Randy Cornelius

You don't say if you are hand sewing or have a machine. I would suggest 348 thread for holster work. A # 25 needle on machine and a #0 egg eye needle for hand sewing would be my choise. If hand sewing use waxed thread.

As far as the pigskin, the crome tanning process my be harmful to some gun finishes, but not the glock, the tennifer finish on the glock will stand up to just about anything. Maybe ugly as someone said but they work when they should, carried and trusted one for over 20 years everyday. If I may suggest a smaller thread on the badge holder. It looks like you hand sewn it and done a good job but a smaller thread will give you a neater, cleaner look and hold just as good. I sew all my belts and small projects with 277 thread.RC

I always tell my students to buy the best swivel knife they can afford. I agree the SK3 is one of the best, I own 3 of them. But the price may keep some from buying them. I carved with a tandy adjustable with a cermanic blade for a long time and done well with that. Then I traded up to a Henley. I still have one that I just cannot part with, it has a Jeff Cook colbalt steel blade in. It was far above the cermanic blade. But all in all you get what you pay for. I think the swivel knife is one of the major tools in doing a carving, if the carving does not look good everything else from there will not look good. The SK3 is by far the best knife I have ever cut with when kept properly sharpened. Randy

Tandy makes a chain just for the biker wallets. Has the leather flap with smap on one end and a snap on the other. Item # 1110-01

I use Herman Oak leather exclusively for holster work, I find the stiffness of HO works great for holster and I have no need to use some method of stiffning the leather.

Got tired of the POS clock from Walmart, so I made my own. Piece of 3/4 plywood, clock works from woodworkers supply and a little thought. Here is what I come up with.

I think I have someone as of this point but never know when or if they will back out. Will keep your info just in case thanks for the reply.

I have been going to the shows for the past several years and there are several people who make some really nice tools, all are of high quality. I cannot say that one is better quality than another, they all seem to be equal in materials and workmanship. I have been buying Barry King also because he has the best value for the money. I think he is able to offer that because of his manufacturing process, he has a modern shop with CNC machines that make most of his tools. If you ever have a chance to stop by his place, it is well worth the time, Barry is very nice and full of infomation. But every tool that leaves his shop is hand finished, that is he still does the final finish work by hand with file. He gets my money every time I see him. But there are other tool makers that make different tools than Barry does and visa versa. It all depends on your needs. Randy

I won't use edge coat eather. Edge with your favorite edger. Wet the edge, burnish with bar saddle soap, then burnish with heavy canvis and yellow saddle soap. Let dry then dye edge and seal with water based polyurathene finish you can get at the hardware or home store, Neat Lac works really well but no longer available. Try the water based poly finsh for wood. It works really well to seal the edges. Randy

If you want a nice leather to work with that cuts easy buy the english bridle from WC. It does not mold but for belts and other strap goods it works nice. I noticed the hardness the last side I bought. It never used to be this way. I have been using it but have not liked it. If I order again and its this hard I will send it back. But it does make a nice belt.

To bad they don't come in heavy weight, I would use them for stirrup leathers for saddle repair.

BUMP I.m bumping this up one time, I cannot beleve that there is not one seat maker that would be willing to teach a class. You even get paid for it! If you are the least bit interested please contact me, let talk about it.. Thanks again Randy C.

Greetings, I am in charge of getting the instructors and putting together the workshops for the International Federation of Leather Guilds show in Albquerque, NM next Oct 13-15. I am looking for someone in the Motorcycle seat business that would be willing to teach a hands on class at the show. I have contacted several but no responces yet. If you are a seat maker, willing to teach, not interested in getting rich and willing to come to Albquerque next fall. Give me a shout and we can discuss the details. I am open to all suggestions. Here is my contact, corneliusaddlery at yahoo dot com Also there is a new motorcycle assessory class at the next show. That might be of some intrest to some as those who make seats and saddle bags ect have had to show in the misc. class against everything else in the past. Should be interesting this next year. Randy C.

I bought one of these when he first came out with them thinking it would speed up a large order of belts. I ended up selling it for 1/2 of what I gave for it, just did not work for me. I could make a nicer finished edge by hand with water and saddle soap faster than it could make one that I did not like. The wax supplied would darken the edge on natural leather and sometimes would burn and make it real dark.

I have used them on some of my law enforcement stuff and they seem to hold up very well, cops are hard on stuff and so far none of them has came back for replacement and / or repair. I got mine from Ohio Travel Bag.

You need a belt sander, table top model 4" x 36" is what I would suggest. That is how shoe shops dress the heel caps when replaced.I would use a 100 or 150 grit sanding belt. Randy

I am always up to a challenge, I have a friend that blew off most of his right hand with a stick of dinamite, I did not say he was a smart friend. He only has his thumb and his little finger. I just cut off the excess material for him and sew it closed. If you want to email me off list and tell me of your needs I will try to help you. Here is my email. southwind58 at yahoo dot com Randy

I would also agree it is a Ted Flowers saddle. A little more info is that these saddles were made in the day before nylon thread, most were sewn with linen thread. The trouble is that with the age of all Flowers saddles the linnen threat is rotting. I have had 2 of these saddles come in for repair and there is just no where to stop as the thread is rotting everywhere. Also the silver is not silver but nickle plated brass. The only thing that is holding the silver on is a small split rivit soddered to the back side of the silver. These tend to corrode and fall off as well. The only way to keep these good old saddles alive is to have them completely restored and that cost alone is very high. I know that Dusty Johnson has been restoring these for several years and his web site has a world of information on it. You have a nice saddle but I would think that it is one of the low end models as some that I have seen are very ornate. Watched the show Pawn Shop on history channel, had 2 Ted Flowers saddles on it Monday night, these were both of the high end with breast collors, serriopies(mispelled that one!) and all and they sold for 7K apiece. Good luck with yours. Randy

I don't do a lot of holster simply because I don't like to do them. But my final test is to hold them upside down and shake with the gun in them to see if it will fall out. If it don't fall it passes my test. I agree with most that has been said. Randy

I thought you had a real good show, I would agree with everything that has been said. There where a lot of good things about the show, the on line entry was great, the registation etc. Everything seem well planned. I am sure there were some things that went on behind the scenes that we all did not see but it did not effect the show. The only 2 negitive things were the charges for the internet and the cost to park. Never heard of a hotel charging 10.00 a day to park, but I guess those things were out of your control. Gives us at the iilg things to think about for next year. I just hope next years show is as good as yours was. Thanks again for a great time. Randy

I see you are from Kansas, I live just south of KC if you are in my area I would be happy to take a look at it to see what I could do. I have some OCA cleaner that works real good on leather. I cannot spell the acid cleaner, oxiclic acid something like that. I would try that before I tried anything else.

My lodge, AF&AM is having a Testicle Festival aka Mountian Oyster feed. I have agreed to do the cooking, only one problem, I have ate them in the past but never cooked them, have a good supply from the local vet. What I need is a good recipe that will make people talk about this and hopefully be a sucess and something we will want to do again next year. So I am sure that there is someone out there with a special recipe for the prep, and breading for the little morsels. Thanks for any and all replies. Randy

The 102 and 102 1/2 are round grounder or background tools the 102 is several dots or circles shaped together in a round stamp, the 102 1/2 is just that 1/2 of the 102 or a half circle. I have a set but don't want to part with them. If you contact Ellis Barns or Berry King they both make a simular replacement style for the 102 Craftool stamp. I have a set from each. The EB stamp has very small dots, the BK has slightly larger ones but smaller than the 102

Skirting leather does have a different tanage than tooling leather but that will vary greatly from one tannary to another. Skirting is usually more firm for added strength a durability for saddles and tack. It will have a slightly darker color than tooling leather. Skirt will be somewhat larger sized hides because it's main purpose is to build saddles. I do order skirting leather split down to 8/9 or even a 5/6 depending on the project. When making a large case I do this as stated the skirting leather is most times a larger hide. The tooling leather will have a softer tanage to accept the tooling better in some cases. It will also have a lighter color than the skirt and the hides somewhat smaller.