byggyns

I have to echo this. The awl is much too vertical. The diamond awl should have one facet parallel to the stitch line. This gives a really good angle to the stitches. Stohlman's book "Hand Stitching Leather" will give you a better illustration of the correct angle. The awl should be sharp enough to pierce your finger and you barely feel it. The same book will give you good tips on how to sharpen the awl. After it's sharpened, strop it well to polish the edge. I can push a wide awl through a 10oz piece of leather while just holding the piece in my fingers about 2" away from the awl. If your awl is a little small for the thread you are using, you can give the awl just a slight twist to widen the hole. If you sharpened the awl like Stohlman says: with a sharp point, but a dull shoulder, you won't permanently enlarge the hole & it will close back up.

that was actually Mark Twain; Carlin quoted it well. http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/539027-never-argue-with-stupid-people-they-will-drag-you-down To follow up on another joke someone told here: If someone is a vegan and into crossfit, which do they tell you about first when you meet them?

In my first and only belt project, I used a belt blank from Tandy (8-9 oz). After that was tooled & dyed, I lined it with 2-3oz veg tan. The result was a nice, stiff belt that wasn't too thick with edges that burnished easily. Hand stitching that thing took forever (about 4-5 hours). I need to lose weight to make my belt projects smaller

I'd point out that if she was such an "ethical vegan" she should not support the synthetic processes needed to make the imitation leather products she wants, and the vitamins she has to take in order to not die of malnutrition as a vegan. Both require large industrial facilities that use mined / drilled raw materials. Veganism is pretty idiotic. I can say vegitarianism has at least some basis in reality (still think it's dumb), but healthy veganism is only possible with modern synthetic industrial nutrition supplements.

Basics needed are tools to mark your stitch lines: wing divider, ruler, or compass. Something to mark your stitch distance: ruler, overstitch wheel, stitching chisels or pricking irons. An awl: use a diamond awl in a middle size. Sharpen it to bleedingly sharp and strop it. I also strongly suggest a clamp or stitching pony / horse. It helps so much to have a 3rd hand while you stitch. You tend to get more even and regular stitches when you don't have to juggle the work piece.

I think I might have taken my holster class with you. About 2 years ago?

I'm glad it worked for you. I just got a new S&W J frame snubby, so I'm working up a new pattern for myself for an IWB holster. Once I finish that one, I may have to print out a copy of this page from the holster book and modify the pattern to fit the J frame. If that works, I may make this pattern longer to fit my old Model 10 4" bbl.

Your fold is in the wrong location / angle. fold on the red line, which is where the top of the frame/ barrel should be.

If you have a chance, take a look at some of the classes at the local Tandy on Morse Rd. I took their holster class to kick off my hobby, and I found it very helpful. I think their basic class goes into making a notebook cover as well as basic tooling.

I also think it has more to do with the surface finish. Saddleback uses full grain chrome tan. If they used top grain chrome tan, then the surface would have been sanded, filled, and sealed. I have chrome tan that has a patina, but it all has a surface without a smooth gloss. Two pairs of my shoes from Timberland are an oil-tan style finish, but are chrome tan leather.. They have developed a patina already- within 1 year of wearing them.

You can request their paper catalog. It has the wholesale prices in it. Since I'm not too far away from their shop, I stopped in last week and got a copy of the catalog. Their show room is really only good if you want to buy equipment- lots of sewing machines on display as well as clickers, setter presses, etc. If you want to pick out your own hides, they will let you go into the warehouse to do that. Their displays of hardware, conchos, buckles, etc has much to be desired. That being said, the employee said that not too many people come in to look at anything.

For utility / casual belts, latigo is great. Before I started leatherworking, I bought my belts from an amish leather shop. The belts are a little stiff and thick for dress belts. The latigo, like the bridle, cannot be dyed after it comes out of the tannery. The waxes in the leather make for a great, long-lasting belt. I am wearing one right now that I've owned and worn regularly for over 12 years. It always used to fascinate me when I watched the amish guy pull the side of leather off the shelf, cut the belt strip, then finish the belt right in front of me.

I just finished my first belt - for myself, and I did it in 4 sections of thread. I wear 40" pants and stand 5'7", so I have a rather short arm span for my waist size. My joints are at the buckle side, near the center on either side, and I do have a joint near the tip. I kept it a few inches back from the tip, but it's still in the billet section with the buckle holes. I overlapped one full stitch, and then took the thread on the front of the belt to the back side- a half stitch. That way, all of the thread ends are on the inside, and not visible from the outside of the belt. I cut them short & melt the ends: used poly thread. On the outside, the stitch line just appears slightly thicker at the overlapped areas.

What they are talking about is how the curve intersects with the straight sides. The curve you use should be 90 degrees of a circle. For that size of a curve, you should use a glass or can & line the straight sides of the cover up with the edges of the glass & trace the curve. It looks like you have 30 - 60 degrees of the arc, not the full 90 degrees.

Your awl should be so sharp that when you shove it into your finger, you don't feel it until you see the blood when you are putting the needle through. To prevent the blood, use an old wine cork on the back side when you are pressing the awl in. Even with a good clamp close to the stitch line, you will still get deflection. When I am doing the stitching near the opening of a sheath & am going through 5 or more layers, I have that awl sharpened & stropped extremely well. I also have to use my larger sized awl so that the hole stays open enough through all those layers to get the needles through for the doubled stitching that is needed at the beginning and ending of the stitch lines.

An idea to get rid of the annoying silver color is to do an oil blue on the bolt. Use a propane torch to heat the bolt to a nice bluish color & submerge it in some used motor oil (you can use new oil if you want, but it has little effect on the result). I would recommend using a metal can, not a plastic container for this. The oil can have a flash fire if you heat the bolt too hot, so do this outside away from flammables. If you get a flash fire, just cover the can with a metal plate & it will smother quickly. It also stinks- fire or no-, so inside isn't where you want it to happen. After the bolt cools, you should end up with a nice blue/black finish.

I used to have a Super Redhawk in .44 mag, 6-1/2" barrel. I wouldn't call it a pussycat to shoot, but it wasn't too awful. Recoil was quite managable, but you got tired of shooting it after about 3-4 cylinders.

There are also filigree blades available for swivel knives. The blade is more narrow and more angled than the angled swivel knife blades. I haven't bought any or shopped for them, so I can't point you in the direction of any specific suppliers.

Seriously, RVM45, is this the year 1990, and I missed it? Nearly every major handgun manufacturer has copied in some way the technology Glock pioneered: the trigger safety, the striker firing, or the polymer frame. Here's a list of some of the manufacturers that have copied one or more of those innovations: Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, H&K, Springfield Armory, Taurus, FN / Browning, Beretta, Ruger, CZ Even Kimber copied the striker firing mechanism for the Solo- they sill haven't made anything polymer framed yet. The only real argument against the Glock is that it is an ugly box shape. Possibly, you can argue that on some, the grip is uncomfortable and too square or large- which they have really remedied in the Gen 4. Calling the Glock a gun like object means that you consider the other highest selling models on the market for the past 10-15 years to be not guns either. If you are that stuck in the past, why are you even on the internet?

The amish man who made my belt 15 years ago used line 24 snaps. When I make my belts now, that's what I use on my heavy weight work belts or gun belts. For a light weight dress belt, I'd just stitch the buckle in.

As someone with generous dimension in the waist, I can confirm that a IWB holster without reinforcement will collapse at the mouth. The one I have is store bought & does not have any strip around the opening. It's a molded veg tan holster from Tagua- about 6-8 oz leather. Reholstering is a bit of a chore. As far as another option to consider for between the layers of leather at the opening, kydex is one I would look at. It comes in several thicknesses, is easily molded with a heat gun or toaster oven, and I think Springfield leather will still send you a free sample with your order.

I attended a holster making class at my local Tandy. It was $65 for 2 Saturdays. The cost really just covered the supplies we used: a single shoulder of leather, dye, needles, finish, thread- at the normally inflated Tandy prices, and we took home the left overs. I thought it was a good deal, as a decent holster costs upwards of $50, and a custom one is over $80. It was my first leather class since Boy Scouts 20 years ago. I found it very helpful. Since it did not require me to buy any tools, I could choose what tools I wanted as I moved forward. I did end up getting some Tandy tools to make more projects with that first shoulder of leather: another holster and a knife sheath. The advice to read as much as you can is certainly well founded. I have learned quite a lot reading the Stohlman books and the information on this site. Also, as far as the cost of that class, the Gold level membership was only $35 USD last year when I did it, so that would be quite a bit less than the $100 for the course. Of course, my local shop was only a 10min drive from my apartment at that time, and I wasn't working a second job, so I had the time and the distance availability. Now with 2 jobs, I barely have time to touch the sides of leather I have sitting around to have fun with any new projects.

If It is 2 pieces, and there is no way to tell with the perspective of the picture, then I would mold the inner, then mold the outer layer over it, then glue them together. If you were to laminate the two first, I think you would get lots of wrinkling inside the corners. You don't have to have a press, just a simple plywood mold would do. Flat base, positive part of the mold screwed to it. Then a negative cut with enough gap around the positive to allow for the thickness of the leather. thoroughly soak the leather, clamp the negative down to the base around the positive & let it dry. Trim off the flanged area around the perimeter off and edge burnish. The mold peices should have the corners rounded off & be thoroughly sanded. A lot of people like to use wood filler on their molds to give it an even smoother surface. I'm not sure that just using a creaser would be enough to get that kind of shape.

As far as the Tandy alternatives, I have an Osborne 5/8" slot / bag punch that I got in an eBay lot. It was still new in the shipping edge coating. After a little initial sharpening, it works great. Not having used a Tandy punch, except for a punching a pair of 1 3/4" belt slots during a holster making class, I'd say the Osborne is better built, but I don't know how the edge longevity compares. I still haven't used my Osborne 1 1/2" round strap end punch from the same lot, but I also have no experience with other brands to compare that to. After starting with the interchangable tip mini-punch set for round holes, I got the set of round drive punches from Harbor freight. They work fine, but took a lot of initial shaping / sharpening of the edge. Cheap tools are cheap for a reason. I also have the Tandy oval drive punch for doing holes on the billet of belts. That required no initial sharpening & hasn't needed any yet. I had a whole response written about why using a softer surface to punch holes on is better. It was a TL;DR type of post. I think if you try a poly board, wood block, or poundo board under your punches, you will see the edge of your current tools last longer.

You could try buying kids shoes at yard sales or thrift shops. Tear them apart to get measurements. That way you would have an accurate size number to use with your patterns.