MADMAX22

This thread is about 4 years old. Steve has not been on since Jan of this year. May try a PM or something.

When you are done using them and clean them you have to form them before you set them off to dry. Leaving them missformed and dirty will get what you have.

I dont do alot of holsters but ones I do with reinforcements I will burnish the 3 sides or however many there are then stitch it on. The last edge you want to burnish when attached to the holster otherwise you wont get a nice neat edge. It will be a double edge or wont look right.

Thanks Hidepounder, anyone have any ideas where I can improve the tooling aspect of the sling or maybe the coloring. I am open to suggestions on where to improve my work. Personally I can think of a few things like working on the shape of the acorns and the antlers a little.

Good looking stuff all of them. I really like that snap system you have there.

Thanks a bunch guys. All interesting points. This is for my own firearm as I dont sell holsters. Well trade one or two for a thing here and there to buddies at work. I think for my own though Ill have to experiment a little but more then likely will be doing one with the trigger covered.

The cheapest best leather you can get vegtan wise is usually wickett and craig specials. The price you get those sides for you would pay around $6 or more from anyone else. Any place that is not a tanner is going to mark up the price by a certain amount. Depends on who it is could be upward of a dollar a foot if not more. My personal choice for vegtan would probably be herman oak but buying in lots like that is to pricey for me but I still use enough that buying at the prices you find decent hides of HO else where does not justify getting it there. I know that even the special grade wickett and craig will be some darn nice leather and its relatively cheap for the quality you get. Thats just my thoughts on this subject. As far as lining leather and such Ill use springfeild or waterhouse leather. For the harness leather and such Ill use wickett and craig unless I have the cash to go to HO.

I am gonna make a holster for my 1911 GI model and am wondering what the consensus is on weather or not to cover the trigger fully. I have scene many modern holsters that do it both ways and many adaptations of old west holsters for the 1911 that do it both ways. Just wondering if it is based on whether or not you carry with the hammer back or decocked. Is it just a personally preference maybe. Thanks for any input.

Just finished the body for this one. Its a special order for a guy. Hope he likes it. What do you guys think, any pointers appreciated. The pictures are kind of crummy and its also easier to reduce the size on these things sideways since there so long and narrow.

Also try doing the pedal lifters before you do the bar grounders.

Practice as much as possible. A couple of things that may relate that I read once, dont draw what you cant cut, dont cut what you cant tool. Basically lots of times people start to try and work too small when larger is a little easier at first. Then work more into detail and what not. SIze of tools like mentioned are essential as well. Maybe draw a design and tool it on some scrap leather first. Post this in the critique section and see what kind of pointers people give ya. Or post it here.

once I finish Ill post it up. I must admit that doing figure carving is not my specialty.

Found this granite surface plate on craigslist for $125. Thing is huge (24"x36"x4"). Dont know how much it weighs but my buddy and I had to set it on a motorcycle jack then wheel it over and lift it up. Real beast. No bouncing around now,

The basketweave on the one that is entirely done is a tandy stamp, its ok but not as nice as the other two which is a barry king stamp. Those things are nice. Once it is done carved I let it sit overnight to completely dry. If dying two colors I dye the entire thing the lighter color usually. Then I take those foam paint brushes, the ones that are about 1" wide and carefully go along the area I want the darker color. Its relatively easy when you are just doing the outline like that. Just be careful and dont load the brush up too much. It takes a few times to get the color nice and even. Once the dye is thoroughly dry I oil once with neatsfoot. I will finish in two ways. One is my natural finish which I do 90% of my stuff in, I have a wax/neatsfoot mix that is the consistency of soft butter that I rub in all over. Let it dry then do another coat. It helps to have it somewhere warm for this. That should do it but you gotta reapply something like snow seal or whatnot every once in a while. It works pretty good. The other way that I do lighter leathers alot of times is do the above process but only one light coat of the wax stuff, then after its dry and buffed out I apply two very thin coats of neatlac (clearlac nowadays). Gotta rub it in and keep it light so it doesnt get that plastically fee to it. Oh and the padding is 1/8" neoprene (got it at the foam factory), bevel the edges then glue it on with super 77, then cover that with suede.

I tried taking a pic but I dont have the proper lense for that kind of detail. Marlon summed it up though. The diamond laps are quicker and easier but it can be done without those just takes alot longer. Once it is done though it is good to go with occasional stropping on the wheel. Just dont drop the darn things.

It has been a long time but if I remember correctly I used my fine stone on it. Got most of the large lines and defects out of it. Then I took it to my polishing wheel with some of the rouge on it. Gave it a nice polish. Now I just take it to the polishing wheel every once in a while. I think if they were higher quality they wouldnt have this issue but ahh well. I have scene several ceramic bladed folding knives and there edges were polished smooth and they were very sharp. They were all black ceramic though, dont know if that makes much of a difference. I dont have a picture of before but I could try to take a pic of how it looks now to show the smoothness if you want. Im sure most of them new look the same so you could compare if you want.

Bob would be the one to ask if your looking at a cowboy anyways. I know the 4500 has a flatbed attachment that you can get. I have not used it but Ive got it just incase.

Thats a tough one. A good steel blade will work wonderfully if you keep it sharp and sharpen it properly. A good ceramic blade will work wonderfully if you keep it sharp and sharpen it properly. Ceramic blades are not as difficult to get sharp as most think but they are a little tougher to work up then say a steel blade. Ive got a few tandy steel blades (junk IMHO) a few random old blades from a few different places that I have no idea where and they do pretty good Just got a barry king knife and blade, knife is great, blade is so so. Gotta work on it. Ive also got a tandy ceramic blade that I usually use. I did have to sharpen and polish all the lines and roughness out of it, but now it glides thru the leather. Its the easiest blade I have to use right now.

Looks great Tina looks like alot of different talents went into those things. What does your other half use to carve the horns with? That looks like something that would be fun to do occasionaly.

I use weldwood all the time and it works great. However on some leather it seems to soak in really well which doesnt leave enough on the surface I think. Occasionally I will have to add a little more before doing what lobo says, basically put them together then put a weight or something on top and let them sit over night.

Leerwerker is very much correct when doing the background or overall color. That first part of color you put on has to go over the whole thing, if a edge starts to dry which will happen on initial dry leather it will leave a line persay. I dont use the daubers anymore. I use the foam paint brushes. They can hold a pretty good amount of dye and last a while.

I cant comment on most of them but wanna add that since the police have adopted the M&P in alot of instances (great gun, love mine) but if you go with the 40 in both versions I am pretty sure it fits the 9mm as well and maybe the 45 but that one may be thicker.

That turned out very pro looking. Not my first choice with the white thread but it actually doesnt look to bad (personally preference, your craftsmanship is top notch).

Thanks a bunch guys. The slings are something I put together following the input from Dave as mentioned and taking parts and pieces from others designs and this is what I came up with. I refined it a little from the first couple and this is the final version. Granted there are only so many ways to make a rifle sling (or strap since a sling is for the die hards who know really what a rifle sling is as far as a shooting utility and a carrying assistant).