jkwparrott

A friend of my wife has an Italian purse that their cat scratched up. She is looking for a way to repair it and I can't think of a way without ruining the color. Any suggestions?

Lesking, yes you will need to sharpen the awl and strop it. I use a fine diamond stone to sharpen mine. Get some jewelers rouge and rub it into a piece of leather then strop the awl blade good. I find the most important thing it bees wax. Stab the tip of the awl into some bees wax, don't stab the entire bade into the wax, just about 1/8" or so of the tip. This helps lubricate a little and you'll notice a huge difference. The awl pulls out of the leather easier with the wax too. I also recommend a stitching pony of some sort. It really helps a lot!

Welcome, from a former South Carolinian. I lived in Latta, SC for a few years before heading back home to Indiana. Glad to have you here. I agree with the suggestions from everyone else, like any hobby it is easy to pour a lot of money into it.

Yes, it has a lot of forward cant, that's what I prefer. Being old and lumpy around the middle it's just more comfortable that way. I started on a new pocket holster for a small Kel-Tec .380 last night, nothing fancy. We'll see how it turns out.

Welcome Paul, nice to have you join us.

Tree Reaper is right. Use a French Curve if you like, but just draw half of the flap, then flip that over and draw the other half exactly the same. That's how I do everything that has got to be the same on both sides.

Welcome Ben! I did some leatherworking when I was in high school, about 35 years ago and really enjoyed it. But I was interested in other things and leatherworking fell by the wayside. Last year I got a new pistol and could not find a nice holster for it, and decided I could make one. It took me some time to get it right, but I finally did it. I started back in the hobby by getting a package from Tandy that had a belt, wallet, cell phone holster, some coasters, etc. and practiced a lot. I really enjoy working with leather, not just putting things together, but allowing the artistic representation of what I want to make to become reality. Enjoy it!

Well, here it is. Thanks to "Particle" for the teaching via his video on making Avenger style holsters. I made a few mistakes and was really just making this one as practice for a more serious try, but I like it now that it's done. I made a few mistakes but nothing really noticable I don't think. This is the main reason I got back into leatherworking, I got a new Ruger and could not find a nice holster for the P345, so I decided that I could make one. Let me know what you think.

I see there is a Tandy store in West Columbia, not too far, but that would be a good place to start looking. What type of tools you'll need depends on what you want to do to the leather. Knives, stamps, edge bevelers, there's just a whole lot to choose from. Personally, I fell away from the art many years ago and recently got interested again. I ordered a Deluxe Leathercraft Kit from Tandy to get back into the hobby. You get basic tools and several kits to get some practice.

Thanks everyone, it was a fun project and she loves it. She took it to work and everyone there loves it too, so I may have a lot of work to do now.

Very nice holster. Your stitching looks great and I like the overall design.

I didn't have a lot of time, so I am afraid I cheated a little. I bought a cheap Kindle cover from Amazon, then tore the cover apart and used the interior. So inside it is just a regular cover.

My wife wanted a new cover for her Kindle for Christmas. Just finished it a few minutes ago.

I went to Wal-Mart in the craft or sewing section and got a cutting mat for something like $15. It is a large one, 12" X 18", and it works great for my needs. I have it on my desk in my office and use it for all cutting.

I agree. I have been playing around with my Droid and cannot post pictures from it.

Good question Blackie. I take photos with my Droid but don't actually use it to post the pictures. I e-mail them to myself then post them using my Samsung tablet or my PC. If you can post from your phone you should be able to attach a photo I would think, but I have not investigated that yet. I'll give it a try and see what happens. I would use my phone more for this type of thing if my eyes were not so old! I can't see to read much on the phone, I need bigger letters.

I agree with everyone else, for a first project you did an excellent job. I still have my first project, a key case, that I made 37 years ago. It doesn't look as good as your first.

My wife went to the local Tandy store with me and found a kit for a day planner/clutch and decided she wanted me to make it for her. She likes a lot of color, and even though I normally don't do that I wanted to give her what she wanted. So here is a photo of the cover. I'm going to be finishing it in the next few days, stitching the cover to the body of the planner. I'm pretty pleased with it!

Probably 38 years or so ago my grandfather made some knives for his grandsons, there were four of us. He was a machinist and gathered together materials that he thought would be nice for knives, which he hand made over several months. Mine was a walnut handled knife that is very pretty, but useful. All these years the knife has been sitting around with no sheath, so I decided to make one for it. I had never made a sheath before and wanted something a little bit rustic looking to go along with the knife. Here is the result. It is hand stitched and tooled, but as I said, I wanted a rustic, unfinished look. I guess I should have a photo of the knife too.

I have read several people use x ray film backing when carving and stamping, where can I get some? Also, I went to the local antique shop last weekend with my wife so she could look for some furniture. While she was looking around I wandered off to look at the old tool section. I found a round knife that was in excellent shape! It didn't have a price, so I called over the owner and asked he how much she would sell it for. I wound up getting it for $30! So if you need something like this, keep those antique shops in mind.

I was looking around at various leather supply web sites and found Double K Leather. They had some good prices and I thought a pretty good selection. I placed an order for a tri-fold wallet kit and some leather rounds for coasters. Not a big order, just trying them out. I placed the order from the web site. I never got an email or any other correspondence. I waited two weeks and gave them a call. I was told they were unable to get the wallet kit but the rounds were being shipped that day. I was reimbursed for the cost of the wallet kit. Now, another week and a half later I still have not seen the rounds which were supposedly shipped 12 days ago. Steer clear of this place is my suggestion.

Hello everyone. Many years ago (many, many, many years ago) when I was in High School our shop teacher got several leather kits from Tandy and a bunch of tools to teach us leather tooling. I loved it! I made several things which I still have after all these years. I graduated from High School in 1979, so you know it's been a while. Recently I have gotten interested in competitive pistol shooting and decided I needed a good holster. I have yet to find one I really like and they are expensive to buy just to find that you don't care for them. I remembered my leather working and decided that I could probably make one. I checked out the Tandy web site and found the beginner's set which is usually priced at almost $180 was on sale for $69 or so. I couldn't pass it up at that price! I have been practicing with the kits that came with the set and am now ready to move on to my first holster. I have decided on an Avenger style holster and have the pattern ready to go. So wish me luck and I will post some photos when it's done.