TexasJack

When you compare this to others you've seen, what do YOU see that's different? Sometimes that alone can help you find areas to improve. The one thing that stands out to me is that the edges look 'fuzzy'. They need to be slicked better. 'Course, that may be partly caused by the huge size of the photo. It sorta magnifies everything. Overall, looks pretty sturdy and a good job for your first.

Personally, no earring. However, I'm pretty big on the idea that what others do that doesn't affect me is none of my d**** business. I'm also not big on tattoos. Like the line in "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", "...Only cattle should be branded."

Looks nice.

Find that can of black dye

Long-term solution to a short-term problem. Very sad. Our prayers to the family and friends.

The link is here.

Very nice! Will be looking for that "..more to come" !!!

The "little guys" appear to get crushed by corporate giants over silly copyrights. But that's not really the case. If a company allows someone else to use a logo - like "Dumbo" - then they can lose the copyright to that name. When that happens, a competitor can produce the same thing and they can't stop them. (Think of say China flooding the market with Disney stuff without paying a royalty.) So, yeah, it's a pain, but you can't blame them for trying to protect their income. I found this out innocently enough. I was traveling to some plants owned by the company I worked for and at one in Louisiana, and a guy working there made ball caps with the company logo on it but the "-CO" in the name was replaced by "-CEAUX". He made them in several colors and he gave me one. I wore it to a company picnic and the CEO happened to attend and saw the hat. He wanted one, so I gave him the guy's name and the guy sent him a hat. The CEO proudly displayed it in his office - until a corporate attorney saw it and came unglued. Because the CEO was involved, the maker was just required to cease making them. That's when the whole "could lose our copyright" thing was explained to me. (Even using different colors causes a problem.) If the attorney had seen the cap in MY office first, it might not have been such an easy situation for me or the maker.

"..burnisher machine.."? You don't need that. Almost anything smooth that you can rub (and rub!) on the edges will work. That's really all a power tool is going to do. Some people use a piece of antler, or plastic, or glass, or hardwood,... well, you get the point. Do a search for 'burnish' on here and you should see some that people have made to let them do a variety of edges. This is really a low-tech technique.

I agree with TapTapTap.

For a first sheath, you did a pretty good job! With the retention strap, it's pretty good to go for the field. Suggestions: deeper stitching grooves (was there one?), polish the edges. Generally, I like to have the leather extend as far as the end of the knife handle, so it doesn't rub or catch, but that can be personal preference. I'm sure someone can come along and write a thesis on things that could be better. But if it was my knife and I needed to take it hunting tomorrow, I'd be pretty happy with the sheath.

I've been an environmental professional for over 30 years. If anyone is selling you a product as "eco-friendly", you can just as easily substitute the term, "B.S.". Yes, some chromium compounds are toxic. Look at a bottle of multivitamins sometime. "Chromium" is listed!! Yeah. Some chromium compounds are not toxic. Check your pocket; most nickel is very toxic. (In fact, the name comes from "Old Nick", a name for the Devil.) That doesn't mean that having a nickel in your pocket or eating with stainless steel (which contains nickel and chromium) will kill you. If the chemical used to make something has ONE ingredient that is from nature, it can be marketed as being 'eco'. For example, take soybean oil, react it with ethylene oxide, then with ammonia, then with sodium bisulfite, and you can make an 'eco' detergent. Is the final molecule like one in nature? No. But with the current generation having schools and TV pounding them with pop science, such a product will be highly marketable. As W.C. Fields would say, "There's a sucker born every minute." I was glad to see someone point out that leather crafters are RECYCLERS! That is exactly true. Oh, by the way, they don't cut down forests to get tannins. They are byproducts (and usually unwanted byproducts) of pulp and paper mills. Even if the trees are harvested, NEW TREES can grow where the old ones were located! Again, REAL recycling. I spent a few years living in a state with mandatory recycling. We paid extra to have to get plastic jugs picked up. But none of my neighbors ever asked what happened to those jugs. I asked. Since there was no demand for the plastic, and since the state refused to burn them for fuel value, the jugs were piled up and then taken to the landfill and buried. With all the other trash. "Recycling Theater". Almost any chemical process can be done without harming the environment. In Europe, Canada, Australia, and the USA, that's pretty much mandatory. Other countries? I don't think I have to spell out the answer. Even with controls in place, some companies try to take shortcuts (e.g., BP) and make everyone look bad. Life is far too short to worry about how happy the cow was before her pelt was tanned.

He was lucky! The most dangerous power tool for knifemakers is the buffer. It can grab a knife and fling it in an instant. Flinging a knife is NEVER a good thing to have happen!

Also a band formed around 1968, noted for their versions of "Get Ready" and "I Just Want To Celebrate". Neither song contains rare earth elements, thus allowing these elements to be used in very strong magnets.

First?!? I wouldn't have guessed that. Nice job!

Very nice!

If you never try, then you never learn! Every attempt is a move forward!

I don't think you really have to give up all that much. Docs are big on giving up salt, but rarely does that result in acceptable BP. Less weight and more exercise help a lot. Beyond that, there are some pretty good meds that help.

If you're talking about changing a commercial holster, you may have some trouble getting it to absorb water. Would stripping the coating ruin the holster? Maybe. It's probably not much of a stretch to accommodate the larger frame, but I would feel a little uneasy about trying that. Since you've got the basic holster you like, a simpler move might be to make a new one.

Wow! Pretty detailed work! Is that one of your knives in the first pic?

Very nice work!

I just took one out of a 1911 and measured it: Length: 4 3/4 in. Width: 1 3/8 in. Thickness: 1/2 in. They can be a little longer if they have a bumper attached, but usually that would be outside of the holder.

This was so beautiful that I had to comment. Great job!

Ditto! Very nice looking rig!!