St8LineGunsmith

making a wallet you will definitely want to use the small awl blade and a split piece of artificial sinew will fit in a large glovers needle the small blade is pretty much all I use but I do have a medium for just in case. you will want to sharpen the awl blade so it will glide through the leather. the small harness needles are a good match to use with the small awl blade and a full (un split) piece of artificial sinew. small tapestry needles work good too in a pinch I only use artificial sinew and it will thread into a "0" harness needle any thread thicker than sinew will require a larger needle than the "0' harness needle but tapestry needles have a large eye that will accommodate heavier threads Diamond Awl Blade another thing you want to do before you start sewing is to glue your parts together by using contact cement on the stitch lines this will make the stitching process easier and the wallet will never come apart. the sewing awl has its uses just not on leather. they are great for sewing heavy canvas and nylon straps.

my next swivel knife purchase will be to buy a tangle boss from tanglefoot trading co

Here ya gohttps://www.leathercraftlibrary.com/p-1489-spur-strap-pattern.aspx these patterns are free and you can make them as plain or as fancy as you like

I know this is an old thread but i think the contents is well worth bumping the thread up to the top for new members to take a look at

thanks for the upload!

I use a woodworking V gouge for making folds just as an adjustable v gouge would be used for that same purpose I dont have oblong punches but I do have wood working chisels and round hole punches that I use for making ob long holes in leather and they are very clean and look good so the answer to the question is yes woodworking tools can be used for leatherworking. however that being said a v gouge would not be very well suited for the practical purpose of carving designs on the grain side of the leather. keep practicing with your swivel knife it will eventually click. a couple of good tips I can share would be to always keep the blade honed and never try to do any knife work on wet leather for it will make the blade drag.use an angled 1/4" filigree blade instead of a straight blade, ( it is easier to make tight curves and corners with an angled blade.and does not require as much presure to get the intended depth of the cut. wait for the leather to absorb the casing water and dry , dont plunge the blade in so deep into the leather that it is difficult to maneuver the swivel knife bot not too shallow that the impression looks washed out. everything else revolves around Practice, Practice, Practice... and this is one of these cases if you don't use it you loose it so stay in practice another thing is if you go to www.springfieldleather.com they have stamps 999-L, 999-R and 301 that can aid in making clean straight and curved lines in your carvings until you get a good handle on the swivel knife.

I wonder how many people are making and selling " Pancake holsters" after seeing one by the originator?... Hmmmm.

Thanks for posting! I will share the file with my leather working class Saturday

I have patterns for Colt or Remington C&B revolver flap holster, buscadero belt flask holder and bullet pouch it can be made for either CS or US I suppose I could donate you the file if you PM me your e mail adress

I have been a metal fabricator for the last thirty years of my life so if I can assist you in any way I would be glad to give you some info. the thing about working with hard metals like Ti and SS it cannot be annealed to soften it so it is essential is to keep the cutting tool as well as the work piece as cool as possible and heavily lubricated and not to have too high RPM. if you can flood the tool with a water soluble cutting oil that is designed to keep both the cutting tool and work piece lubricated and cool your degree of success will be much greater when working with these hard metals. 440 stainless would be an excellent choice of material for making blades. check out the tangle boss swivel knife from tangle foot trading co I think it is a revolutionary design. I really want to make a swivel knife along that design.you could probably make one with the right size tubing and a couple of end mill bits and a small lathe would be very beneficial but I don't have access to one but clever use of a drill press might sufice

you are going to ruin a lot of drill bits and cutting tools working with titanium because it is nearly as hard as the tool steel I really dont see Ti to be very practical for making a swivel knife for cutting leather not to mention the cost of tooling to make the knife JM.02

cool thing is it is already full of stuff.

I would like to see some period accurate designs and where to buy buckles and hardware also.

If I could only have one I wouldn't waste my money on a Tippman Boss it has a shallow throat and continually comes out of adjustment. I would save a little more money and get a Cobra class 4-S, 4-P or a King Cobra 4-25 however trying to stay within a $1300.00 budget the Tech Sew 3650-HD would be my choice. JM .02

looks like a relatively simple project.

My local Tandy Leather Factory store here in Chattanooga is awesome! everyone there are very helpful and Jim the manager is one of the most helpful and dedicated and willing to help however he can he holds classes every week and regularly tries to schedule professional leather working business owners to conduct workshops. we just finished a holster making work shop and the end of this month a saddle bag workshop will be taking place if there are any issues with tools and material they will do everything possible to make it right However I too have noticed the decline in quality with some tools and I think that has a lot to do with out sourcing from overseas manufacturers I remember a time when all the tools had made in USA now they have Fabrique EN Tiwan or China or some other foreign country. I think if they are going to sell specialty tools made with sub par materials and sub par materials they should not be asking a premium price. the price should reflect on the quality of the tools.

I use a wood carving V gouge and it works very well I also use wood working chisels for cutting in slots good sharp wood chisels and gouges work great for making precision cuts on leather Ialso have a thumb plane that works excellent for skiving down leather anyway I just thought I would throw that out there

this might sound crazy but oil dry compound will pull the oil right out of a soggy holster that has been oil saturated. I went overboard with the oil one time and didn't want to throw away the holster so I shoved the holster down in a bag of oil dry, (or cat litter is pretty much the same thing) pulled it of the bag a day later and it was dry as a bone like I never put the first drop of oil on it. anyway the best thing is not to over do it with the oil.

Springfield has a good selection of tools I attend the free leatherworking classes at Tandy Leather Factory in Chattanooga, TN every Saturday so I get most of my tools ,Leather and hardware there since I get everything at wholesale. I also make as many tools as I can to save money I am very impressed with the new professional Crafttool stamps and swivel knifes from Tandy. a bit pricey to start out with so if you dont belong to tandys wholesale club you should seriously consider shopping with Springfield for the best price If you have a Tax ID number you can get your supplys wholesale from tandy or springfield.

Josh I tend to agree with you about using the belly Dwight I am glad I was able to be of some assistance Mike as always very nice work!

I use 8 to 10 oz veg tan for most holsters 10 ox will be thick enough for a belt also. depending on your girth if you are a 36" waist you can use a double shoulder to get several belts and holsters. if you are larger than a 36" waist then you will need to get a side for it to be long enough to make the belt and a side will be large enough to make a lot of belts holsters and other acessories. if you are wanting a bare minimum of leather then you could get a tooling belly for the belt and a single shoulder for the holster and other accessories.

very nice I like it a lot Good job!

Rod or Dense FWIW any information pertaning to saddle making is vague here in the forums it sems no one is willing to share information on how to do something without a price therefore using a search engine is some what beneficial at least to get some kind of an idea if something is doable by an individual with what tools and resources are readily available to them. as far as the E how website is concerned has probably got to be one of the most worthless sites on the internet however using the search query "how to make a saddle tree" can produce some good results as well at least enough for a person to determine whether attempting to make something is within their skill set or not so the search browsers are a good tool from that stand point. here is a website that has some illustrations that are very helpful that shows how to properly fit a tree to the horse the saddle is being made for http://www.cowboysaddlery.com/saddletrees.html Here is another web page that shows the diffrent steps in making a saddle tree: http://www.freckerssaddlery.com/saddle_tree.php although it does not tell you how to make the tree it does show to some degree of what is involved in making the tree. here is another page that shows some construction techniques and procedures of making a saddle tree http://www.willghormley-maker.com/Custom-Old-West-Saddle-Tree.html another good resource for basic knowledge http://eclectic-horseman.com/content/view/218/33/ another http://crestridgesaddlery.com/Backmap.html lots of good info from Bruce Cheaney on youtube

No problem, I am glad I could help actually making the saddle parts are no more difficult than any other leather project as long as you have a good foundation to build on,the foundation being the tree. if you follow tried and true procedures you will be able to make a nice saddle without a whole lot of difficulties measure twice cut once and you are better off making your parts too big than too small.