GaryNunn

Just venting over bad customer behavior.... I love making things out of leather, but the longer I do this, the more I HATE dealing with idiot customers. Maybe 99 out of 100 customers are nice and polite, but that one sure does make up for the rest. Just finished (I hope) dealing with one of those idiots on Ebay. he bought a holster and in the purchase note/instructions he told me that I was to leave him feedback immediately and he would "consider" leaving me feedback once he received the item. I didn't think anything about it, I leave feedback once every few weeks when i have time. On the day he received his holster, he sent me this scathing message literally yelling and demanding that I leave him feedback. I replied that I would when I get around to it. Two minutes later, he leaves a negative feedback stating that I didn't leave him feedback. I called Ebay and of course they removed his comment, so the guy messages me again because he's mad that Ebay removed his negative feedback. He's a COMPLETE pompous ass, so I told him that I blocked him from ever purchasing from me gain and that I wasn't going to leave feedback for him under ANY circumstances. Today, I get an "official" message from Ebay telling me that a message I had sent another Ebay member was reported for inappropriate and "threatening" content. Of course it was the message I sent the idiot. He felt that my blocking him from purchasing from me again was "threatening" to him. This made me say just about every curse word I know, in the same sentence. Ebay's "official" conclusion was: "We're taking a neutral position regarding the report we received, but if we continue to receive similar reports, we'll have to investigate." There needs to be a blacklist so we can all block idiots like this. -->end of rant....

Can anyone point me to a source for copper colored thread #276 or #344 or thereabouts? I'm **NOT** looking for actual metallic copper thread, just copper COLORED nylon or polyester. I've found some much thinner copper colored threads, but nothing suitable for using with leather. And yes, i already searched the forums. Thanks. Gary

I actually did do a search before posting this.

Is there an actual name for this type of clip and where can I find them? I see plenty of people offering products with them on Etsy, so I'm guessing they're available somewhere. Gary

I've been buying hides from my local Tandy, they were 8 oz, black, and had what they were calling a "tactical finish" on one side because of the texture. The finished side almost felt like a plastic coating. It's black, or more accurately gray on the inside. I can't really get a picture of the texture other than what's below. Tandy just recently stopped selling it. It was never in the catalog or website. I've seen a couple of sellers on Ebay with the same type of texture, but neither one woudl tell me where they were buying the leather. I have a Tandy stock number (9052-24), but nothing come up when searching for that in Google. Any suggestions on where I might find more woudl be appreciated.

I just found this out, apparently Ebay no longer allows sellers to leave negative feedback for buyers. Only buyers can leave sellers negative feedback. That is a gold plated crock of s**t.

--> Beginning of rant. I'm putting this out here in hopes that it will help another seller avoid the stupid mistake I made trying to accommodate a buyers request on Ebay. I'm still on the fence about if this is some sort of scam, or maybe this guy's wife just got angry he spent so much money. Long story short ...A buyer contacted me asking for 5 of my leather holsters to be heavily customized. I agreed with the caveat that since they're customized, they would not be returnable. He acknowledged that he understood they were not returnable. He pays, I fabricate, customize and ship the first 4 holsters, he receives them, leaves positive feedback, orders the 5th holster based on the first 4, then 1 hour after he receives the 5th holster in the mail, puts in a return request for both orders, with the reason "I changed my mind". I replied and told him that I wouldn’t accept the returns. He opened cases with Ebay, who of course immediately found in his favor and accepted the returns on my behalf. I contacted customer service, she read the cases and messages where he agreed to no returns. The moment she pointed out that the return policy on the item itself said "30 day returns", I knew I had lost. Now I get to toss out $300+ of custom leather holsters, that I likely can't resell to anyone else. Here's the lesson learned: Even if the buyer agrees to no returns, if the item return policy indicates it can be returned, you're stuck, and have to accept the returns, even if the buyer agreed in writing not to return the item(s). That individual item return policy has to be set to "No Returns" for Ebay to honor that. The customer service lady was actually very sympathetic, she suggested once I get the returned items, that I inspect them thoroughly to make sure they're in the same new condition that I shipped them and suggested that if they're not, I open cases. But I suspect even if they're damaged and I open cases, that Ebay won't do anything about it. I'm guessing that even if Ebay had agreed and not made me accept the return, he would have likely opened a case with PayPal or even charged back his credit card. I've never left negative feedback for buyers, but I might make an exception in this case. I'm waiting to see the returned items before I make a decision on that. Lesson learned: Cost of this lesson: $300 plus shipping. There needs to be blacklist of buyers that try to screw over sellers. --> End of rant.

Where did you find the elephant hide? I would be interested in getting some.

Does anyone know if the Tandy hand presses use dies from other sources or do they only use Tandy dies? I need a 3/8 or 5/16 hole punch. I've talked to the people at the local Tandy store a couple of times, but they have no idea if a 3/8 punch is available that fits this.

I love the brown holster, it's outstanding, is that elephant hide?

I always sew in a 2 ounce round patch over the inside snap to protect the finish of the gun. I've been experimenting with doing a full inner lining so the hardware goes between layers. The oblong patch in this picture strengthens the thumb break but also covers up the steel insert. The second picture of the saddle tan holster is a production Desantis holster. I hate the way their steel reinforcement is on the back of the thumb break, so I cover mine up.

Malabar, I assume you're talking about the bottom two pictures? This gun and holster configuration rides a bit higher than if it had a forward cant (it rides a bit top heavy even with a forward cant, just not as much), and I discovered by accident that if one or both slots were at an angle, it helps overcome the top-heaviness and keeps it vertical MUCH better than completely vertical slots did. Someone explained to me once the physics of why this works better at keeping it vertical, but I don't remember enough to even try an explanation here. I do have holsters with both vertical slots, but the center of gravity is lower on those and they're not as top heavy like this Sig. Double Daddy - I went through probably 15 prototypes to get the contour stitching perfect. Functionally it didn't have to be perfect, but I wanted it perfect. I look at other holsters on Ebay and Etsy with contour stitching that's not even close, and I get a great deal of satisfaction at how close mine is. Most of the molding is on the front, but the back is not completely flat. I try to get as much surface contact, for good retention, as possible. Since i took these pictures, I modified the pattern so the trigger guard was covered more.

I ran across a Desantis holster that had the snaps in a slightly different configuration, so I tried it and it worked out really well. I have a small steel strap that I layer in between the leather and attach the snap to on the back of the thumb break. I'm making another Thumb Break this week, I'll take some better pictures of the snap process.

Those look great, where did you find the Legion concho?

Some "hero" shots of recent holsters for Sig Sauer P238 and a p239's. There are utility/functional holsters, so there's nothing fancy.

I know this has been asked before, but are there any lower profile snaps available? I'm using line 24 snaps. I know the line 20 snaps are smaller, but the post isn't long enough to go through 8/9 leather. I also sew a small piece of 2/3 oz over the inside of the snap to protect the guns finish, and that adds even more to the thickness. I saw on another forum that someone suggested using Velcro. Industrial strength Velcro would likely hold better than a snap, but I'm not sure how I feel about that. Gary

Update: The buyer returned the holster, and it was cracked around every edge possible. The leather had clearly been intentionally bent back and squeezed to the point it cracked. He sent it via Fed Ex, bypassing the Ebay return process, and demanded that I reimburse his cost, that I replace the holster and also send the replacement to him Fed Ex overnight - which would have been more expensive than the holster itself. I refunded his money and sent him a polite message that I couldn't replace the holster and I thought it was in our mutual best interest to simply issue a refund. This guy is PISSED. He's threatening to sue me for time and expenses, as well as leave me negative feedback and file "fraud" complaints with Ebay. I shouldn't have replied, but I reminded him that I also have the ability to leave feedback for him as well, so now he's also threatening to sue me for defamation if I leave him negative feedback. -> Picture me doing an eye roll and double facepalm here. I'm not worried, I'm actually amused. He's blocked from buying again. lesson learned.

Out of the 200+ sales I've had in the last 5 months, I've had ONE single problem customer. He ordered this holster, that CLEARLY said won't ship until 5 days after payment, he emails me via Ebay the next day wanting to know why it hasn't shipped yet, threatening to report me to Ebay. I told him it would be 5 days. As soon as he gets it, he claims it's too tight. I told him to follow the break-in instructions, so the next day he emails me and said that he just "discovered" a small chip in the leather, and it's still too tight. I immediately offered to replace the holster or refund his money. Now, 4 days later, he emails me another picture and says that the leather "developed" cracks and the piece is about to fall off the holster. I tried to duplicate the damage on a scrap piece in my shop, and I had to SERIOUSLY abuse the leather just to get surface cracks, there was no way i could crack it all the way through... not to mention the fact that it's 8-9 oz leather. It also looks like the finish has been seriously dulled, I'm wondering what else he did to it. So now he's demanding that I replace the holster with one that fits and pay for his shipping expenses, with hints that he might expect me to pay for his "lost time" if I don't do a timely replacement. That's an $80 holster he's destroyed. I emailed Ebay and asked for guidance. One thing for sure, this guy is getting blocked from ANY future purchases.

Howard, Tanks for the compliments! It's a small piece of Kodiak oiled leather (pre-dyed) from Tandy's scrap bin. It's all beat up, and was perfect. Since it's oiled leather, it didn't want to wet form as easily as standard veg tan. I glued the Kodiak to a piece of 4/5 ounce veg-tan and used 8/9 veg-tan on the back. I cut it from the pattern, and wet formed it. I usually only have to soak my holsters for a minute or two before wet forming, but this one had to be soaked almost 10 minutes. I was afraid the veg-tan would end up being mush, but it was fine after it dried. When I form my holsters, I insert the blue gun and press them between thick foam sheets. usually I press for about 2 minutes, but this one had to be pressed almost 15 minutes until it kept the shape. Once dried, I smoothed the edges of the veg-tan, but intentionally left the Kodiak a little frayed to get the old worn look. I didn't use any oil or finish on the Kodiak, The Kodiak tends to look distressed when pulled over edges, but after it dried, I used the flat edge of a steel ruler to scrape wear marks in strategic locations, and then smoothed it over with my thumbs until I got the look I wanted. The awesome thing about this leather is that if I didn't like the distressed area, I simply smoothed it back over with my thumb and started over, it's almost self healing. On the veg-tan parts, I used standard water based dark brown dye on the edges and a lighter brown on the back. I made the pattern myself. Gary

A recent project for someone that wanted the "old bomber jacket" or "Indiana Jones" look.

Thank you for pointing me to J.R.M Products. I saw their website but passed it by because it said minimum order of 1000. I just spoke to MaryAnn, and they're happy to sell me 100 at $ 0.15 apiece, I can't even get close to that price anywhere else. Thanks again! Gary

I actually looked at them and their website says 1000 minimum order.

I did a couple of searches in the forums but couldn't find anything current. I 'm trying to find metal thumb break stiffeners. The Blue Gun Store has them for about $1.00 each, unless I buy a large number, and several other sources are selling them with a minimum order of 1000... which is a bit of overkill. Anyone have a good source for less than $1.00 each?

Bob you were absolutely right. I'm almost embarrassed to admit what was wrong.... Somehow, last night, I missed threading the take-up lever and didn't catch that the entire time I was troubleshooting. In my defense though, I was up almost 24 hours at that point, and I was exhausted to the point I was afraid I was going to sew my finger to something. . Thanks for the assistance! Gary

Sorry, I should have attached these images to the first post.... The bobbin/shuttle goes 3 or 4 cycles and then the thread gets so tight, it hangs the machine up. Fortunately I was paying attention so it didn't put too much stress on the machine the first time it happened.