St8LineGunsmith

Horrik Well see if my subtleness pays off when someone posts some patterns lets put away the sledgehammer and use a 1 pound maul with repeated consecutive taps. tap tap tap tap tap tap... tap tap tap tap tap tap... we keep taping at it long enough someone might get the hint hint.

No hand stitching aint fast in any stretch of the term. I have a method that speed up the process and works out rather well for me, YMMV. 1. I will match up the parts to be stitched together as close as possible then lay out the stitch line and groove the line. I will then mark the stitch holes with my overstitch wheel. 2. I glue the stitch seam and bond the two parts to be stitched up together and allow the glue time to cure. 3. I drill out the holes with a dremel if i am making a saddle stitch. I will use a four hole punch or multiple prong lacing chissel for lacing projects the type of lacing dictates the type of hole making tools I use. I always use a stitching pony and wear gloves with the fingers cut out and stitching palms to push the needles thru and I hold on to a pair of small pliers to grab the needle and awl handy to straighten out any misaligned holes when the needle will not push through. what works well for me may not necessarily work as good for you you might have to make changes in the sequence of procedures for it to work better for you. no two people do things exactly the same way.

I Love all the westerns and I love watching Bonanza, Gunsmoke, High Chaparral, The Big Valley The Virginian, The Rifleman the List goes on. Clint Eastwood is a Great western Icon But The Duke is still King of the cowboys IMO. anyway to get back on topic I am wanting to buy a couple of saddlebag patterns or if i can find some free patterns would be STELLAR I love free if you know what I mean

Doug that price reduction is in one of their sales fliers just get one when you go in and it will have the work bench in the flier on sale they also have some larger punches you might want to grab while you are there. http://www.harborfreight.com/9-piece-hollow-punch-set-3838.html they also have a really nice sewing awl if you use an awl for installing the stitching I like using them on canvas and other heavy fabricks but nothing replaces the good ol saddle stitch on leather. anyway they also have a set of modeling tools I want to pick up too that looks like they would work well for tooling projects.

Thanks for the heads up on the pricing there Chief! I think I need to submit a business tax number to get wholesale pricing and I have noticed they are selling single shoulders of herman oak toling leather for the same price Tandy is selling their econo single shoulders. I am going to have to rethink buying local, It is just I am afraid I will get the culls when ordering on line maybe ordering leather should be a phone order or are they quality concious as to what they send out? regardless I believe SLC has the best pricing on their stamps and other tools.

Absolutley you can start out with a minimal amount of tools and dont have to spend a fortune to get a start once you have the leather in hand you will be suprised what that will do to get the creative wheels to turning in your head And I have to give props to the grumpy old guy for writing up his tutorial. It is spot on and the fork is an excellent stitch spacing tool if you don't want to spring for an overstitch wheel right away.

Mike This has to be one of the best tutorials for someone wanting to get started in leather working and you can apply the same methods and principles to any leather project not just limited to holsters and I have actually used these methods a time or two my self. And I love all the examples you posted BTW Mike

honestly those kits are pricey. you cant go wrong by purchasing a couple of pattern packs and follow the instructions. you can get single shoulders up to 8 oz leather from your local TLF for around 25 dollars and buy the stitching and lacing tools and buy a few tooling stamps like a basket weave design and a border stamp then start from there I think I mentioned getting some scraps to practice your stamping and punching the leather to make sure your stitch lines are working out right. Also you can go by your local Wal mart and visit the craft section and you can pick up contact cement, rubber cement and a product I have found that works well on several types of fabrics including leather called Beacons Fabri Tac you can also pick up utility knifes and blades for cutting out your projects from harbor freight they also have a nice littlr rotary hole punch for punching lace holes later on once you have purchased a collection of the basic tools you can start adding tools as you go and learn. you will want to invest in a good pair of leather shears sooner or later

I like those saddlebags a lot in fact I would like to get some patterns of that style.

Looks very good I think antiquing the leather would enhance the design. but still it looks good in the white with some in laid dye as well.

BAAZING!! I can buy three $6.50 tools at SLC for that price I would have to do an awful lot of hide pounding to get to the point of upgrading to high end stamps.

Hello everyone I thought I would mention that Harbor Freight Tools is having a sale on their 60" hardwood work bench with 4 drawers and a vise on the end for $129.95 this is a really great deal for a very well built work bench I have had mine for several years now and it has served me well from building guitars and guns now on to leather work. they also have a nice rotary punch that looks to be very well made for $6.95 and has a lifetime warranty my old punch was getting a lot of wear so I picked one of these up today It is just as nice if not better than the one I got a while back that I spent almost triple what I paid for this one. anyway if I wear it out quick I will go back to HFT and get a new one

Bump Nice tutorial I like this design.

I like it Ran I have made several holsters similar to this and I always make the patterns with a little extra material around both front and back then trim after I have the project stitched up not sure if that is how Rogueshadow did it tho.

are all the stamps sold?

Looks like the Ultimate zombie apocalypse holster

pm sent

Hey Guys here is a sketch of the new clamp I am making it uses 2X6 for a wider clamp area.

well we have no shortage of stitching clamp designs in the forums folks can choose to build for themselves. building your own is a big money saver compaired to buying one like the pro stitching pony that sells for $99.00 from TLF

Ran do you have a local Tandy store if so see if they have Saturday leather working classes. The local TLF has free leatherworking classes every Saturday Morning at 9:30. You can also go to youtube and type in leather working or leather crafts and it will have tutorials how to tool leather. It is really not all that hard just time consuming. there will be a learning curve with the swivel knife.

that is how i was making cuts my major malfunction is i am about 25 years out of practice LOL IIRC i was partial to a tapered blade for making curved,sweeping, wavy and circular cuts but all i have at the moment is the straight blade so i will have to make due with what i have for the time being..

Ya I have been practicing my cuts by making circles and leaves  with some improvement actually I am tracing out the circles and leaves with a stylus then going over the tracing with my knife. I think this way I can retain muscle memory of how I need to manipulate the swivel knife. I think until I get my knife skills back up to par I should probably draw out my accent lines with a stylus first then cut the lines in with the knife. as far as my stitching and lacing goes I have been able to retain those skills pretty well but there is a big difference of skill sets between stitching leather and tooling it I think by slowing down a little also helped the thing that bugs me so bad is I was once trusted enough to do tooling on high end saddles and handled a swivel knife and stamps like a pro but now it looks like I have never done it before but it is slowly getting better. I will get there in time it will just take a lot of practice. I suppose I can always stamp basket weave and borders LOL

that walnut body and burl birdseye maple neck will be a sweet looking combination with a leather pick guard I think walnut carries the right tone for the telecaster Just last year I made a Tele for a customer.

harbor freight has 1 ton arbor presses for $50.00 for a one shot stamp here is how I use 3D stamps case the leather and let the water soak in and the surface dry then use a ram foot on the stamp handle and hit the stamp one good blow to set the impression then make sure the stamp is firmly seated into the impression and hit the stamp four more times by applying slight pressure to each side of the stamp. check to make sure the stamp is properly seated into the impression before every strike to keep from getting a double impression it is essential to have a marble or granite slab to get a good deep tool impression. I always get good results with this method.

a jumbo size can of night crawlers