stu925

You're a busy Guy Rohn. The holsters look great, I'm sure your customers will be thrilled. Stu

It's a very nice piece, nice work. I love the maple and walnut combination. Always great when you can use up some of those small pieces for projects isn't it. My wife thinks I'm a hoarder because I keep all the small pieces of wood and leather but she never complains when I use the stuff for one of her projects. Stu

The work is awesome even if it's not to my particular liking. I'm much more of a simple guy, that rig is a bit over the top for me. I can appreciate the work and the number of hours involved in making it though, it's an incredible amount of work. Very nice work. Stu

How do you ensure that it stays in the pocket on the draw? Seems like it would come right out when the gun is drawn. Looks great, might want to consider enclosing the muzzle to keep the pocket lint out. Stu

Your sheath looks great, the dragon is a nice touch. I haven't made one yet but I have a friend I'm restoring an old Schrade hunting knife for. He's had the knife since he was a kid and the blade survived a house fire. Needs a new handle and to be re heat treated. He commented while he was checking out the new handle that he was interested in a forest axe/knife sheath combination so I'll be trying one of those in the near future. I have a small 2 1/2lb Pexto axe head that I'll have to make a handle for and straighten the bit on but I think when it's done I should be a pretty cool set. Hickory on the axe and black walnut on the knife with maybe a saddle tan dye on the leather. Or maybe Ox blood, who knows. That project is going to take a while. Stu

Looks awesome. Sure he'll be thrilled. Stu

You do amazing work. How much time goes into those patches? I presume the purpose of them is to be stitched to a leather bomber jacket? They would look great on an old bomber jacket. Stu

Beautiful work, scabbard is amazing. Good job. Stu

Very nice. Carving looks great. I did the Eagle, Globe and Anchor for the mother of a Marine that killed himself in the throes of PTSD so I know how much work went into that. I thought my hand was going to fall off about 1/2 way through it. Rohn is right it's a bit different design, I like it. Nice work. Stu

I used to use the same stitching method and I always had trouble punching that awl through the leather straight and keeping my stitches consistent. The front always looked good but the back side was a mess. I finally broke down and bought the Craftool diamond chisel set. It comes with one handle and ten chisel heads. Make a huge difference in my stitching which I struggled with badly. Once I bought the chisel set I could relax and concentrate on the rest of the piece and not have to be so focused on getting the stitching right. Belt looks awesome, you should be proud. Stu

I'm a DAP Weldwood user also. I've had zero trouble with it. I let it set up 10-15 minutes and then press the pieces together then thump them with a deadblow hammer. I can tear the pieces apart if I have to but I'm actually tearing the leather not making the glue joint fail. I very rarely have to clamp if I follow that procedure, the glue will hold it all together and I usually star stitching within 15 minutes or so of gluing. The bottom of the can of glue tends to get very thick and snotty, I usually dump it and pick up another can when that happens as I'm usually down to the last 1/2" or so anyway when it happens. Stu

Thank you both for the replies. I gave it try last night and am happy to report it works great. I left the iron kind of high in the plane so it was a bit messy but once I got the iron adjusted right it worked perfectly. The surface is so much more even it almost looks like it came off the cow that way. I took a piece of 9oz down to about 3-4oz using my old Stanley 110. The spoke shave didn't work out so well as it's just so hard to get the iron adjusted. I think the plane would give a better surface than the spoke shave anyway due to the larger sole on the plane. Now I need to pick up another block plane for my wood working. Stu

I don't know if this has been asked before but figured I'd ask the experts here. Up until now I've been doing the small amount of skiving that I do with a Safety Beveler from Tandy. It works but I get a really uneven surface especially on a larger piece. So after kicking this around a bit in my brain I came up with an idea that I thought was pretty clever but have no idea if it will actually work. I was thinking that an old block plane, in my case a Stanley 110, with a razor sharp iron might make a pretty good skiving tool. It would certainly help get a more even surface if it works. Then I started to think about it some more and thought that a spoke shave might work pretty well also, especially on straps. I have a small spoke shave that the adjustment on the iron is a pain in the butt on so I don't use it for wood but I might be able to use it on leather as the iron in it is razor sharp. So what do you guys think, will it work? Does anyone have any experience with this? Have you guys tried it yourselves? I know I could buy better skiving tools but at this point it would be pretty hard for me to justify the cost since I don't do that much of it. Maybe I've lost my mind but I think I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens on some scrap leather. Stu

Looks great, all that tooling must have taken forever. I can't imagine how long that whole thing took to put together. Stu

Looks good, I'm sure Dad is pleased. Stu

Tandy has a couple of different clips, the one you'll want if you do it the same way I did mine is the 1240-24 SPRING BELT/HOLSTER CLIP. Just search the number and it should come right up, the portion of the clip with the screw hole is completely flat and the overall length is a bit shorter than the 1239-24 UNIVERSAL SPRING HOLSTER CLIP which has a hump on the back portion and appears to be the one you used. I used that one on the last holster I did and had to modify it to fit under the stiffener, I wasn't happy about it but it was all I had on hand and it was kind of a rush job. Stu

Looks great, Nice work. Stu

Very nice Rohn. The basketweave looks great and must have been time consuming. Stu

With no stiffener on the IWB it's going to make reholstering a bit difficult and probably require removing the holster to do it. A stiffener will keep the mouth of the holster open on the draw and make reholstering a one handed affair. I incorporated the belt clip into the stiffener so it doesn't move, just make sure you get the right belt clip, some of them aren't quite big enough to accomodate the stiffener and the belt. Here's a picture of what I mean. Hope that helps, Stu

My issue with pocket holsters is they always seem to print through the pocket. I drop a J frame in a pocket holster holster in my pocket and it looks like I've got a .38 in my pocket. That holster looks good and I like the cartridge loops. The rough exterior should help keep it in the pocket on the draw too. Nice work as usual. Stu

This one is a custom job for a guy that bought an IWB holster from me. He told me the other one was uncomfortable while riding a horse and he wanted a holster to wear behind the back while riding. After kicking it around with him for a bit he decided what he wanted was a small IWB holster with a belt clip. He wanted it to ride completely vertical so no cant at all and the kicker is even though he's right handed he wanted a left handed holster so that when holstered the butt of the gun is easily accessible by his right hand. You guys tell me what you think, my favorite part is the stiffener and attachment of the belt clip. Stu

Sheaths look great but the knives are exceptional. The file work is awesome, I've been meaning to give that a try but just can't seem to find the time to even finish a knife right now let alone put the time in for the file work. Nice work. Stu

Man they look good, great work. Don't be surprised when your shooting buddies start asking you to build rigs for them. There must be a way to stop the squeaking but I'm not sure what it is, I have a chest holster I built to wear while hunting that squeaks like that too so I'd be very interested in how to stop that if anyone has any ideas. Stu

I've done a bunch of flashlight holders for guys at work. Always with a foldover flap. I've never done an opentop design like that, how's the retention on it? I'd be concerned about losing the light. Yours Looks very nice. Stu

Can't wait to see the finished rig. As for the "hunting trophies" pics, I see nothing wrong with the picture especially since you harvested it using leatherwork that you created yourself. Maybe it was a bit off topic but really, who cares? I always enjoy seeing what other hunters have harvested so feel free to post all the pictures you want. Stu