billybopp

I bet those feel nicer in the hand! (in addition to looking great) -Bill

Because, hey!, the last thing anybody wants is chunky glue! Great tip Dwight. Thank you! - Bill

There is certainly room in any leatherworker's toolkit for more than one hammer! I started with a couple 14oz rawhide hammers that were given to me with my original toolkit, and used that for quite awhile and it works alright, but lacked the hitting power for things like 3d stamps and gang punches. So I was at the auto parts store one day and saw a dead-blow hammer, 2lbs I think, and bought it. It works really great on those 3d stamps, gang punches and belt end punches. Eventually, I decided to try a round maul for the lighter hits needed for tooling stamps in place of that old rawhide hammer, and after a little practice found that I really liked it. The old rawhide hammers still get used from time to time, but I mostly rely on the round mauls now. One of these days I do want to try a tapered round maul, as I think that may work even better for me than the plain round mauls. With round mauls and hammers, you need to keep your elbow up while tooling for a square hit, a tapered maul would allow me to drop my elbow and maybe even rest it on the worktop which is much more comfy for me. Sometimes things need to KNOW they've been hit, and other times you need a little more finesse. - Bill

Maybe a better distinction than the term "hand made" would be "single maker" - where a craftsperson sees the the whole process through from leather selection to finished product. Just a thought - Bill

That looks great!!! - Bill

My Gomph is just about 145mm across, 75mm from ferrule to the edge, and 2.2mm thick. My osborne is 100mm across, 45mm from ferrule to edge, and 1.8mm thick. The Gomph was probalby 6" when new, but it's 100 + years old, so has probably been worn/sharpened down. I asked about a year ago about what the star markings mean on Osborne knives, and Bruce Johnson enlightened me. I suspect that larger than 7" is uncommon, but somebody that knows better may chime in for us!! As for thickness, I think some of the modern LeatherWranglers and Knipshield knives might be thicker. Maybe somebody that has one can put calipers to 'em and find out for us! - Bill

I like the idea, but I think I'd make a couple of changes ... go a little wider. 150mm is a shade under 6", which is a pretty common size. They do often come as large as 7". I'd also consider putting a V notch, or some such in the middle of the long sides so that the will center up on the handle when you drop your knife in. - Bill

That sounds like a good plan. I move my rig out to the back porch when I want to use it, so that I don't have to worry about overspray, and less about breathing in the nasty stuff (I wear a respirator anyway, to be certain). At some point, when I have more space, I'll probably make a spray booth so that I can work indoors more easily. I've tried using a 5 gallon tank to transport air and it does work, but it does not provide air for very long. With this being something that you want to do, Murphy's law dictates that the tank will run low exactly when you are at the most intense part of the job, or about 1 minute from completion of the job. If you do decide to go with an indoor rig, I'd suggest getting one that has an air tank. Most compressors will surge or pulsate the air supply which can cause issues if you are trying to do fine work. The air tank acts as a plenum and smooths out the air flow. Airbrushes work much better with smooth air flow. - Bill

I have a few, but prefer my Paasche VL. It's double-action siphon feed. I like siphon feed because you can use different sizes of jars - small for details, and larger for when you need to cover a large area. They have three different sizes of needle/orifice add-ons which will give you a spray pattern from very fine to relatively wide. Double-action lets you control the dye/paint flow making fades easier. I have a Paasche H, which is a single action external mix siphon feed. Single action is pretty much either on or off, with no fine control of feed. It is fine for covering bigger areas, but not so much for fine stuff. I do not often use my Iwata gravity feed. It's a very nice brush, but I find the small cup limiting for anything but small areas. - Bill

I've heard good things about the Tandy pro awl, but I can tell you from experience, avoid the 4-in-1. The handle is OK, but the blades might as well be made of butter. Totally useless. My preference for awls are Seiwa which are more straight sided than some, but they are relatively short blades so, not so useful for thick projects. Most blades arrive fairly dull, so if you are not comfortable with shaping and sharpening the blade, you may want to consider one from Leatherwranglers they are made by CS Osborne, but are sharpened and shaped for you by leatherwranglers. Whichever awl you choose, I'd suggest putting a small leather disk at the base of the blade. Without that, as you push through the backside of the leather the awl tends to jump forward, leaving a nice little circle embossed into your leather if you aren't careful. Tandy needles, particularly the "big eye" ones, do tend to break. I switched to John James needles long ago and have not looked back. If you are new to hand sewing, I'd also suggest using a woven polyester such as Tiger Thread. You need not buy full spools of Tiger, as there are a number of places that will sell you shorter lengths such as Rocky Mountain Leather Supply. They also sell Fil Au Chinois linen thread, John James needles, awls, and quite a bit more. It's considerably easier, particularly while you're learning. Linen has a few bugaboos that require more care. Linen picks up dye more easily, ends often have to be thinned to fit through your needles, it can fray on longer runs requiring that you splice it more often, and it's a bit easier to accidentally pierce it as you pass needles through. That said, those may not be such a big factor on a holster which requires relatively little sewing compared to something like a briefcase. Hope that helps - Bill

Fiebings sells (or at least used to) a white "dye". It's garbage. You can get white leather, and that's fine. Otherwise, stick with paint. - Bill

Just a curious thought: Can a top and bottom feed skiver be easily set up so that the top feed is idle? Maybe disconnect the top feed and replace the foot with a roller foot, or a standard foot? - Bill

Unfortunately, stitching chisels are not all the same. A 5mm spacing for one brand might make a bigger hole than another brand does. You may be comparing apples to oranges with somebody else's set unless they are the same brand. JJ needles sizing is a bit confusing too, and as I understand it they may be labelled differently in Europe vs. the US. So it all gets a bit confusing. Fortunately, needles are pretty cheap so it's not too painful to have several different sizes. Question: Are you having a hard time passing the needle through with thread, or without? If without thread, you need a smaller size for sure. With JJ needles, the eye is only very slightly larger than the shaft of the needle, which is why many folks like them. Other needles have a HUGE eye in comparison. If with thread, is the knot moving up to the eye? That can cause some problems with passing through the hole. A simple help for that is to pierce your thread leaving about an inch behind the needle eye. If the knot slipping up toward the eye, a little drop of superglue will hold it in place. Hope that helps! - Bill

ROFL! Even if the information that you provide weren't so amazingly good as it is, your sense of humor would make your posts worthwhile. Thanks!!! - Bill

I think that a video series on profitably making leather goods would be awesome! For now, I'm a hobbyist, and mostly make gifts for friends and family. I've sold a few items and had a few commissions, which is rewarding but not really profitable. That said, I can see a time in the future where I may use leather goods as a supplemental income after I retire. At that point, profitability will be much more important. So yes! Please!! - Bill

@mikerock - While there's no real substitute for a good old paper book, this book is available for free at the moment on Tandy's leathercraftlibrary.com - but who knows how long that will last. Get 'em while you can! - Bill

Perhaps surprisingly, it IS rocket science! WD40 was originally developed for Convair in the 1950s for the Atlas missiles to protect from rust and corrosion while they were stored for use. https://www.wd40company.com/our-company/our-history/ - Bill

You're probably really doing better than the numbers show. When you lose weight by working out, you're replacing fat with muscle which is more dense. I'd bet your waist size went down a bit. Congrats to you and all the others here that are making the effort! - Bill

LOL. I love it! And that's a great story about the golf cart too! THANKS! Funny you should mention this ...I was just thinking before I saw your post, even ... Maybe you can call yourself a craftsman when somebody other than family or friends say something about your work and its fine craftsmanship. - Bill

That's a very clever idea! I like it! - Bill

Most buyers probably cannot tell the difference between hand sewn and machine sewn, nor do they care! BUT some people have a discerning eye and CAN tell at a glance how an item was sewn, and they are willing to pay for that difference, whether because they just like the look or because they believe that hand sewn is just better. The same thing applies to clothing, for that matter. Most of us are perfectly fine with off-the-rack suits, whether that be Wal-Mart at the low end or Hart Schaffner Marx or Armani at the high end. Others want (or sometimes need) a tailored suit that is machine sewn and are perfectly fine with that. The rare few can tell the difference between machine sewn and hand sewn tailoring, and are willing to pay for it, either because they want the HIGHEST quality or they want to impress others with that discerning eye to know the difference. It's all in what the customer wants, and is willing to pay for. - Bill

Let me begin with stating that I do not have ANY buddies that produce videos on the internet. I've never met anybody that does videos online, as far as I know anyway. So do NOT put words into my mouth (or should that be on my screen). I won't disagree that there is a lot of information out there that is repeated, but that information can be presented in many different ways. I'm glad of that. Not everybody learns in the same way. The way that one person presents it may not click with one viewer, and yet with another presenter it totally makes sense. Some people need a step by step presentation, others can easily make the leap from one point to another without everything in between being shown. What is obvious to one person may not be to another. For that matter, video isn't a great way to learn for some people, and books may work better for them. For the same reason that one video might work for one learner and not another, the same is true with books. But at least the videos are mostly free, whereas libraries are sadly lacking in leather working books - so they are generally not free. And yes! Somebody that has never made a holster before MIGHT need to be shown that they need to trace around the gun, and how to do that. For example, do you do a direct trace around the gun with the pen straight up and down? Or do you need to add in a seam allowance and make that trace line 1/4" out from the actual gun itself. If you had never made a pattern, you would not know.

I do know. Springfield leather has python and several other skins... Both print and "real". And you are still first rate dick. You COULD have approached people's confusion by saying something like. "I could have been more clear with my question" . But you did not. Instead you decided to insult anybody that asked. Your disdain for video or anybody (other than Hank) who tries to make one.... Or for that matter anybody that looks at one is very well known by anybody that has been here for any length of time. So you decided to express that,once again, and use that as an insult. I have seen you repeatedly shut down anybody else's opinion, whether right or not because it does not fit within your incredibly narrow mindset. Not cool. If anybody else finds my language or opinion here insulting, I apologize to you but I had to speak my mind. It has been brewing for a while now. If any mod feels my commentary inappropriate, feel free to remove it. JLS. You are a dick.

You're SUCH a DICK.

Well darn. I'm 1500 miles too far away to drop by. Especially if you throw in a few pounds of steaks and burgers with that hide!