Regis

Mike, Glad to have you join and looking forward to seeing that holster.

Welcome Skip. You'll find a number of saddle makers here. This is a friendly place to hang out. Looking forward to those pictures.

I got one of the Preval sprayers and tried to spray a holster with the new black TLF eco dye. Started fine and then only air. I'm not sure if it was too thick or too cold (outside where I was spraying). I didn't thin at all and it is mid 50's here. If that isn't too cold, does anyone have a thinning ratio for the Eco-Flo dye? And, I would think water would be the thinner (??). Thanks, Regis

Yessiree happy birthday

I use 138 in my Consew with a #23. I think you will find that 135X17 needles come for fabric and you'll have to go to a 135X16 for leather points like DI. As a seperate reccomendation, if this is your first commercial machine venture, pick one where you can get good support. I bought my Consew for very low price at specbrands but, there is zero support. My 1st machine was Artisan 3000 and they (especially Steve) give tremendous support.

Welcome youthleader. Looking forward to seeing some of your and your daughter's work.

Marc, Welcome and always glad to have experienced leatherworks join & contribute.

But, will there be judging even if not against each other? For example n points for design & complexity, nn points for carving, and nnn points for tooling. That would give everyone an idea of areas needing most work or practice. Just a thought (unless you get 200 entries of course)[lol]

Welcome Twinoaks. Glad to have you join and look forward to more pictures

Bump! Got my layout almost finalized and will begin carving this afternoon. Who will tell, in the end, how many they carved/tooled vs what they submit. [lol] Clay, Do you want a before/after even if it is just one color dye & then antique?

Dave, Glad you found us. Your work is probably better than you think and there are a great group of pro's here that are willing to help you improve even more. Looking forward to photo's

Thanks guys. I wish I would have waited a few more days for these answers and I ordered some 6/7 (ok) and mostly 8/9. Next time 5-8.

Bruce, Now that is some awesome stitching. Do you use a foot that goes into the stitching groove? Or are you just that steady? Is your belt loop sewn in or is it loose? Glad you took the time to post these. Thanks, Regis

What part of the country are you located?

I should have punched 2 holes and cut between. But, I had this 1" belt punch (only long punch I had) so I tried it. It is wider in middle. I punched 3 times to get the size I wanted. It ended up looking interesting but, I don't think I will do that again.

Works for me now "while logged in". Thank you....looks good Regis

I found out that I can simply logout and get to posts in marketplace. While inside marketplace, I logged in and poof, same error. fwiw

Corter, Welcome to great forum. Very neat work you've done. Thanks for showing. You'll find lots of great info to read here and many have pictures to show you how to do various leather work. Looking forward to seeing more of your work

As long as I don't login, I can fully access the marketplace (delete cookies, restart browser, don't login). When I login I can no longer access marketpalce below menues.

Welcome DJc. Great folk and great place to learn. How about some pic's?

Some long forgotten fun in BoyScouts in mid 50's revived a couple years ago. Dabbled a little with some basic tools and then found this forum. ClayB jumped right in and took pitty on my horrible elephant carving and taught me to begin carving & tooling correctly "long distance". ClayB and Luke as well as many others here have been and continue to make leather most enjoyable for me. I'm 63 but, just a pup amoung many masters here at leatherworker.net Helping the scouts will pay off,,,,even if it takes 50 years.

Matt, Welcome and thanks for showing your work. Some fine toolin' and stitchin' there.

Johanna, I deleted cookies, rebooted (not just stop/start browser) and got into the new area and able to read posts. BUT, when viewing new posts, I selected "Mark all forums as read". Now, back to the can't read in new forum. May have to go through the cokie/reboot thing again???

Just did that. Even though post & view show, there is nothing when I select area.

I have about a dozen (or so) holsters to make for friends and family over the next several months. I will carve/tool each one even though most are not western style (I get to carve or they can buy their own ). I'm about to order leather and want to know if there is a 'best' weight? Can I use same weight if I line some of them? Various companies sell "oak" sides or shoulders. Would these likely be like W&C Special or HO C or D? Or better/worse? I will be molding most of them except for the revolvers. Right now, I'm leaning to the middle grade of W&C but am unsure of what weight to have them split to. Looks like some real bargins (e.g. seigel) so I'm also wondering if I need the extra quantity for "my mistakes" as long as they all tool similarly??? Appreciate any tips.