Boriqua

CONGRATULATIONS on the orders!! Its nice when people are willing to pay for your handiwork. What will you do with the windfall? Did you get your first is it ready yet email? alex

I think Jeff's answer was brilliant "Great call the sheriff and ask him to bring change ... " I would be in a bad way ... I hardly ever have cash. I think If I looked hard in my card wallet between some stuff I might find a five spot. I adopted debit cards hook line and sinker. The wife and I have one blank credit card for an emergency which is tucked away in a safe so .... I would have to go to jail then .. but ya get a sandwich , some juice and a fruit so ..

happened to me just a few months ago after buying a rubber stamp online. The bank was quick but they didnt notify me that it had happened or that they had deactivated my card which I thought was strange. I found out only after my card was declined at home depot. When I asked the bank, quite angrily, why I wasnt made aware nearly 2 weeks after it was deactivated I was told because I didnt have "communication" set up on my account!!!?? You idiots send me information on new credit cards and loans 3 times a week but my card gets deactivated and suddenly communicating with me is forbidden?! Worst was trying to remember everyone I had recurring payments set up on my card and contacting them. I forgot Straight Talk soooooooo ... yup no phone for a few days. I try and use paypal online now instead of giving small online shops my card number.

yea but like i said . I am just a hobby guy who happens to sell a few things. Perhaps its stupid but there is a certain comforting validation when someone reaches into their pocket and spends money on one of your creations and If I dont sell stuff I dont have money to make new stuff.. I have the Sp101 w 3in barrel mold and if I put up a holster its gone in under 2 weeks but... its not a large enough canvass for my machinations. So like the western 1911 rig I made I am willing to make some cool revo holsters and let them sit waiting for the right buyer so long as I am having fun. I have to check but it would be cool if I could use the 6" 686 to make 4 inch holsters as well. Works ok when I use my commander to make defenders.. I have been asked before to do holsters for the judge and never took the jobs on. Is the 2" the hot version. I thought they made far larger ones.

I do well with the Sp101 and cant wait to see Jeff's pattern to see if there is anything I need to incorporate into my existing pattern. Its the only revolver mold I have though.

I really like doing Revo holsters but dont get enough custom orders for them to make me happy so I want to try and just make some and see if they sell. Question is .. what molds? I was thinking I cant go wrong with a 686 in 4 inch or/ and a gp100 in 4 inch if such molds exist but I really dont have a clue. Any suggestions. I want to do some fancified stuff ... dont know what that is yet but I have been pretty successful with the 1911's in various lengths but I would like to make some new offerings. I have however been terribly unsuccessful with glocks. I just think there are to many companies already supplying holsters for them and I am speculating but I think glock guys are kydex. ... Or maybe my glock holsters SUCK! As always .. thank you all so much for your kind help. alex

I do a lot of basketweave lately and I dont know that I have the right answer I have an answer and maybe it can help. I just happen to have a holster that was just wetformed yesterday so its a good one to show since it doesnt have antique or sheen so you can see it clearly. It is now completely dry. You can see it still has a fair amount of detail right down to the little hash marks on the weave. Here is what I do. After I have stamped my item I let it dry completely. Usually a day. Then I glue and sew. After Its glued and sewn I take a large roasting pan and fill it with water. I dip the holster it flat face side up and then once face side down. It is really just dunk and pull out dunk and pull out. Its not even a full 2 count. I then put it in a large freezer ziplock bag and I seal it with a little air in it so that when I fold the bag back on itself it creates a little tent. I let the holster sit in the bag for 30 minutes. I take it out and with a wet sponge I wet fairly heavily the wings and the entire back. I do the wings because I get nicer slots when I punch if the leather is wet and I bend the ears back when I am done with the holster but I DO NOT wet the basketweave again. Just the wings and the entire back. I go out to my stump punch my belt slots come in and wet the back again waiting a minute or two for the water to penetrate if it is already dyed. If I am doing contrasting stitching then its dyed when I wet form and the water takes more time to get down in there. I still have not wet the front again. All the water that the front has received was from the dunk and then the humidity from sitting in the bag. I then gently open the holster and make sure I open in the trigger guard and any tight areas. As I open I concentrate more on the back than the front. I then put my gun in. I gently depress the area of the trigger guard with my thumbs. You can make out a slight indentation in the pic. Now any boning and smoothing and generally making sure that the gun has plenty of contact area for friction is done to the back only. What is happening is since I wet the back much more than the front the front still has enough moisture to make a good tight fitting holster but the back does much more of the stretching, being wetter, to accommodate the mold. Here is a close up of a finished piece still with some nice detail I think and here is the back of a similarly constructed piece Tool me a WHOLE lot of experimenting to get to my stupid little technique but it seems to work ok. Hope it helps and if you come up with a better faster prettier way .. be sure to share!! alex

ok for anyone following along this is what they look like done. One is for a small knife with about a 3.5inch blade and the other for a Terzuola designed knife with about a 6 in blade. Both done with the tapering welt. There are a couple more angles at the bottom of my sheaths page if your interested. http://www.boriqualeather.com/Gallery/index.php/Knife-sheaths

I know the best thing would be a press but I don't have the room. I just bought a new Osborne 1 5/8 oblong punch and dont want to ruin it. I sharpened it up and it has a nice edge but using my 1 lb rawhide hammer to go through 2 pcs of glued 8/9 oz is a pain. I mushroomed my old punch some using a steel lump hammer and I would prefer not to do that to this one. So 3lb Dead blow 2 lb Brass Hammer 2 lb rubber mallet I have a harbor freight near by so am looking to run over there since I can get something inexpensive.

That is gorgeous!! I dont think its lady specific ... I would sport that in a heart beat.

well if there is a bright side .. at least it was your pinky. I did my right index finger maybe 14 yrs ago and the feeling in it is still not 100%, Went right across the tip and made a nice spurter. I no longer take knives out of the packaging AFTER having indulged in adult beverages. Worse ... the blood stained the carbon steel good and it wasnt my knife but one I was supposed to make a sheath for. The client was cool with it but I informed him once it tasted blood it must be watched carefully. I did the sheath for nothing with stitches and bandaged but my index finger is a mess. Its right where it contacts the trigger so long sessions at the range are a thing of the past.

Sheen or resolene or whatever finish you choose is the last step.In order to mold the holster your leather needs to accept water fairly evenly and finishing stuff would prohibit that. Alex

love the color! Is that the walnut. Were you able to salvage some?

Im not sure how long you are letting it dry but ... I prefer to use a 60/40 split of water to resolene. When I spray it you can watch the concoction just suck into the leather. First you have to buff the piece until you dont see any dye come up on your rag. Different colors and manufacturers means different amounts of rubbing but so long as nothing is coming up on my clean rag I am good. After I have done a few coats of the resolene and water and ensured it absorbed then I might throw on some super sheen for effect but it depends on the product. Anything subjected to sitting in a back pocket full of ass sweat will not need super sheen for anything but selling the product. I prefer the diluted resolene because it actually gets down in the leather.

Thanks man! It may not be obvious but I cut the welt so that it just ends at the inside or about 1/16" into the belt slot and the skive is back about 1/2 inch. Looking forward to what you come up with when you get to making yours.

LOL .. The big splatter was attached at final assembly at the edge. I sewed on all the rest of the splatter and stopped with enough thread to go across the bottom. I then used my white thread to go down to the blood splatter and stop. Now its hard to see in the photos I think but the front has a tapering gusset. I then tied off the white a couple of stitches under where the red would be and then continued with the red. Tied off and on the other side started a new piece of white thread. To get a somewhat authentic looking splatter I looked at blood splatter on google images and then when I found a section of a particularly nasty blood puddle that I thought would look cool and was somewhat sewable, I needed a spot with some meat so I could do the stitching, I brought it into photoshop and cropped and resized on top of my bag pattern tracing. I then printed it and traced it. The smaller droplets are just paint. I used 2 colors and tried to drop the darker paint into a droplet of lighter using a medicine dropper from about 2 ft up then tilted it to get a little more splattery effect. The really fine arterial spray is just me putting some paint in a very shallow dish and dipping just the bristles of a toothbrush into it and then flick with your thumb ... arterial spray!! The funniest part of this build was I wanted the handle to have substance. I thought about putting wood in there but after experimenting it didnt work so I decided to stuff it tight with fluffy stuff to make it rigid. Only thing I could think of was the stuffing in my pillow so out came the knife. I cut along the seam and took out what I wanted and put it back in the pillow case. I swore i was going to sew it up but forgot. Come laundry day the wife takes the pillow case and starts to shake out the pillow and pillow guts wind up all over the floor!! Opps ..

I am so not a gambling man yet I would bet that the background is filled in with dye. The maker has some mad patience and a steady hand. It just looks to even to be only antique. Stunning work

For these I didnt ask for any payment up front. They were a great repeat customer and Originally bought this from me Then wanted a Backpack that was in the shape of a coffin. Hey Everyone has their thing and I am cool with that ... LOL Sorry for the terrible pix

Whenever I use a thinner skin like snake or frog I usually glue it to a substrate first or frame it. Having said that ... you should be fine to glue it down firmly to say 8/9 ox leather and stitch through it. I think the important thing I have learned is to get a good bevel back from the edge with an edger or sandpaper so that the edge of the thin material doesnt want to lift. below is not the perfect example but I hope it helps. That is frog I glued to 4/5 oz and I beveled the frog way back and then burnished so that the edge of the frog itself isnt subjected to getting lifted with normal wear. Dont know if its the right or wrong way but it works for me if I dont want to frame it.

Maybe its just silly, maybe it will spark someones creative juices. Had someone ask me to make them 2 clutch type bags that look like bloody meat cleavers .... Ok ... no problem. I gotta learn to stop sayin that!! I tried to get the dark and light that you might see in coagulating blood. I mean if your going there ... go all the way there right?

That is freakin awesome.

Hey .. I forgot my contribution to the Thank you Jeff for cool patterns thread !! Not my best but this was an earlier one when I was trying out his wonderful contribution to my knowledge base!! Thanks Man!

I dont know the gentleman but I know the company has a fair following on here. In the interest of being on a board where we all help one another I too would suggest the removal of the video. I have to say the video was difficult to watch and I could only get through half. The thinking was somewhat convoluted, the video was far longer than necessary and the delivery sounded condescending and was off putting. I will have to watch other videos made by them to see if that is just the man's delivery style or this particular subject raised his ire.

Oh yea I am not complaining because with the custom orders I get I dont have to share the proceeds and much of the reason I try to keep stuff on my etsy and ebay pages is just to keep my name out there. I dont want to get too busy since I am just a hobby guy but its nice to have regular work and if I dont sell stuff I dont get to make new stuff! Check out the post I made a bit ago about the relist stuff. Rather disconcerting.

I have seen some Alibaba manufacturers offer some great pricing on multiples. If you believe in it enough fund a smallish run, cross your fingers and go for it. You only live once and you dont want to be old, looking in the mirror and wondering if you missed the boat.