St8LineGunsmith

IMO conchos pose no more of a threat to dammaging the finish on a guitar than a belt buckle does belt buckles and spiked belts is the biggest culprit to dammaging the finish on a guitar than any thing. conchos on guitar straps dont come in contact with the guitar like a belt does however when storing your guitar in a case you have to make sure the any exposed metal on a guitar strap does not contact the guitars finish otherwise it can scratch the finish.

springfield leather company is good company to buy from I never used Zack white but the prices look good.

ya it is very good work indeed.

hey guys here is another old post that is worthy of resurrecting for its useful content and to honor the author who apparently has since passed away i cant think of any better way to honor their memory than to bump the thread back up so some of the newer members may be able to benefit which I think was the authors intent from its beginning.

I know this is an old thread but I thought it might be worth bumping up for those who have not seen it some good stuff on how to make the holsters. I bookmarked Wills site to use for reference.

looks good doc

that is St8 as in state state line LOL lots of people seem to want to add an r in there for some reasonLOL you are about 90 miles north from me, I am in Rossville GA just this side of the Tennessee state line in Chattanooga about 2 blocks away from Lake Winnie if you know where that is

you can also use wing dividers and a modeling tool .

Hello grittyroots where in TN you located? I am a disabled master welder/pipefitter/ boilermaker and used to own a chassis shop. did that for nearly thirty years before I had to give it up due to severe arthritis. and other health issues. now I am building rifles and trying to get more involved in leatherworking again.

here is a website I googled up http://www.schmitthenner.com/cuirass.htm#Make it Yourself

OH sorry Mike I misunderstood.

TwinOaks I cant think of any other person to use as an example for such professional looking stitching and I think he uses a drill to pre punch his stitch holes.

stitching chisels work better on thinner leather like6-7 oz i use a drill press or a dremel and a small drill bit to make my holes lot of people use the drill method whikle others will tell you it is not the proper way to make stitch holes everyone has their own method of how to make their stitch holes I think where most will agree is to cement the pieces to be sewn together first before laying out the stitch line and punching/stabbing/drilling the holes.

ya there is such a thing as stitching chisels made for making stitching holes not to be confused with lacing chisels then you have flat lacing chisels and diamond lacing chisels and there is also a difference between a stitching awl and a sewing awl, stitching awl haft is the type you use to stab through the leather to make the stitching hole, a sewing awl is the type with a spool of thread and a sewing needle. I learned the difference between these types of tools when I was a saddle makers apprentice as a teenager.

that is a short one most of the collar awls I have seen have long shanks

you can always get a wire brush and brush the nap up to make it look like suede I know what you mean about working on a budget. leather working tools are expensive but a lot of the hardware aint bad take some pics and show us how it turns out

I like it

Thanks Chief!

I was going to suggest what skeeter suggested if the leather is too thick just make a left handed holster for practiceing your tooling one thing .for sure many of us have made that same mistake and once you make mistakes like that you very rarely make them twice. Just chock it up as learning experience

you can sign up for their sales fliers on their website, you can also buy on line from HFT Also when you visit Harbor freight tools and buy merchandise they will put you into their system and you will get monthly sales fliers automatically harborfreight also has what they call the insidetrack club where you can save a whole lot more than just regular customer worth the money if you shop there a lot like I do. I save on the average at least $200.00 per year with the inside track club. pretty much works like the tandy or SLC wholesale club.

Ok here is the revised design of my stitching mule LOL. and while i was piling up wood chips around my drill press and sincei really need a stamp caddy but refuse to pay 40 bucks for a block of wood with a bunch of holes drilled into it I went ahead and drilleda bunch of holes into a block of wood i had laying around that cost me a whopping fiddy cents.and heres what I wound up with.Ya it is crude and not as pretty as the store bought one but works just as good. i said I was going to put in a drawer on the next one i made but i didnt make a drawer. Instead I made a flip top lid. All i did was drilled out the 2X6 with a forstner bit then did the same thing on the lid. turned out to be just the right size little cubby hole for a few stitching tools. I did install a shelf, i think it is low enough not to snag thread seeing since where the shelf is located would be lower than most table top models. I made it where it would hold 2 spools of thread 1 white and 1 black spool I also drilled a hole for a pair of needle nose piers and holes to hold needles should be handy. I zam not quite finished I did not have enough nylon strap so I have to round up a piece and I am also going to install a bar to keep jaw pressure on the jaws without having to hold constant foot pressure on the lever.however i did make this clamp several inches taller, so now this one is just the right height. still need to get some thin leather to cover the jaws. I am going to tandy in the morning for leatherworking class so i will get that tomorrow. hey it is kind of crude looking with all the knotted pine but it should serve its purpose well.

very nice design there

Jim I beg to differ concerning your comment about pre drilling holes being slow and inefficient I am not knocking the old tried and true method of stabbing the stitch holes with a stitch awl it has been done that way for a few centurys and i did it that way for what seemed to be for centurys for me as well however i found using a drill press and flex shaft on a dremel to pre drill all the stitch holes is easier on the hands, less stress and speeds up the process. I think it is more a issue of prefrence other than being a issue of "proper stitching methods" if stabbing and stitching was the proper method then these leather craft kits that tandy puts out needs to be issued a stitching awl instead of pre drilled holes in the leather... ever try to lace a project by the stab and stitch method? no body does it that way for a reason, because it would be hard to do that way and would take forever to lace up a project that way the project is pre punched prior to lacing so then how would pre drilling or pre punching be proper for one method and improper for the other?

Looks like a south paw draw to me Oh wait... what?