Billy Hell

After a few projects with this knife I have to say I really like it. I use it and one of my favorite old blades (from the 1960s) for decorative cuts. I have yet to use the beader, which is why I bought the knife in the first place.

Very cool! I'm also thinking about doing a tooled leather top on padded circular bar stool. I'm curious if I can to the leather topper with just one piece.

Thanks Buttons!

Have to say I was looking at the saddle seat. I thought it might be cool to pull off the vinyl and tool up some leather as a seat cover in the vein of a saddle. Headed to Amazon to do some pricing.

A neighbor posted that he was having a garage sale and noted he had a jeweler's work bench. I didn't know what that was but went a day early to take a look. it belonged his grandfather. He used it heavily to make...you guessed it, jewelry! It had some water damage on the top but I had to have it for my leather work station. I offered $100 and a holster for his single action Ruger. He took the offer! I got her home and sanded and refinished the wood and holy smokes is it nice!! I also like having drawers for my tools that don't fit in my wood stamp holder. My question for y'all is what do you sit on? I have a wood bar stool with no pad. I also have a janked up padded bar stool and I'm thinking about replacing the faux leather with real leather. I am also looking at drafter's chairs/stools. Thoughts?

One of my favorite parts! That was such a nice strap it was hard to give as a present!!

I made a paddle OWB holster for my friends .45 Glock. The problem was he lives in Ohio. I finished the holster and sent it to him. We jumped on Google Hangout and I explained how to bag the gun, wet the leather and form it. Turned out great!! Big thanks to JLS for the pattern and helping me learn to tool! http://www.jlsleather.com/

Thanks for the input. I'm trying my best!

Thank you sir! I wish I could find a three hole seeder. That would be interesting.

Nice! My brother saw the one posted above and I think he wanted it but he carries when he hunts and I want to make sure there is a strap on there for climbing through fences and such.

Thanks a lot. i'm interested and will try some out!

This stuff - http://www.amazon.com/Tandy-Leather-Factory-Thread-25-Yard/dp/B001QJNMPY

He wanted black and I wanted tan. I showed him the "Black and Tan" and he loved it. Can't wait to see the gun fitted to it.

I have wanted an Avenger style holster for my .45 and my friend had a Glock .45 he wanted a holster for. JLS has been a big help to me on the forum in my leather ambitions so I thought it only fitting I use his patterns. Since I don't have a Glock here I sent the black and tan to my friend to fit to his gun. Photos of that when they show up.

I had cut this a while back and never tooled it. I took a little time to finish it.

I have an eye appointment with the man that saved my vision and have wanted to make him something. I found a photo of a case Bear made here and put pencil to paper and came up with my version.

I'm doing a slim jim for a CSA re-enactor friend. Since he is a reb I have more freedom in what holster he carries. My goal was to get close to the old nail engraved holsters so I did it all with the swivel and a few seeders. No backgrounder, no bevel. I should be done tonight. The only thing I really don't care for so far is my janky edge grooves. I'm looking a different groover to see if I can improve around the corners. Since it's supposed to be moderately old I'm not sweating it on this one.

I am about to tool this design. From some research it looks like every line, including the leaf veins are swivel knife cuts correct? Would you start you leaf vein cut at the stem and then lighten up at the end?

Here are two holsters from JLS Leather patterns I finished up.

Thank you sir!

Awesome!! I'm just over here hammering out some holsters.

For a living I run the world's largest RC forum. Basically it's a forum about radio control airplanes, helis, quadcopters, boats, "drones", etc. We get around 1.9 million people in a month. So I was at our local airfield shooting video for a plane we are reviewing. The local RC club president has known me for a around 13 years and I'd guess he is in his mid 70's. I haven't seen him since I started tooling leather in July and it came up in our conversation. (The tragic part is coming up now). We talked leather and he told me how he taught leather to school kids his whole career. Then he told me about the huge amount of stamps and leather tools he has collected over the years. Now my mind started whirling - those must be old tools...I could pick through them and find the best bevelers, seeders, etc. Before I could ask about this huge cache of leather awesomeness his expression changed, and not for the good. He took a beat and then said, "we had to move earlier this month so I was really looking for someone to take all my leather tools." Finally I said, "where are they now?!" You could tell he didn't want to say it. Only days before he threw them all away. All I could do was shake my head. It still makes me sad to think I only missed it by a few days. I saw his wife today and she said, "Oh I told him not to do it. There was just so much good stuff."

Good stuff!

One holster was sent to Texas as a birthday present for a friend. I'm not cutting these. I have attahed example of what I want to go for with my two shorty Colts. If it was good enough for Al Stohlman it's good enough for me! I have also attached the rounder I used as an example. It's pretty simplistic so on each rounder I tried different things.

Gotcha. I was hoping to do all my spending in one shopping cart but I may need to venture out.