MADMAX22

Looks ok. Did you clean the finished product before dying it? Clean it with some alcohol or some deglazer, let that dry then dye it. Also when you finish and buff it out then apply your oil, and then your finish coat this will alter the way the dye job looks a small bit. Doing the whole process will give ya a better idea of what the overall finished holster will look like.

Thinking about it. Is this the 21 thru 23 of may correct. May have to take some leave and go on a road trip. If I bring my scoot I wont be tempted to blow all my money lol.

Well the few that I have made I usually try to do the liner in natural vegtan. This prevents the inside from bleeding any dye onto the cloths or person. This leaves only the edges that can bleed over. The way I do my edges is dye, get some soap, then wax and burnish by hand. Once this is done I will run over it again with a little more wax and burnish again. I have used atom wax and then I really like sno-seal. I will do a coat and let it sit overnight then do another coat. This seems to work pretty well and I have not had any bleed off on the belt I wear everyday. Neatlac if you can find it or the new version (forgot what it is called) works very well for sealing up leather.

With the sample pack you will probably be mostly looking at doing inlays of some kind. Look up Dave's post (DCKNIVES) and look at all his work. He does mostly inlays. There are some others that do the same. I wanna say you probably wont get anything big enough to do full covers, the inlays wont require as much leather. Ive only done a few inlays here they are, old work though as Ive learned alot from this forum since I did these.

Very good job, looks like a two in one good idea. Excellent work with the tooling.

Rocky you do some amazing sheaths. Ive been looking at all your pics you uploaded and thanks for doing so. They are a inspiration of what one should strive for IMHO. I do not know if you have the time to do so but if you should have you considered doing a tutorial on sheath making. I understand everyone is different however any knowledge you feel like spreading around would be very much appreciated by many I am sure.

Gotta through a little advertising for Ed the bearman up here as well. Ive got two of his mauls (a set) and love them. He is reasonably priced, actually very reasonable for custom handmade stuff and he can work with you to get a maul that is setup just for you. Definatly worth pming him about.

Make sure your awl is sharp. When you sew it youll end up basically going around the beads. They are pretty much impossible to go thru. Its not to bad though.

Nicely done, looks like the horse hide takes to the vinegaroon pretty good.

That turned out really good. You gonna update with pics when all garbed up.

Yep if your not throwing your brushes away after every use it makes life so much easier to get a good quality set. I think your cat has claimed the seat for itself lol.

I think it looks pretty good, nice even stamping and stitching looks excellent. Well done.

Thanks for the input guys and gals, now I got something to work with when I start my projects.

Those are cool seats. That second one has a really kickass subtle feel to it.

Thats some good ideas, thanks Dave. Allways a great help. I think Ill talk to him today and see what he may like.

Hey guys another question, Ive got a request from a friend who wants knife sheath made and he wants it to be basically on his back parallel to the belt. The sheath needs to run along the line of the belt in the small of his back. Has anyone done this and what is the best approach to doing this as far as the belt loops (clips) are concerned? I think I have scene a few where the belt loop runs around the sheath and buttons on the outside. Sounds like a sound method but not sure if this has proven to be the best method out there or if there are others that work better. Thanks for advice/input. Third picture down in this link is what I have scene so far. http://www.kynd.com/~graydg/leather-sheaths.html

Hey guys after my short hiatus of no leather working Ive gotten a few upcoming jobs that involve covering some flasks (now that I have the spare time to do it). What are the basic steps to covering the average flask? I assume its wet formed around the flask, then stitched in the back or laced per preference. Am I correct in this order? Also do you guys glue the leather to the flask or does the wetforming and stitching/lacing hold the leather onto the flask well enough to keep it from slipping off after a while? Thanks for your input.

Not sure where to get dummy guns as the only holsters Ive made have had the actual gun. OK when using the real gun make sure it is unloaded first thing. Obviously right, pretty much make sure there is no ammo in the area at all and double check before you get to the next step. I then wrap the gun in saran wrap or similer. This will protect the gun from any moisture or anything else in the area. Also this will keep any gun oil from getting on a unfinished holster. Let the customer do that lol. Then proceed as normal. Ive done this on about 3 or 4 holsters and it worked out great each time. One other thing, if you are using a press of any kind make sure to put a empty clip (mag) in the gun to ensure structural integrity of the grip area. Dont know if this is necessary but Ive heard its a good precaution.

Thats freakin cool Tom. Great job.

Hey we all started there and I think thats one of the biggest questions for beginners is how to condition, dye, and seal. Even very experienced people have trials and stuff to figure out better ways to do it. What I would do is try and cut some scraps from your piece say from the edges where you know you cant really use it. Then experiment with it. Try giving it some conditioner or a decent oil, let that soak in over night. Then try dying it, let that dry up then buff it out. After that you can seal it if you want with something like tan coat or similer. I like using sno-seal and it works pretty good. Another thing is you can dye it, buff it out, then oil/condition it, then seal it with whatever. Biggest thing in my experience is let it sit between steps for a good afternoon or day before proceeding to the next step.

No expert with horse butts lol but I think horse is a tighter grained leather then cowhide and is a little tougher to dye. Basically you wont get the same results you are use to. The dye has a harder time penetrating the leather. You may try looking around in the holster section as some of those guys use horse hide for holsters and there was a similer thread on dying it. Also as mentioned before when you dye it after wards you may need to buff it out really well before you condition it. Maybe apply a second coat after you buff the leather really well.

Excellent job, that bike and seat look very good together.

Nicely done. I must say those stitched in sight rails are a really cool idea.

Pretty cool little tool. I know some people use the a similer idea with a short blank with bees wax at the end. Then the awl pierces the wax and helps the awl do its thing.

Thanks Ed thats a cool idea. Thanks for the references also Hidepounder. Ill have to look into that. Ive kind of put my leatherworking on hold for a bit (hence why I havnt been on lately) along with most other things as well. Im working on trying to buy a house right now and been saving the pennies to make sure everything is paid off and looks as squared away as possible before the final approvals. It will be worth it though as I should have a garage to setup shop in once it goes thru which will be a dream come true. Been living in darn apartments for too many years now.