MADMAX22

Thanks a bunch RDB, one question, what do you mean square up the keepers? You talking about forming the keeper a little so its not so roundish sticking out from the belt. If thats so I think in time it will do that on its own, its actually pretty tight once the belt is fed thru it and lays flat. I do need to make some of those bars that people use to form them though, that will be my next project once I move and setup shop. This leather doesnt wet form all that well though, I have only played with it a little. Its vegtan primarily but its also oiled and waxed so it repels water pretty good. Ive gotta try soaking a piece and then see what I can do with it. Not sure if it will hold a shape very well though but would be killer if it would. More experiments to do lol.

So is that what happened to the rest of the litter...... lol Those look really nice, very well done. Ive gotta try those inserts one of these days. They always look really good.

Thanks a bunch guys, Yeah this is some cool leather, something different to play with. ABN its funny but now these belts are the easier ones to stitch since they are just straight lines, took me about 3 episodes of legend of the seeker.

I use to ride when I was younger from about age 5 to 20, that was about 13 yrs ago but I did alot of trail riding, some showing when I was younger but mostly trail. Also when I say trail I mean up some really rough stuff that you were hanging on for dear life. All of this was done on slick seat western style saddles or bare back (usually with a pad). I suffered the slick back saddle problem once and that was my first time on a well trained cutting horse, she was a very strong beast and I didnt understand leg pressure guiding a cutting horse and was use to trail riding, needless to say I squeezed one leg to much the horse went that direction and I stayed put. After picking myself up off the ground and my parents laughing there butts off I realized really quickly how to guide that horse lol. Never had a issue after that though. Guess what I am saying is I think the people that ride with that type saddle need to learn how to ride with it. If you are decent riding with them then you dont have a problem. If you cant then you need to request a different type of leather on the seat. Personally I couldnt imagine riding with any other type but thats just me. I tried the suede covered seats and didnt like them, I couldnt slide around when I wanted to very easily which wasnt a good thing when you were ducking trees and trying to hang on during various other issues. Oh and wanted to add, you make some amazing saddles. Would of loved to of had one of those when I was younger. Sorry if I didnt really answer your question but figured I would throw my little nugget of experience out there.

Made myself a new belt with that crazy horse leather that waterhouse has on sale. It sounded like some cool stuff so had to get one to play with. I really like it. It has a really nice slight pull-up effect but overall feels similar to vegtan (which it is primarily). I can see doing alot of different things with this stuff, some bags would look killer I think. Anyways this is about 8oz on top and lined with 7oz HO. Hand stitched, I dyed the thread with cordovan which comes out very close to the top leather color. Waxed and sealed the inside and edges. Not sure what to use to seal the outside with but it is naturally pretty water proof. I did add a little more wax and oil to it but not much. The edges arent the best, I didnt get them cut perfectly before doing the edging work and it shows. Dyed the edges with cordovan also. Also I dont have a light box or anything for photos so bear with me.

Very nice and simple. Gotta love vinegaroon.

Well guys I must say if you can get one of these brown head mauls. I noticed right off the get go that this material was very very nice to pound with. Ive tried a few others, Ive got Ed's older style white maul and now a set of these and must say the brown is definitely where its at. It is a little hard to describe but this material doesnt want to bounce or ricochet, it is very easy to get nice smooth tooling (well barring my tooling ability lol). I also must say that the pictures barely do the set with the ivory inlays justice, they are amazing in person.

I dont have a pattern besides the physical one I made for my trifold but wanna say Kevin has a couple of good how tos. One is in the how do I do that section at the top, the other is in the wallet and pocket section at the top also. When you make the insert portion for a bi or tri wallet you have to make the insert roughly about half an inch smaller in length then the outer portion. Then when you stitch or braid it together you have to leave a small portion in the center (the two fold lines on trifold) with a small half circle or something cut into it and you dont sew or braid this portion. When you sew or braid you attach the inside portion to both edges of the outer material first then work your way in. This causes the outside to kind of pull in around the liner. When you open the wallet it will pull open the money compartment and will prevent the inside from bunching when you fold it in. Also when you first make it you gotta work it all into position and leave it tied up like that or preferably left under some weight for a while. It takes a little bit of time to break in. This allows you to have less material on the inside and it wont bunch up to badly. Here is a pic of one I made a little while back showing what I am talking about. Hope it helps.

They look great. If you are too afraid to do the boning sometimes just some hard work with your fingers gets very nice mellow results. It does take a while to get good at it though atleast for me. On the 26 does it hold the gun well enough being that low on it. I have not made one that low and was wondering how well it holds when your wearing it. One other thing, how do you like machphersons, I was thinking of one of these days taking the ferry over there to check it out but have not been able to find the time.

That turned out excellent. Great job Tim.

I would highly recommend getting the full courses from his site as you linked. I bought the figure carving one and his two victorian style carving ones and love them. They are pretty in depth and advanced but start from scratch and give very good instruction in a step by step method that makes it very easy to follow. You wont be disappointed if you get them, IMHO they are money well spent. Honestly I personally could not find anything wrong with them. I printed them out and have them available to study before I start future projects.

Yeah I have a similer problem (no baby though). Since my schedule is allways up in the air I tool when I get time which doesnt allow me to really case as well as I should. I know alot of the guys like to let it sit for 24 hrs under a piece of glass but that is totally out of the question for me personally (maybe when I get out of the military) so I try to figure out what I am going to tool ahead of time if I can. Ill wet the leather pretty good a couple of hours before I tool the project. I try and give it atleast an hour to three. Check up on it and when it starts looking natural again but is still cool to the touch this is a good spot to start or if you need to hold for a while slightly wet it some more and come back later when the little one is asleep. One of my worst problems though is once I get the leather cut and I have the pattern to tool I get all ancy and want to start tooling right away. Get that little motivated streak and its hard to slow it down lol.

Those turned out pretty nice. That welting looks really good. I had to do the same thing on my motorcycle seat sponging on the vine. It turned out pretty good, I got a more solid black at first but as it wears out there are some browns showing thru in spots, gives it a really cool look. I think one of these days I will have to play with it some more.

Angelus dye in my experience so far seems to come off less however the black still takes a while to buff till it doesnt come off anymore. The black isnt as nice as the USMC black but if you do as mentioned and dye a brown first then black it comes out alot nicer. I usualy try to use vinegaroon for things like belts and holsters that I want to be black. It wont bleed but is a little more difficult to work with if you are carving and such but can still be done. Thats just my limited experience. I know a couple have used bickmores mixed with black dye and then did a dye, bickmores mix, then a strong buffing and it is suppose to work pretty good but I never played with this very much.

I remember a while back there was someone who built one so that the clamps could be rotated around. It would take some searching to dig it up but should be in the forums here somewhere.

Yeah bummer, just got that email. Atleast he was able to spend some time with him recently if I remember correctly before he passed away.

Try and get a single or double shoulder from them. I am pretty sure they sell them. That is what I would start off with if all your doing is holsters since you can use most if not all of the shoulders for holsters.

Looks great. Another thing to remember is that they will have to brake in a bit. Be sure to post your next pair that you make.

I would ask Lobo, he hangs out in the holster section primarily and I think he dip dyes all his holsters. Would be the first person I ask.

Thanks for all the compliments guys.

Turned out great. That thing is gonna look like the whooly mammoth of motorcycles

Thanks Josh and Bill. Bill the body is roughly 5oz and it is lined with some of that nicer pig skinning lining leather (the smooth subtle stuff),

Thanks guys, Charlie the rivet is primarily for show but when using it if you squeeze the case a tad to open it up right there in the corner where the stitching starts joining the two pieces is where it stresses at so I figured it couldn't hurt to have a little reinforcement.