Boriqua

It has been sold. Thank you Alex

Hey Everyone! Someone has asked me to make them a holster for a Scoped revo. I hate admitting defeat and saying no before I give it a shot but ... I cant see how this works. Perhaps one of you fine fellows can give me some help. I have attached an image and a link to the type of holster they are looking for. The link holster looks like just a doubled up piece of leather around the scope opening. I cant see how that would be rigid enough to hold the gun should the strap be undone. http://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/dangerous-game-shoulder-rig?a=511482 I found another pic with a similar design which looks far more sturdy but what is the material they are using for re-enforcement and will that gun stay put in there if the strap is undone? My thought was I could glue a piece of leather around the opening for the scope and then use another wider piece that would then be sewn around and over that piece. It would then have a similar appearance to the one below as the glued piece would actually be inside the final sewn piece but is that going to make it rigid enough. It also looks like it might be bent rod in the pic but its hard to tell. I may pass on the gig but I would like to try it just for my own conquest!

This is the Tandy Pro Stitching Groover set #88081-00. It comes completely dull from Tandy and unable to cut through leather. Very disappointing. I have sharpened and polished this tool so it skims through the surface. Probably spent 3 hours sharpening and polishing and I took some close ups so you can see the tip. You can also buy new cutter tips from tandy but so long as you strop this tip every few uses you will be much happier with this cutter than buying a new tip. It comes with the Creasing attachment and the Allen key to change heads. It can be used free hand and with the guide which gives alot of creative options. I used it for one holster so wood is like new. The pictures were taken about a week ago and is exactly how it looks today. 17.00 includes shipping in the Contiguous Untied States Pix http://boriqualeather.com/Groover/

Im just about out. I am looking for the little plastic botton that goes into the back of a line 24 snap to protect the gun from the metal snap. I dont like em but some people ask for them on thumb breaks so I want to have some around. High Desert leather has them but a buck a piece seems high to me. Bluegunstore has them but I have to buy 100. Anyone have another source where I could pick up 20 or 30. I may just go ahead and buy the 100 and sell off what I dont plan to use but I thought I would ask first.

Just looking at the images the coloring looks like you used ALOT of oil. I could be wrong since its just images but I see dark spots that to me usually means oil puddled. Next time be sure to let the oil dry a good long time before wearing it. I would also forgo mink oil. I put a small amount of neatsfoot oil rubbed on with a rag and let it set a day or 2 easy. then seal it with acrylic. If you are on a tight budget cut Mop and glo in half with water and apply with a sponge. The acrylic gets down in the fibers and helps stiffen it and will bring up your carving some too. In the end though .... cheap thin leather is going to bend especially if you have an amble mid section as I may be guilty of.

I used an awl for those guys. A small Vergez blanchard to be exact.

I wanted to thank you for your responses and wanted to add just in case it wasnt clear .. the leather sample with holes I punched is the old tandy awl on top which makes the type of hole I am looking for and the bottom row a Vergez I bought about 6 months ago. I am happy with the old tandy but the new tandy awl blades .... Bad. I want diamond not oval. Looks like I am ordering some Seiwa.

Beautiful work! so nice to have nice tools to work with. I even have the wife convinced I need one

How freagin cool is that!! Bet she is the envy of all her fellow students.

Dont know if this has been addressed but I couldnt find it. I have 2 diamond awls. I have a tandy blade that must be 15 yrs old and a small Vergez Blanchard. My Tandy has a very clearly defined diamond shape with sharp corners while my Vergez has a flatter diamond shape with the diamond shape kind of rounded over. I tried to get pictures that would show this. The Tandy measures at its widest points 2.9mm x 2mm and the Vergez 2.8mm x 1.5mm. I find the stitching that comes from the Tandy especially with heavier thread to be quite a bit more pleasing. I cant tell from pictures what awls have a clearly defined Diamond shape. I looked at Seiwa and craft cha and they look like what I want but .. hoping someone here has something in their hands that they can definitively say ..yup Diamond shape. I went to tandy and what they have as awl blades is deplorable. I bought one but its not like the one I have. It was dull as my finger and was an oval not a diamond. On the leather scrap the tandy is the top row and the Vergez the bottom. Tandy cross section. You can see how thick it is. Needs to be polished so off I go

I got the tandy and was using it correctly but it acted like a creaser. It was stone dull and tandy has decided they will paint over all their cutting edges so you have to remove the paint first before you can actually work on the edge. I started with a fine emery board to profile the tip since mine came all uneven. Then I had to push it several times along the three sides on a black stone. Once I had a usable, starting to cut tool, I took a toothpick and loaded it in my dremel. I then loaded it up with Rouge inserted in the hole and polished away. I took a small dremel buffing wheel and polished the outside three sides of the cutting tool. Then as a last step I loaded up a fairly soft thick piece of leather with rouge and pushed it across further polishing the cutting edge from the outside. It now slides through the leather effortlessly. At this point an occasional hit with the toothpick and some pushing on the outside against my rouge loaded leather strip and it stays lickety split sharp.

I have been using the tandy set with interchangeable heads for years. Im being crazy lazy but the tips are cheap enough that when it gets insanely dull I throw it in the garbage and buy a new one. Ive only had to do that a couple of times but that depends on how much you use them. I use a poly cutting board as my surface. Some tools I dont mind and actually enjoy sharpening... hole punches I can live without messing with

Hey Art .. is the individual prong width consistent over the different chisels. Im pretty good with sharpening and polishing so I could clean those up but my biggest complaint about the Tandy set was the holes being one size when punched with the single or double prong and another on the 6 and 4. Thank you so much for your sharing your personal experience!! Alex

My problem with the Siewa is that it doesnt look finished very well between the prongs which makes it a pain to remove once you have hammered it through your leather. I took a close up screenshot of one being offered by goods japan on ebay. Is anyone making a chisel that is Finished. Those insides should be polished. I have to admit I am getting tired of spending fair money on tools that I have to finish making usable.

So I have three people who are my youtube leatherworker heros that I follow. Who else in the youtube world are do you think I need to add to my list. Right now its Ian Atkinson (Leodis Leather) Nigel (Armitage Leather) and Arthur Porter All three give detailed instruction, have an easy way about them that appeals to me, good to great camera work and most importantly they make really nice stuff. Only problem with Ian is he is young, handsome and has a British accent so suddenly my wife who could care less about leather is interested in watching videos with me!!

Ian Atkinson speaks highly of the Seiwa in his hand stitch video Which can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0EL7K2NhYs He does go over the chisel briefly at about 50 minutes. Ian is one of my Youtube leather heros and if you havent checked out his videos I think you should.

I really like the Maine Thread stuff for hand sewing and they have a nice selection and I think the prices are pretty good.

red lace may have worked nicely as well but Im with you .. white might have pushed it over to pimpin territory.

I really like it! I think its hot. is that acrylic you used or red dye?

There are a couple of ways to get a similar effect. Those above are done with an air brush and the bottom one is actually 3 colors. I dyed the entire piece Light brown then I used a very wet dauber to dye the edges black after sanding and let the dye slop over the edge front and back. I misted the edge front and back with black from the airbrush but then I went over the black with medium brown bleeding it onto the light brown. The desire was to get a nice high spot in the center with the light brown but I prefer a fade out to the edge rather than a sharp line that can sometimes be created if I dont use a bridge color which in this case was the Medium brown. the top one is Tandy water stain Bourdeux, dark brown and black. The bourdeux is more stain like so I rubbed that in with a rag as my base. but Another cool way of getting a similar effect is with Antique stain. I prefer the Fiebings. Lay down your base color or two and give it a pass or 2 with resolene. Let it dry. Apply a healthy heavy dose of antique stain in the color of your choice. Let it set up about 5-10 minutes. It will be a little hard to remove at this point. Take a slightly dampened sponge and start wiping off from the center out toward the edges creatively until it looks like you want. Its not as controlled as the airbrush but its a nice effect and you dont need additional equipment. I have never been successful reapplying the stain so you get one shot but since you want it to look organic anyway .... have at it. Here is a quick and dirty example using the stain technique. Sorry not the best work but I wanted to find something quickly so you can try it out. That is red acrylic paint and then I applied black dye with a rag around the edges. Then I worked with the stain Hope that helps! Alex

I bought a stitch groover from Tandy and what a piece of junk. Super Dull, hole was off center, just an absolute waste of 25 bucks. I managed to sharpen it some but it is just garbage. So I dont use stitch groovers all the time but I do want the capability in my arsenal. I am looking at the weaver Stitch Groover #8069. It says that it adjusts to 1 1/2 inch but it isnt pictured with a guide. http://www.weaverleathersupply.com/Catalog/ItemContent.aspx?ItemNumber=10672 The one thing I did like about the tandy model is that you could use it with a guide but you could take the guide off and use it free hand or with a ruler for interior work. Does anyone have the weaver groover? What are your thoughts? I dont want to pay a million dollars but I also dont want to die the death of a thousand small cuts buying one piece of junk after another. Thanks for any advice Alex

If you have the means to spray the resolene that should eliminate the problem. I use about a 50/50 mix .. maybe a scootch more water and spray. When I applied with a sponge I think it still lifted the dye instead of setting it down. I havent scientifically checked but one I started spraying on the resolene I no longer had issues.

I wish I got called on to do more of them. The shape of the various blade types lends itself to some interesting shapes in the sheath. Here are 2 recent ones. The one below has a fire starter thingy in the little pocket. It was for a rough and tough Army Sargent .. I didnt call it fire starter thingy in front of him

The tandy belt slot tool is just to narrow and I want to order a belt slot cutter for holsters that is 1 5/8 x 3/8. I dont have a clicker so it will be struck with a hammer. All I could find was texas .. is there anyone else out there making mallet cutting dies?

I have the Tandy set too. I am officially so over Tandy tools PERIOD! I have the 3mm chisels just like you have pictured in a 6,4,2,1 prong. First they came so full of tool marks and burs that it makes them difficult to remove once punched through the leather. They just paint over the tool marks so you dont see them which in turn makes it difficult to polish out. but my biggest beef is that the 6 prong and 4 prong makes one sized hole and the 2 prong and one prong makes another. Those two make huge holes. So when you are stitching along you can see a slight inconstancy where you switch to go around a curve with the 2 prong. Makes me nuts. I gave up on them except in certain instances and now primarily use them like I would a pricking iron. I just tap the tools into the leather to make the impression in order to keep a consistent angle and then do all the work with an awl and pony.