Surveyor

Karl, Would you be so kind as to post a photo of the fastener?

Several members of Cub Scout Pack 577 attended the little country church down the road yesterday. They posted the colors and lead the congregation in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Salute to the Flag of Mississippi. After services, they placed flags on the graves of 57 veterans who have reached their final resting place. To say the least, I am quite proud of my boys.

That's funny, I don't care who you are.

I take a long straight edge to make the initial cut. Once I have the first edge to go by, then it's a matter of taking the strap cutter and making a strap of the desired width. Not rocket science, but you do have to pay attention to what you are doing. Once you've done a few, it gets fairly easy.

that works out to about 3-4 leather

Nice, real nice.

He should be proud of that belt. Nice work!

How many stitches per inch on the sewing? I want to try my hand at this at some point in the future.

What, no dee rings?...oops, wrong forum. Nice work.

Looks like you did a good job repairing the bag.

+1 on a job well done. Just keep at it and keep posting photos.

First, that's a good looking holster you made; and the "client" liking it is even better. I've not had the problem you described with a overstitch wheel and the groover, so I haven't any advice on that situation. The color looks pretty good to me. I believe an extra light coat of dye may have helped. I have some oxblood that I will be playing with on the matching pair of holsters I am planning for my soon to be four year old cowboy.

Thanks for the compliment. I understand completely about protecting the kids. I've got four running around the house myself.

I tried a couple of new things today. First was to apply snake skin, and secondly to use the two-tone lacing. The hide had a very pretty contrasting tan and brown coloration, so I decided to use this for the basis of the project. This was my first time to lace with two colors. I used the contrasting colors in the two pockets and lining.

Nice indeed. Go back with a "false stitch" in the remaining holes and that will be cleared up rather handily.

Tandy sells a book titled Basic Leathercraft. This gives a rudimentary discussion of the types of leather; bellies, shoulders, etc. as well as the basics of tooling leather. This book is usually included in the kits Tandy sells, but would be a good investment on its own for your reading. I've been told Bianchi has a DVD on holster making although I haven't seen it. You can look at simplyrugged.com. The owner, Rob Leahy, specializes in pancake holsters and has some good photography as well. This may give you some ideas.

Unfortunately, about the same direction as it's going in the states. Mississippi lost its only Tandy Store about 18 years ago. I've recently noticed that one of the few hobby stores to carry any leatherwork items has reduced its inventory. My father took leatherworking in his shop classes in high school, but by the time I went through it was no longer taught. All is not lost though; one young man with the SCA ran a leatherworking exhibit at this year's CelticFest. My Cub Scouts always enjoy the leatherwork we do and several of the Boy Scouts in the troop I am Committee Chairman have earned their Leatherworking Merit Badges. I was told last night at the troop meeting our upcoming Akela Cub campout will have a station where the boys make leather neckerchef slides. And like you said, we are very lucky to have LW.net as a gathering place. Anyway, I didn't mean to hijack your thread; and goodluck at the Royal Show.

Both the wallet and cover look nice. Personally, I would have stitched across the entire top and bottom to not have an abrupt stop, but that's just me. Did you remove the elastic band on the Moleskine?. I've use the pocket size for several years now and really like them. Keep up the good work.

Welcome aboard also. Yes, there are good books at Tandy, even a kit on hand sewing. There is also a book on holster making and it goes into some depth on making patterns, although not pancake or slide types. This particular book also goes into detail on leather weights, linings, stitching, etc. You may want to invest in a Pancake holster to use as a pattern. Start with your favorite handgun and reverse engineering would give you a starting point for patterns for other handguns. Don't get frustrated, as said before, we've all had mistakes to learn from on different projects.

Some nice work indeed! Yes, you should go up on your prices; $225 for border stamping at the most. That B/W you did was a lot of good work. He got something hand made that will last a long time with proper care, not an article mass produced in China.

It may not be the mask you intended to make, but it's some fine work none the less.

I see parents with what amounts to a harness and lead on their toddlers. This is a great idea as far as I'm concerned. Yes, all babies go through that "the world must be tasted" phase. Some stay there longer than others.

Jordan, May just be me, but couldn't you add a welt to the top of the holster and make it fit the revolver? Just a thought; that's a nice looking holster you made.

Hello Kain, Welcome to the board. As already suggested, a small prepackaged kit would be a good way for you to get started. These kits have the basic leatherwork manual which will explain the uses of the various tools and stamps included in the kit. A swivel knife is used to cut out your design for tooling as well as making decorative cuts on the leather. Don't be sorry for your excitement; no point in doing something you don't enjoy.

To answer the question you have asked several times; babies put anything in their mouths they can. So the mocs could very easily wind up being gummed, especially if rattles were attached to draw attention to them. I would leave the mocs as footwear and not toys. I have six, so this comes from some hands-on experience.