Drac

take a look at http://www.crossbreedholsters.com/ to get a good idea for tuckable holsters

glad ya found it useful and thanks for the work praise! one of the good things about this way is that each section doesn't take that long to do, so you can do a part, come back later, do another bit and before ya know it's finished.

I couldn't reply there, so I'll do it here. very snazzy and innovative, btw! wooden stool leg, high heeled shoe, air nozzle, castle chess piece, lamp pull chain weight

welcome aboard! you'll get plenty of good info from all the nice peeps on this site. there's a tandy right outside the 285 loop on lawrenceville highway for the atlanta area, so it's actually not too terribly far from ya.

hopefully your tandy issues didn't happen at the one in atlanta. every time I go into that one, everyone that works there is super friendly and helpful not only to me, but to everyone that comes in while I'm there. yeah, the vegtan and suede hide quality at tandy is hit or miss these days, but the service (since jimmy was put in as manager at the atlanta location) has always been really great.

I've seen plenty of suede lined holsters from the some of the big boys (bianchi and galco), and suede is chrome tanned. *shrug*

I did my take on one of those last week and don't have the problem with the slide not pulling in close. I'm very skinny and did the holster for an FN FiveseveN. what I did differently was have the belt loop that's directly behind the holster not attached to the throat, keep it that loop very tight (my belt just barely fits through it) and have a sharper angle to the cant. I also used 9-10oz (partially coz that's what I had at the time) leather on mine and tend to stitch all the way around the rear belt hole. btw your stitching and molding look great!

andyl1 heh, that was me. have 2 or 3 that I use, plus a debris guard for gutters!

dcknives oh, it's not that I get that much sleep all the time, just that I feel lucky when I do get that much.

make adult leather goodies during the day, night manager at an adult video store 5 nights a week, armed uniformed security the other 2 nights. all that and I still don't make enough. anybody got a way to add more time to a day? I'm already lucky if I get 6 hours sleep.

I've ordered from them for the last 3 or so years and had nothing but great service and product from them. their inventory does change on a semi-regular basis so you'll always see something new on the site. as far as how soft is mellow, I don't know how to explain it or what you'll be making, so I can't really comment on that bit.

toothpaste. seriously! and a soft toothbrush. baking soda and water paste works too.

double cap rivets are also stronger than rapid rivets. I don't use a dished anvil when I set mine though, since they have a nasty habit of leaving an impression in the leather and no one's ever complained about the one side being flat. you could just flatten the cap after setting too if you're worried about absolute symmetry. I do of course use a dished setter.

unless they're shoved in the end of a sawed off!

I'm far from an expert, but I use an airbrush for dying and I couldn't go back to the old way. I gotta recommend using a dual action one too so you can control the flow. there's actually one trigger with a dual action, at least on the one's I've seen and used. pushing down on it controls the air flow and pulling back on it controls the amount of paint or dye. as far as what brand, I've only used an old badger one, although I have a nice (looking, anyway) set that I haven't had a chance to set up yet. there'll be several others here that can help out a lot more than me with this.

noyce! but one phrase kept popping into me head... "my cups runneth over." LOL

welcome, and wondering where parks is too. originally from the bernice/ruston/bossier/shreveport section meself.

powder horn fron india or similar area. my grandfather has a couple that are very similar including the design work, except his are metal. he even has the flintlocks to go along with them.

I'm no expert at tooling, but other than the border in a couple of spots, looks like ya did everything right to me!

easiest thing I can think of would be to use something like the program paint.net and turn into a line drawing. that's what I do when I do carving from a photo.

casing leather with a steamer? that idea just popped into me head and since I don't have one, was wondering if anyone else had tried it. I don't think the steam setting on an iron would work, but that might be worth a try too. I mean one of those powered hand held steamers. anybody have one and wanna give it a try and post about it here? or do the old pros at tooling and carving think there'd be a problem with it? too much heat maybe?

glad to have you aboard then! this is a great, friendly site for learning about pretty much everything leather related. good luck with the store venture too! you'll get over the swivel knife fear, I promise. it took me 13 years of leatherworking professionally with me usual goodies before I tried tooling and molding. thanks to this site, I gained the confidence to add a new addiction, um... I mean aspect of leatherworking. *L* to get into the adult section just send johanna a message about it. looking forward to seeing your work, since we all looove pics around here! if there's a tandy near you, check and see if they have classes. most, if not all, do have little classes that you can take on things like tooling, lacing etc. and of course, if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask here. someone will be able to answer it. it may take a day or 2 sometimes, but somebody will get to it.

flyingcuda well, hmmm... trying to figure out how to answer that in a family friendly section! *L* actually, that should kinda answer it right there.

I remember someone was looking for this pattern and I can't find the original thread. anyway, I found one and here's the link. you can download a copy free. http://www.directron.com/mudflappaint.html

it was quite soft and I thought about making other goodies, but stuck with the goodies I usually make and used several hides. you should also check out buffalo hides.