Boriqua

I dont know what I was thinking .. or I wasnt .. but I have two small straps that I glued together. I forgot to set a snap between the layers and want to pull part of these straps apart. When I worked in a wood shop we were able to use a heatgun to loosen the laminate so we could get in behind it with lacquer thinner. Can I heat these straps to soften the cement some and pull it apart? Alex

Here is my test piece for a holster I am working on for a Desert Eagle. I always run a test piece before I dig into the holster. This stupid thing took me about 8 hours from block sketch to finished. There are some subleties that dont show up with my junky camera. I am going to fix a few things I didnt love on the test. I used a ton of knowledge I gained here. Thanks everyone Alex

I am doing a fold over holster like the one pictured. Im sure its not called fold over but I dont know what else to call it. Thank you so much for your response. alex

Hey Guys I took a job for a desert eagle. Jeez this thing is huge. Anyway I wanted to do glue two pieces of leather back to back. I have cut my outside piece put have a question about cutting the inside. If I bend the leather after I have glued the two pieces together the inside part will want to be shorter .. No? do you glue the two pieces together while it is flat or do you measure the inside piece after you have a bend in in the top piece. Thanks anyone Alex

It may be a big request but if anyone were willing would you please share with me what you hand out so I can use it as a starting point for me to put something together. I understand if you are reluctant but even knowing the formatting would be helpful. Alex

I didnt think I had to but I just had someone pick up one of my holsters. It was made out of 10oz leather, wet formed and then baked hard as I had read about here. It made it wonderfully rigid and retention is amazing. A day after the bake 2 coats of Super sheen were applied. Person took the holster and handed it to a freind that just had to hold it and he grabbed the ears of the pancake and upon telling his friend that it was to hard and needed breaking in he forcefully bent the ears back and forth as hard as he could to soften it. Helping his friend no doubt that cringed. The sheen at the crease where it meets the body of the holster showed some spiderwebing. I just never thought about anyone doing something like this. I assumed he would just wear it and in doing so it softens and molds to your body. I dont use supersheen on things I know will be bent back and forth like a belt. I just never anticipated someone grabbing a wetmolded rigid holster and wringing it back and forth. I also have had to stop people from shortening the breakin process by wanting to put water in the holster. So do you include any instructions i.e. Use paste wax to shine it up, dont add water etc

Only the flame one has edges I can be truly proud of and I learned it here following along. I wouldn't even have known I could make edges like that or should make edges like that. I was very happy with my edges before but once I saw edges here it was a challenge. Gauntlet was down. I do it all by hand but doesnt matter the end result has to be the same and I crowed to my wife like an idiot when I finished that edge. I must have showed it to everyone I know. I spent over an hour just on the edge! I have learned a great deal swimming in this pond with the big boys and I have Sooo much to learn yet. Thank you for your approval! It means a great deal to me. Alex

Here is rabbit one with bevel to the inside Here is rabbit 2 to the outside I like image 1 MUCH better but I cant figure out how to do a stamped background since the "mask" is an inward bevel. I am thinking just do a fade on the stamped background from bottom to top so the face part is free from background stamping and it bleeds into background stamp as it goes up. Dont know if that makes sense. I also was kinda liking the smooth bevel on the right side since it gave me more opportunity to model. I think picture 2 is alright since I am talking mask and the mask part is proud but ... well I just dont dig it as much. Here are the steep stamps I was referring to. http://www.tandyleat...p_keyword=steep Thank you again Alex

I found the tool your talking about .. whew a little pricey and I wish they had it checkered. Might be dremeling up something.

I went to the tandy site but from thier images I cant figure out which one is narrower. I hate to impose but would you know what number? Alex

THANKS Benlilly1 Grumble, grumble .. cheap .. grumble ... junky camera Here is a slide show if anyone is interested. A few pix there http://boriqualeather.com/Sub%20Creature/

I have attached 2 pix. One is a cropped copy from the leather test .. I hope its readable and one is the drawing. The blue I want reccesed looking so I beveled it to the inside. The ears I want proud so I beveled them to the outside of the drawing. I dont know what to do where the inside bevel and the outside bevel meet.

Here is another pic so you can see where i am trying to go .. Thank you for any help Alex

So someone asked for rabbit and I drew this. They love it and I figured no problem. But .. I have a problem There is a "mask" area that I want to sit back but I also want the ear to sit proud. I am stuck at the transition. I am having the same problem at the fold of the ear. Seems like I would need to flip the bevel on these two problems but I think it would be weird .. or not ?

And last and kinda least

I've been lurking for some time and havent posted anything because there are some heavy hitters on this site and I did not feel worthy but here goes

Thanks Fellas .. Is there anyway to save this now. Is there a way to take the super sheen off of the edges and let dry so its not still tacky? Alex

I am just a little freaking out. Made a holster about a week ago. I really sweated the edge after seeing the results so many of you get. It was all about the prep work but for the first time I tried the gum tragacanth. Man my edge cam e out sweet. But now here is the problem. I applied two coats of super sheen and while the body of the holster is fine there are several spots along the edge that just wont cure. I stuck it in an open window today (90's in AZ) and left it for several hours but it didnt help. So I figure I have to remove some of the sheen from the edge .. right? I am working on a project right now and was going to do the edges tomorrow but I dont know if it is safe to put the super sheen over the gum tragacanth or should I just go ahead and use water for the edge? Man I spent a lot of time on that holster. I hope I dont lose it because of the edge.

I have drawings from over the years that I wanted to put into leather. I have been thinking for months how I could do it. A v groove wont work but today I found what I have been wanting to do. so my question is how can I make the straight engraved lines that you see on this holster? Any help would save my sanity .

Im afraid to use contact cement because I cant figure out how I would be able to trace out the shape of the frog onto the leather and get the glue on the leather without going over the traced line. The frog has lots of little cragels at the edges. I was hoping to just be able to apply some type of adhesive to just the Frog and apply it to the leather

Im sure its somewhere on the forums but I cant find it. I have a piece of frog skin I want to apply to the front of a mag holder. I dont want to inlay it just paste it right on to a piece of dyed leather. I use contact cement for all my leather work but what appealed to me about this piece of frog was the organic shape from where it was cut off the frog and dont want to mess with it. It needs to stay put though when I put it down ... Spray 77 or? Here is what I want to do Thank you in advance !! Alex

I paid for my books and art supplies many years ago producing all manner of leather goods. Probably about 25 yrs ago. I have been floating around the site for weeks now and have come to the stark realization that I know nothing! I hope to be able to follow along and get better due to the many experts on this forum. Alex