TwinOaks

It may be that the weight of the pistol is being supported by only one side of the flap. It is, in effect, falling 'lop sided'. Putting the rivet in not only pulls the flap tighter, but also makes a 'stop' to keep the trigger side of the holster from riding up. In my suggestion, I said ".lay out the body of the holster...", meaning the part around the actual gun. Instead of having the full flap behind the holster, I had intended that it be cut shorter and stitched directly to the back of the body. That would eliminate the 'flop' of the holster and provide a built in 'anti-tilt' stop. However, I didn't include diagrams or anything, so it'd kind of hard to know exactly what I meant... You still did a very nice job on it, and the rivet should last forever (it looks like a copper rivet).

Yes, 'sun tanning' is really just that - It's exposure to UV. You'll have faster results leaving it in direct sun, than in a window as the glass blocks some of the UV.

You need to relieve the holster at the bottom of the trigger guard to allow a full grip. I'd start at the second stitch hole(maybe the 3rd) and take a 30 degree line from there, possibly sweeping the angle into a light curve. Ditto the leather on the back, but you also need to make sure the mag release is not covered. What you have will probably be 'okay' but I like to take the stitch line in front of the trigger guard a lot tighter to the actual profile..aka tighter molding. After all, the holster will support the gun at that point....preferably with a near horizontal line. The straighter the line, the less you need to even consider how much the leather will stretch. As it is, the leather could possibly stretch from constant or repeated pressure and allow the gun to droop in the holster until the edge of the trigger guard is almost at the current stitch line....which, from the looks of it could allow drooping of up to half an inch. That bit of space would interfere with the full firing grip.

It's buffing compound....basically the same stuff. buy it at lowes...next to the grinding and buffing wheels

once you upload it, don't forget to click the 'add to post' button on the right side of the screen.

The compound I use seems like it's in a hard wax base, as it won't build up on the leather unless a lot of friction heat builds up. As such, I think you could scrap it off, if you needed to. Most of the time I just apply more compound over the old. If it builds up to the point that it's starting to flake off, I just replace it. There's LOTS of scrap pieces that can become a new strop.

I can't recall the specific name of the tool, but it's basically an iron. They use heat to help form the edge . You can see a similar application here at around 5:24. The cobbler is using heated tools to melt the wax into the leather, burnish, and make what I'd call embossing lines.As far as the edge wipe...I'd guess some type of edge seal...maybe wax based. The iron's heat helps seal and burnish it. For all I know it's some type of thermal resin. Being a purse, it's likely chrome tanned leather, so edge appearance is probably more important than sealing against water.

I'm in agreement with Eric. If it isn't a real weapon, then it needs to be very obvious for safety and security reasons. At a show, I'd think that the hosting group would insist on the standard 'blue', which is easily recognized, for the same reasons. Plus, nothing else I use it that color blue, and when the desk gets a bit cluttered, they're easier to find.

I went image hunting and found that on single action forums to biker forums.....not much on the maker at first....but my Google-Fu is STRONG!!! The rigs are made by TStar Leather, and they even have a website...tstarleather.com.

Don't know about others in your area, but Welcome to Leatherworker.net! It's a pretty incredible coincidence that you want to do pyrography on leather....one of our other members just posted some pyro on wood work in the gallery and I'd suggested he do it on leather. Maybe y'all can get together and compare notes. Talltales08 is the member.

I usually say this in a joking manner: "Your awl should be sharp enough to get at least halfway through your finger before you feel it." There is, however, more than a little truth to that. I altered my method for making stitching holes because I'd more than once stabbed my finger AFTER going through the leather....and didn't know it until I was a little over 1/8th inch IN my finger. I have a really simple test for point sharpness - I use an empty drink bottle and if the plastic resists puncture at all, the awl needs to be sharper. Most of the time the point just glides right through. Having a scary sharp point is CRITICAL to the process because it lets you penetrate the leather without pushing against it. Yes, you push the awl. A dull point will push the leather over, often resulting in a misplaced exit hole...if you're using a clam. What I started doing is laying everything out on a table with a self healing soft mat under the leather and stabbing 'starter' holes vertically, then re-stabbing if I needed to widen the hole. Since I don't have a clam/horse, my alternative was holding the leather in my hands while I stabbed it.....hence my changing methods. Also, if you have a dull blade, you tend to push the awl harder and when it penetrates the leather it'll also penetrate whatever is on the OTHER side of the leather. If you're feeling for the point (a way to assure correct placement) and suddenly have less resistance on the blade....well, you get the bandaids.

Peel/cut the ostrich leg off and re-use it. Glue it to some lining leather before going back on the holster. That way, you won't have fuzzies or glue boogers.

http://springfieldle...32"25y,Havanna/ Springfield has them ..."Available in 1/8" increments from 1/4" up to 2". Since SLC is a Tandy distributor, Tandy may also have them, but I haven't checked.

Cross posted......I was looking up links when you posted that, Jack. Yes, that IS a good looking chisel line. No argument there. The ones I've seen and used were about 3 times that size. Since I've gone to the awl, I haven't every tried anything else....except a sewing machine. I'll start looking around and see what is new(to me) on the market. Incidentally, another reason I recommend the awl is that until you get up to around 3/4ths to 7/8ths of an inch, you can just go through all the layers at once. Maybe more or less, depending on the awl size. And when more than that is needed, it's pretty easy to start the hole in one side, then flip it around and 'feel' for the hole from the opposite side. It's also pretty dang quiet....except for accidental stabbings.

Last time I used one was about 4 years ago....right before I before I learned about using an awl. An important thing to remember is that all awls are NOT created equal. The 'Awl Set' that has a honkin' big awl blade isn't suitable either. A good awl will have a small and thin (yet very sharp) blade that is not much larger than the needle that will be used to sew with. Here's some good info: http://leatherworker...317 and ESPECIALLY THIS ONE http://leatherworker...blade **post #8** It's a large pic, so click and drag the pic to a new tab. I have the Osborne awl, and just measuring it, it is 2.5mm wide. That puts the Douglas awl at around 2mm and the P.M. awl at somewhere around 1.5. Since I don't have the others in my hand, I resized the screen to make the Osborne holes 2.5mm and then took the measurements of the others. Not really scientific, but good enough for illustrative purposes.

The 'simple' way to do it is lay out the body of the holster mostly as shown in Jim Simmon's holster tutorial http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=19714. Abbreviate the back flap, and before stitching together, fold the flap around the back and use a straight edge to make the angle you want (trim as needed)...then leave enough for the belt flap and stitch it in place. Then cover the stitching with the liner and stitch up the whole shebang.

If you happen to want to 'feel the burn' again, pyrography on leather can be quite stunning....especially if you've got the skill to vary the darkness/deepness of the burn.

Getting into the reasons behind what OLD grumpy Mike said....... The leather fibers are, of course, skin cells/fibers. They're just preserved by the tanning process. In veg-tan leather, wetting it re-activates the colagen, which is essentially 'cellular glue'. When it's activated it lets us reposition the fibers, whether that's through molding or tooling and stamping. When it dries, it holds them in place. Using additional heat helps to 'heat set' them in place, and sealing the leather prevents excess moisture from getting into the leather and undoing all the work. It's important to keep in mind that you can mold TOO closely to the gun, so when you start doing it, make sure you don't over do it.

ahem......a 'period correct' tool caddy for a journeyman leather worker??????

Wha....?????? You didn't tool or dye it????

I think it would be difficult to for leather to be the ONLY source of income unless you were in a full time shop....like Lobo's holster business, or perhaps a saddle shop. Since I'm not an actual business, I don't have any production lines....several 'standard models', but 85-90% of my work is custom orders (including the one I should be working on right now). I have variable times at the work bench, depending on how many orders I have.

Tandy does it because it 1- lowers the price of the kit as 3 cents worth of needles and a dime's worth of thread are all that are required to 'complete' it, and 2- greatly simplifies the kit to appeal to people that have zero experience in leather crafting. Since the clicker dies can have the holes as part of the die, there's no additional cost after the initial set up for the die. It's strictly an economic factor.....and it does sound kind of strange referring to anything Tandy as 'proper'. Now, for lacing, there are other factors. For everything except a running stitch/lace and double/triple loop, the lace will penetrate a hole at least twice. For those, a hole is easier to work with. For the single passes, I think a slot cut with nippers looks a lot better - the lace just disappears into the leather. On corners, even with single pass patterns, you end up going through a few holes multiple times. Lace used on edges is also substantially bigger than thread (usually), so a larger penetration is physically required to keep from crimping the lace. Now, the REASON an awl is preferred over a drilled or punched out hole is that an awl's hole will close up around the thread to keep out dirt, grime, and gunk that can deteriorate the thread. The awl pierces the leather and more or less 'shoves' the leather out of the way....and it'll move back in time to where only a slit marking the width of the awl will be visible. A drilled or punched hole removes the leather from the hole, and while it may close up a bit, it'll never fully close. However....if you find the drilled hole method best for you, I won't tell you it's "wrong". Nor will I even attempt to criticize the 'production' method chosen. We all have our own ways of doing this hobby and that's one of the nice things about it. Leather would get pretty boring if EVERYTHING was Sheridan carved, with 8 spi stitching, and always dark brown. And incidentally, some of us DO lace by making one slot at a time, precisely where we want it. Yep, it takes a while....but anything worth doing always does. As I've gotten older wiser, I've come to appreciate final product quality over how quickly I could make it.

Flip #2 and #3, and you've got it. Also, don't ditch the chisels. They can still be useful for lacing should you want to try that, and they ARE pretty useful for prying open glue cans when you can't find your flat head screwdriver. The point is, you've acquired the tools so hang on to them (just not for making hole for thread).

That theory does have some validity, but fails to address that the basket stamping was effected differently than the border. Typically a border is done with a camouflage tool. While it may be a little bit tighter pattern, it is anything but a uniform compression of the fibers. Also, the leather fibers are themselves much larger than the Fe(C2H3O2)2 molecules. I think the issue is not so much that the fibers are compressed to the point that the Fe(C2H3O2)2 can't penetrate, but that something, perhaps compression or slicking/burnishing, is preventing the WATER molecules from carrying the Fe(C2H3O2)2 to the tannins in the fibers. In my experiences with the 'roon, I've had leather turn brown, light gray, a beautiful shade of 'midnight blue' (I think that was some ZW leather), and a horrendous green that looked like a product of Linda Blair*.....and black of course. Reaction time varies on the acidity of the solution. In batches that still smell strongly of vinegar the reaction was nearly instantaneous - which may be a product of the penetrating ability of the carrier - and in old batches that have almost no smell, it takes up to a minute. I typically brush it on with a 1" nylon brush, but still soak it if needed. Another factor in the shading is the purity of the solution. In batches where I've strained/filtered the 'roon, I've had fewer problems. In my current batch, which is still sitting on the back porch in a 1 gal. pickle jar, getting the rust stirred up on the bottom results in some ugly patches. Speaking of rust, there's some probability that the brown is caused by solubilized (read as "itty bitty and floating in the solution") rust particles sticking to the surface of the leather. When I encounter them (yes, because I was too lazy to filter the brew), I just have to wipe the leather down with a damp rag and apply some 'clean' solution. There is a site (leatherchemists.org) that deals with the uberfun chemistry of all things leather.....but I don't go there because I didn't enjoy chemistry class beyond "hey, watch thi.......". THEY could certainly give an accurate answer if anyone wanted to delve that far into it. Note: The 'Linda Blair green' color was the result of leaving a wool dauber.....specifically the zinc coated dauber handle....sitting in a sealed jar of 'roon. I had set up a mini work area at my friend's store, and left it there for a few weeks. Being acidic, the 'roon ate part of the handle and the zinc reacted with it. If anyone is trying for a color that just screams "left in the barn to mildew"....this is the way to get it.

Initial google-fu searches make it look like it's a clone of a Consew 206. If you can, put a 'hold' on it until some of the sewing machine experts can chime in. If it is a clone of the 206 then it should handle the materials you listed just fine. Most of the clones have a clearance of ~1/2....maybe a little more, maybe a little less, but you should be fine sewing 1/4 inch or so of leather. Don't forget that you need to slow it down. Factory machines set up for high speed (2000+ spi) sound like " NYRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"....and then you've sewn your hand to a strap. Please just take a word of advice on this....you do NOT want to pick even a single stitch out of your hand.