off the leather and onto the metal ruler, where it will continue with great speed; burying itself deeply into your left thumb, stopped only by its contact with bone. I got 12 stitches. And a chain mail glove to protect my left hand.

Considering they're genuine handmade, and as you said they'll last forever - eight to ten bucks is a good price. I don't know how prices are down south, but in PA I would say eight bucks for plain (the way you have them) and then if you stamp the flap with something (nothing fancy, just a 3D or gem rivets or something) then ten. Cool idea though. Sam

Thanks Ross! I found my niche leather working. I'll have to post more of my stuff. Nice to have someone else from PA. You're in my neck of the woods? Hey Billy! Pennsy is taking over LOL Sam

I made a IWB holster for my .40 S&W MP Shield. I used saddle skirting, rough cut big enough to fold around the weapon. I then took the weapon (UNLOADED of course!) and VERY IMPORTANT - taped a flat carpenter's pencil between the rear sight and front blade sight to make a draw channel. I covered the entire weapon in saran wrap to protect it. I took the leather and made it soaking wet, and folded it around the weapon, keeping the "back" side (which would go against my body) flat, and wet-forming the "front" side to the weapon, using my fingers and round smoothing tools, being careful to form the wet leather tightly to the trigger guard inside as well as out. (When it dries, these points of the formed leather will create a natural weapon retention.) I then clamped everything in position and gave it a few hours to dry a bit. When the leather tolerated some handling while still retaining its shape, I very carefully "opened" the leather just enough to remove the saran-wrapped weapon and closed and clamped the leather back together and left it for 2 days to dry. Once completely dry, you can manipulate the holster, cutting it to fit the length of the barrel, leaving a "tail" to protect your side from the grips, trimming the overall holster, setting out your stitching channels, dyeing the leather, setting rivets at stress points, etc. This holster is my edc, and I am looking forward to making more for my other carry tools.

I use a safety beveler from Tandy (Item #3001-00) to skive the flesh side down to "meat". Then I wet the flesh side and rub it with the grain in one direction with beveled glass and let it dry. if you let it dry, then even when you case the leather to prepare for carving, the flesh side will continue to behave. Hope that helps -Sam

LOL Thanks! Actually, when my wife and I were dating, she really made green eggs and ham for me one morning!

You can get a lot of info about your machine here: http://ismacs.net/index.html