Boriqua

I just ordered the weaver mastertools #2 edger and will report back what I think. It is reported to have the shortest legs of the many I looked at and the price was in the middle of the pack. I hope it will arrive this week and I will give it a go and see what I think

I got 4 of them from Studio N and I thought the prices were very reasonable. I like that he makes the backs that accept the tandy Hefty handle because most of us that have been doing this for a bit have one around somewhere. When I use them I am more likely to use a clamp but its nice to have the option and I have done it both ways. I bought a few of these http://www.harborfreight.com/12-inch-bar-clamp-96214.html they are great and fast and I use them for my molds as well. If I use them with the makers mark I put a piece of glass down then the leather then I clamp the makers mark. I let it set for say 5 minutes then remove. The clamps are great for the price but I did have one where the handle spun out. I stuck it back on with gorilla glue and it has continued working fine for the last year. Here is the Studio N stamp after clamping. I should add Nick was a pleasure to work with!

Hey That is a nice looking tool there Tinker! I have a question ... some edgers are listed in sizes like 1,2,3,4 and I am now finding some measured in inches. I have only ever bought them by number .. does anyone know what a 2,3 measure out to in inches? Alex Found the answer and posted a link for anyone else that is looking. Now to figure out the difference between the common edger and the western edger http://www.csosborneleathertools.com/product_detail.php?p_id=177

If I do a makers mark ... and its hit or miss on how I feel.... then I prefer to do it before I dye. You have to wet the area you are going to stamp and with some colors you can land up with a nasty dark spot from the water. Not a big deal if you are just working in black but I have ruined a piece or two when a drop of sweat hit my virginal leather and then decided to stay a dark spot.

Found an informative video from one of our own. Thinking maybe an osborne ... see how he mentions lifting the toe. Was easy breezy with the old tandy edger but just cannot be done with the newer style .... I have tried.

I have the same exact problem ... it aint you and it aint that the tool isnt sharp. Well I dont know that since I havent tried your tools but my edge beveler is sharp and whisks through leather .... so long as it is a straight line. I have 2 of the newer Tandy edgers and I have one of the old ones. old old like I got it with a kit in the early 90's. I posted a few pix below. You can see that the newer (black) one is a chunk of steel at the end. It is perhaps 2.5 times larger top to bottom than my old edger. The old edger tapers to a fine curved tip and the opening gets progressively wider as it goes forward. So while it is a #2 edger the very ends of the 2 prongs are further apart than the actual cutting notch. you will also notice it has an inward curve on the outer edges. Oh my how useful for edging leather of various thicknesses instead of having a large blunt end. So it tapers outward, curves up and curves in !! That is a well designed tool!! Wow .. really well thought out. I used that tool for YEARS and would whisk around inside turns. I wanted to get a slightly larger size so I bought a new # 3 and its awful. Anytime I try an inside curve one of the prongs digs right into the leather. I pointed an arrow at what I think the culprit is. Besides being super thick and crude there seems to be a little katana sword edge that sticks out from the front. what a weird place to put a bevel on that tool but there it is right where it will dig in the leather. I have been following the thread hoping someone would make some good suggestions on a replacement. Getting that bevel right is worth a few dollars and I will pay a fair price if the tool is good but am afraid of spending the money without knowing. The New tandy round bevelers just SUCK! I may try some careful creative grinding because as it stands the new Tandy edger is damn near worthless to me.

Got a request for something cool but for a 3.5 inch Rocky. They are bushingless. My question is if you have made both commanders and officers .. how much should I cut off my officers pattern to make an officers pattern. I know its a 3/4" shorter barrel but that doesnt always translate directly to gun holster. I make all my holsters long enough so there is about 1/4 - 3/8" extra at the bottom that I curve around the muzzle. Any advice would as always be much appreciated. Alex

That is stunning!! I want to make sure I read correctly .. you are applying the antique before you dunk? I used to do that with the Fiebings acrylic antique with fair results but then tried it with tandy antique and contributed an almost finished holster to the Arizona landfill.

here is a thread that shows the use of tnuts. There are probably many more but this will give you the idea. I like the 6/32 screws and nuts but it seems some people go heavier. You dont need any heavier than 6/32 and the head fits perfectly in a snap. Tnuts can be had at any hardware store. and here is one I took some close ups on

Well I will preface this with ... I would probably just chuck it .. call it experience points earned and start a new one. However sometimes cost is a motivator and if it is and you want to save it with a minimum of deconstruction then one thing I might do is take a small piece of leather about the height and width of the mag pouch and cut two belt slots in it either by using a hole punch on either end and then connecting the holes with a razor or using a belt slot punch. Then I would sew it right on to the mag pouch right through the stitch holes you already have. You can do it right through without removing the old threads but it would look a lot more thought out and neat if you just pull the old stitches from either end and then stitch through all three pieces using the existing holes as a guide. Of course you dont have to pull the center line. Once that is done its ready for use Edited to add .. Make the new belt slot leather as tight as feasible across the back. Two loaded mags gets heavy and if you have a big loop on the back of the mag pouch the mags will want to hang away from your body and will mess up a quick draw and be annoying to wear. You want the mag pouch as close to your body as possible If it has to serve IWB as well then I might take a couple of tee nuts and send it through the front. They are cheap, get the 6/32 and a small package of 6/32 x 3/8 screws. Then install a couple of straps and snaps. Easy breazy

I just checked out of curiosity and indeed the 8534 is going $70 and $130 currently on ebay. There is a collector of just about anything and everything out there so I wouldn't find it unusual that someone out there would pay that. Hey I think there are still beanie baby collectors!! Having said that I learned a bit ago that what a seller asks and what a seller gets is often miles apart. I still look at some leather articles on etsy and go "WHOA man oh man is someone really paying that much for X" I need to charge more ... but then go back 6 months later and its still there. Great, go ahead and tell people you sell wallets for $125 dollars but really you just list wallets for $125. You didnt ask but .. Unless I really needed the money I wouldnt sell it. My daughter grew up so damn fast I cant believe it and if it is something you can share trust me its worth a boat load more than $100 bucks. I particular like the one with the outstretched hands and could easily see linking them together for borders or alternatively flipping it to see what kind of negative shapes and abstractions I could make. One of those things where fist you see the overall design then you get close and notice what elements comprise it.

yes if you have the means please post a pic. I am sure someone here can help ... did you glue it together or just stitch?

LOL!! Right! My dance card is full of all the things I want to make and then someone else posts something cool and I go ... damn .. now I gotta make myself a chair!! I still havent made my damn Card wallet! Too many talented creative people around here ...

Very Nice!! Combines my two loves .. wood working and leatherwork.

I have made a couple of smaller bags using a similar technique but I never loved the way I attached the straps. I have one in production right now and considered the slots but cant figure out how to make them nice in the wood without a router and jig which I no longer have access too. How did you do your slots for the straps? Nice work by the way!! That will attract ALOT of attention!

Thank you so much for your reply Richard. I probably sell 3 to 1 on ebay but I still get some custom orders from etsy and I make some things that arent really ebay. Long wallets would probably not be ebay since there is so much competition from mass produced overseas stuff at pricing I cant even buy the leather for. Again .. I am just a hobby guy who sells some stuff. I have been moving away from custom orders and am seriously considering just eliminating it all together. I like making what I want to make when I want to make it and put it up and hope someone out there feels as positive about it as I did when I made it. I do however like your idea of offering an option "set" and that is something I have to think seriously about but developing new patterns for sometimes odd ball requests takes a fair amount of time and I am sure I dont make that time/money back. However having a basic pattern and having already developed pattern variations that allow me to make 3 or 4 different configurations sounds like an AWESOME idea! Thank you!!!! Wasnt really thinking in that direction and that was great help.

Are you using clicker dyes with that? Have you gone up to 1 5/8 x 1/4 oblong belt slots?

I want to make a couple of long wallets and while I can design my own pattern I would rather riff off of some of the wonderful patterns readily available pretty inexpensively. Here is my question though .... what or why is there a zippered compartment. In all honesty I think one of the reasons I am having trouble selling regular wallets is many people have stopped carrying cash. I use a card wallet with an expandable gusset. I fold a couple of bills in there but I almost always use my debit card for everything. Since every grocery store and gas station hands you a card I just need a spot for the 10 cards I have to carry including my license, insurance, CCW and other. So is the pouch a throw back to when you actually carried and used ... dare I say ... change? Does anyone still use and carry change? I am thinking about modifying the designs I get and excluding the zippered pouch unless someone can give me a half way compelling reason to keep it. I guess its a great place for tobacco? the Colorado type or other. But really all joking aside ... what is the zippered pouch for?

Just thought I would share what I found ... I tried the deadblow at 4lbs but I didnt like that I couldnt feel the cutter go through the leather. I usually put a scrap piece of leather on a tree stump and try not to go through the scrap leather. On pulling out the punch I hadnt gone all the way through which isnt a huge deal but one of the things I liked about using the steel hammer even though it mushroomed my punch was that you could really feel what was going on. I liked ken's idea alot. Rawhide will be soft enough not to ruin the tool but hard enough to give me the tactile quality I am looking for so I went to weaver. The split face is like 100 bucks soooooo.... I went back to steel. BUT I just found this source today and thought I would share as it might help someone else out. Split face 3.5 lbs 39.99 and 5.5 pounds at 49.99. Looks like they have some kick butt prices on some poly stuff too. I dont know these people and havent yet ordered my hammer so I cant speak to anything but the price on the website. I will chime back in when I get my mallet. http://www.hammersource.com/Mallets/

Hey that is pretty cool that you got that tight a mold out of 10oz leather on such a small piece!!

Hey Rocky thank you for the piece on the keeper. Very nice detail I will have to put in my memory bank!!!

Trying out Jeff's mag pouch pattern! Mahogany and black Cordovan black and oxblood

I got my order from https://angelusdirect.com/ It was LIGHTENING fast. I ordered on a Saturday and had my stuff tuesday!?! and I got a swag bag of stuff.. I got a little nylon backpacky thing with their logo, a rubber bracelet with some motivational phrase on it, a dancing chili sticker and an Angelus sticker plus .. my dye .. Cool! I know I am well grown but .. the chili sticker is neat. I am anxious to try the mahogany and compare it to the Fiebings Mahogany I have used for years. The angelus Burgundy is sweet as hell so I cant wait to see what the Brandy looks like. I had a big order to finish ... it was all black .. bummer.