stu925

Looks great and I may borrow a couple ideas from your sheath for the Skinner I made for myself just recently. Your knife is much nicer than mine though and a whole lot more rust resistant since mine's made from an old file. Nice work on both the knife and the sheath. Stu

Figured I'd ask before I try making a template. I have a guy looking for a high rise pancake holster for an S&W 686 with a 4" barrel. This is an L frame gun which is a bit bigger frame than the K frame. If anyone has one they'd be willing to share I'd appreciate it. I can make a pattern for it but it'll take some time and I figured why reinvent the wheel if I don't have to. Thanks in advance, Stu

Looks great beautiful work Dwight. Stu

Looks great so far, can't wait to see the finished product. Stu

I definitely like the ox blood with black better. I like the contrast better. The ox blood looks nice on it's own but with the black looks a lot nicer to my eye. Stu

Love the holster but the green definitely is not for me. I'm more of a light brown guy when it comes to holsters. Great job on the holster and I really like that Basket weave pattern, pretty cool. Stu

I like both of them a lot. I presume you made the knife also? Sambar stag on the handle or maybe elk antler or maybe something else entirely? Beautiful work on both. Stu

Man you've been busy. Beautiful work, I especially like the rifle slings. That's what the well dressed deer rifle is wearing this year. Stu

Wow, that looks great, some day I hope my carvings come out that well. I'm still at like the stick figure level. Stu

Looks great. That holster looks like the gun rides perfectly vertical (no cant) which is unusual. That may be an optical illusion but if it is the case it seems to me that the gun may print more through the cover garment. Stu

I've gotten a few jobs from the internet forums I belong to and that seems to be going pretty well. Have 2 I'm working on right now as a matter of fact. I've also gotten some contract work from the guys at work, working on a belt slide holster for a 1911 right now also. Generally I let the work find me since I'm doing it more for the experience than for anything else. Stu

Your stitching pony is very similar to the one I built. I agree about the clearance issues, I have a couple sets of holes in mine, one up high for smaller pieces and one set down lower for larger pieces. I used 3/8" all thread and a couple of stainless nuts on mine I keep a set of wrenches in my leatherworking box for tightening those nuts. It's a little more work that way but I can control the tension on the piece better. Thread tangling only seems to be an issue if I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing. Stu

Usually if I'm working I just put iTunes on shuffle and let her rip. I can listen to almost anything but I tend to listen to more classic rock, metal and punk than anything else. Favorite bands Doors, Led Zeppelin, Ramones, Misfits, Alice Cooper, Angry Samoans, Black Flag, early AC/DC, Blue Oyster Cult, Credence, Iron Maiden, older Metallica, etc. Stu

My wife would tell you that I collect hobbies. Actually my real collections are knives and guns. Other stuff I collect strictly because they are useful to me, blacksmithing equipment for making knives, reloading & casting equipment so I can load my own ammo, you get the idea I'm sure. My problem is there's not enough room in my house and workshop for all my stuff. Stu

The detachable flashlight holder is very clever, good thinking. I think the piece looks great, nice work. Stu

I think the stitching looks pretty good especially considering what you had to work with. I used to use a diamond haft all and poke each hole one at a time then I bought the diamond chisel set from tandy and it's made a huge difference in my stitching. Overall I think the quiver turned out very nice, good work. -Stu

Very nice, I did a holster for a Ruger Blackhawk as one of my first projects. I used a really thick welt and punched one hole at a time with a diamond awl. Stitching looked ok from the front but the back side was damn ugly. Holster is still usable but I need to do another nicer one one of these days. Punching those holes through that welt I found it almost impossible to keep the awl straight, I know there's a few people that use a drill press for this, I may give that a go on the next one. Stu

Looks great, I really like those full sheaths as opposed to just a mask to cover the edge. I need to make one for my camp axe like that one of these days just need to get through the rest of my work first. Stu

Looks great, I like the look of a friction fits sheath but I'd be paranoid about it all the time. I'd keep reaching around to make sure it was still there even though I know it would never come out. Nice work, Stu

Some very nice stuff there, you should be proud. I'd love to be able to tool leather like that, I'm still in the practice stages yet. Maybe some day. Stu

Halitech, thanks for the tips, they will come in handy. I'll definitely be checking out that vinegaroon, sounds like it might be just the ticket for me. I guess I never looked into the edge paint enough, I didn't know they made it in a clear, have to check that out also. Thanks again, Stu

Looks good, I would never have considered doing a watch strap but I may have to give it a try. Not sure I can pull off that fine stitching though with my big mitts and no machine. Stu

I'll have to check out the Vinegaroon, that sounds like it would be a better option for the insides of projects. I've only been dying my edges and burnishing with Gum Trag, I have yet to try any of the paint type products. I've been kind of wondering if it would make much of a difference and if the color will match with some of the brown that I've been using. I haven't gotten into any other colors yet, just black and light brown oil dyes. I did try the USMC black from feibings and found that really rubs off for a while, the oil dye seems much better. Stu

Thank you, I hope she's happy with it too. I guess I forgot to give details in the OP. The leather is el cheapo 7-8oz double shoulder from Tandy, dye is Feibings Oil black and it's finished with eco-flo satin shene outside and tan-kote inside. I'm trying to seal the dye so it doesn't come off on what's in the case an issue I had with some other projects. I doubt the stainless cuffs would be affected by the dye but the Tan-Kote is a test run for other projects. It also helped stiffen the case a bit, especially the flap. Stu

One of the girls at work asked me to make her a handcuff case so I set to work on it and when it was finished I decided I didn't like the way it had come out. I decided to scrap the first one and start over so I went with a new design for this one and I think it came out pretty well. The only thing that bothers me is there's a cut on the inside of the case flap which I didn't think was so bad until I got it glued together. In any event I used a piece of scrap lumber to mold the leather and used a foodsaver to vacuum mold the wet leather. I had some work to do after molding to get the crosshatch pattern of the bag out of the leather but it came out easy enough. Cuffs fit well in the case and do not rattle when the case is shaken. Here it is: Stu