Randyc

Bar J I'm rather partial to the 3000. I upgraded from a Tippmann Boss and never regretted it. I purchased mine with the flat bed attachment although I seldem use it. I agree with Bruce. With proper tensioning you should be able to stitch 3oz. just fine. Randy

Paul Thats a real nice looking sheath. I'm sure your customer will be quite proud of his new sheath. Do you by chance skive the edges of your inlays before stitching them in? Randy

Welcome to the forum. I have to admit I was a bit lost after the "incident." I know I learned quite a few new things after joining and hope to learn a few more. Randy

Jordan. Nice job on your holsters. I've used both Tandy's and Fieblings I'm not real happy with either and I'm sure part of the problem is my technique or lack of one. Holster makers on other forums have recommended Angelus brand dyes. I may give Angelus dyes a try. My biggest problem is bleed off from my black Fieblings. Keep up the fine holster making! Randy

I'm in the process of setting up my new Weaver bottle jack press. I plan to use the press for both molding my holster/sheaths and clicking out holster parts. My 1" gum rubber pads arrived today. Now for the questions 1. If I'm going to mold only the face side of a holster, I assume I mount mount rubber pad on the top (moveable) plate and press against the non padded bottom plate. Am I correct? 2. What method is used to attach the rubber pads to the plates so they can be easily removed for clicking parts, or do I just set the pad on the bottom plate and hold the pad on the upper plate while I lower the ram onto the holster? Thanks for your help! Randy

Brian, ohiotravelbag.com may have what your looking for. They do require that you have a federal tax ID to order from them. hope this helps. Randy

Carl Chappell was also my mentor. I'm sure you will enjoy his class and go home with a custom pair of boots made by you! Randy

Jordan You might be onto something with your "Holster Making For Dummies" book idea. It's a good thing we have all these great holster makers right here on this forum because there sure isn't much in the way of books out there. Randy

Hi, I took a western boot making class about a year and a half ago. You could actually build a pair of boots with leather hand tools and do all your stitching by hand. (not my cup of tea) Most boot makers use 3 different sewing machines when building boots. 1. Top Stitcher- Used for all that fancy stitching on the boot tops and attaching the counters, countercovers, and vamps to the tops I use a vintage 1918 Singer 31-15 better known as a tailors machine 2. Side Seaming Stitcher- This machine is used for stitching the side seams of boot tops. This needs to be a pretty heavy duty machine. Some boot makers stitch the side seams by hand. I have an Artisan Toro 3000. which I use for side seaming, making holsters, knife sheaths and all other medium to heavy duty stitching I do. 3. Sole Stitcher- This is a curved needle type of stitcher used for stitching the sole to the welt. This too could be done by hand or by taking your boots to a shoe maker and having them stitch your soles. I would recommend taking the boot class before investing in some of the heavy duty stitching equiptment. As far as a good all around stitcher that will handle medium weight wallets to heavy duty saddle tack, I would lean towards an Artisan 3000 or 4000 model stitcher or one of the other heavy duty stitchers populer with folks on this forum. By the way, which boot maker are you taking the class with? You might enjoy the following boot makers forums www.customcowboybootsandshoesforum.com www.hcc.org Regards, Randy

Ed You work well under pressure. From what I see, your Christmas gifts look good to me. Most of the time we are far more critical of our own work then non-leather craftsman are. I'd be happy receiving one of your gifts Randy

John, I actually made this holster to fit a Beretta Tomcat .32 Cal. For photo purposes I used a 1908 Colt .25 Cal. Sharkskin is real tough. Randy

I made this holster out of cowhide, then covered the holster with shark skin.

Here are a couple of cell phone cases I made for customers

Jordan, Your holster looks real good. Your second row of stitches looks like it was planned all along. I have had problems with Fieblings dyes. It seems like my browns and tans are always way too dark so a lot of my work ends up looking mahogany or starts out brown and ends up black. The man who taught me to make western boots also taught me " if you make a mistake, make it look like you planned it that way." I enjoy the challenge of holster making. Every pistol is different and fitting that pistol to a particular holster style and customer preference adds to the challenge. Sometimes we are way more critical of our work then the customer will ever be. I guess that's what drives us to improve in our craft. That's one of the things that makes this forum really cool. We can put our projects out there for all to see and get some real helpful advise and often acclaim from some of the masters of our craft. Our own critical eye and that of our peers is what sets us a part from the mass produced cookie-cutter products on the market today. Keep up the good work! Randy

Jordan, Your design work and molding skills are looking good to me. I'm a newby in the molding department myself. I can't tell from the photos if you cut a stitching groove in the leather prior to stitching. The stitching appears to lie on top of the leather in some places verses a nice even locked stitch or my vision is worse off then I thought. Maybe your machines tension adjustment may be a little off. Before I actually stitch on the real thing, I check the tension out on the same weight scrap. I've found out that even with the right needle/thread combo and correct tension adjustment machines sometimes seem to develop a mind of their own. It usually happens to me half way down the edge of a belt that I'm stitching. I've been following your holster building progress and learning a few things myself. Please post photos of your finished holster. Randy

I'm planning to buy a bottle jack press setup to press mold holsters and sheaths. Since I'm running out of shop space and money I would like to be able to click out holster parts with the same press. What size ie. ton rating would work out best for molding and clicking? Would I be able to get enough clicking leverage with the manual jack? Does anyone have any comments on the 6 ton press set up offered by Weaver Leather and would their clicker plates work on other brand H presses or are these plates made specific for their press? For forming holsters, I assume I would have to place rubber pads on the clicker plates. How thick should these pads be and who supplies the pads? Thanks For The Help Randy

Welcome Eric, For leatherwork and just plain nice folks, you have come to the right place. Randy

George, Welcome to the forum. Theres alot of nice folks here and I'm sure someone will be glad to answer your questions. Randy

Nice looking holster and tooling job. Randy

Jarl, Any home machine and light industrial strength sewing machines can be set up to sew leather but, I wouldn't try to stitch vegatable tanned knife sheaths or holsters on these machines. I've been able to stitch 8 oz. vegatable tan leather with a 2 oz pigskin liner with no problems on home machines. Over stressing a machine will result in broken needles and possibly throwing the machine out of time. I guess it all depends on what you want to stitch. Keep in mind that your older home machines are stronger then the plastic machines made today. As before mentioned by other forum members,use leather needles of the correct size to go along with a good quality nylon or poly thread. A roller foot is available for some of the older machines. The roller foot works much better on leather then most other feet. Hope this helps, Randy

The Artisan 3000 is a great machine. I've had mine for almost a year. The machine replaced my Tippman Boss. I'm sure you will be happy with your 3000.

Nice job on your wrist bands. Randy

Bonnie, A year ago this past June I took Carl Chappell's bootmaking class in St. Jo Texas. It was a 2 week, 12 day, 12 hours per day class. Carl is a master western bookmaker with a very well equipted shop. You will build one pair of custom boots during the class. At the end of the class you take your last home, your boots and a set of instructional DVDs. I'm not aware of any training in the midwest. Most custom bootmakers who offer training are in the west and south west United States. Carl's website is www.trailtowncustomleather.com

Randy, Very cool sharkskin rig. I met Jerry VanAmberg at Witicha Falls a couple of years ago. He has some nice exotics. I built a sharkskin pocket holster for Beretta Tom Cat. I carry it for a backup while working at the PD. I also glued and stitched the shark around a plastic holster. Brillant Randys must think alike :angel_not: I build another one for my NAA .22. That one I wrapped around cowhide. That one I hang upside down around my neck. Once I get this photo thing figured out, I will post a photo. Randy

Nice work, much improved! Now that your buying tools, your on your way. Randy