Hedge

One of my favorite styles! Really beautiful work and I'd love to see more shots of it.

Dunno, Bruce. Can't find anything to be brutal about. It's got form, fit, function and looks good. I see what you mean about the stitch around the trigger guard, though. That's all I could find that I'd work on. I see all that nice flat area and wonder how some tooling would look.

Thanks, Tom! Still keeping busy with non-leather stuff. Just lucky to work some time in to do leather work. Making a rifle sling, eh? I'd love to see what you come up with. Allow me to pass on a bit of advise regarding lacing on one. If you do applique on it, make sure you don't allow it to interfere with the smoothness of the back side of the sling. That includes any border lacing. Makes carrying a heavy rifle tough on the shoulder. I made that mistake once on a Cobra style sling. A lot of wasted work.

Thanks Max. We went through a mess of dyes, trying different mixes until we found what we wanted. Mix a sample, spray it, let it dry, clean the airbrush out and do it again. But, you're right, it does pay off.

Thanks, Crystal! LOL!! The bell is a clever idea. He wants one, eh? Well all the info is in the pic. Sounds like a nice winter project for a loving wife. (is he looking over your shoulder?) Seriously, PM Myriam if you'd like us to help you make it or to make one for him. We haven't tried the Fiebing's Chocolate. Thought we'd try Angelus because we heard they didn't have the reddish tint. But that PURPLE (Chocolate) was a shocker. We're still waiting to hear from them about that. The brown looked good though. Forgot to ask...need some snow? We have loads of it piled up around the place. Just going to waste. 50+ inches so far. Makes things pretty but tough to get to town. We're snow bound until the county plows the road to our place. Myriam wanted to get out and do something...cabin fever, methinks. Anyway, she unlimberd the .45, put a playing card up against a snowbank and proceeded to ventilate the card and snow. Nice to see a happy woman!

Thanks, Trooper!

Thanks, C79. And a howdy back to ya. We're working on getting better. Myriam's a stickler for doing it right and keeps me on track.

Hi Raven. I see you've done some considerable work on the collar already. I'm afraid my suggestion requires starting over. I would start out with 4 thongs and do an 8 plait with core. Braid the buckle into the end where you have the pen inserted. Braid to the place you want the D-ring and slip 4 thongs through the ring and then start your 8 plait again until you're ready to flat braid the part that goes through the buckle. The reason I suggest using 4 thongs is that I don't think just two thongs holding the D-ring will be strong enough. Hedge

Thanks, Kate Yup, I like the way she did the braid. Near as we can tell, that's the original pattern. We spent a lot of time examining video stills from the movie to get the design right.

Thanks much, Butch! It's fun working together. We each have our particular expertise we can apply to a job.

Thanks, Luke!Yup, yur rollin' block needs a good belt to go with it. Myriam appreciates the comment about the braiding...but now, how am I going to getto do some? (Myriam chips in: "You're not, you're outta luck, dude! " ) Thanks Steve!Feels good to know people like your work.

Thanks, Josh. We did some experimenting with a variety of dyes and came up with a mix of Angelus and Fiebing's which gave us the color we were looking for. Funny thing is, we ordered different Angelus colors to try out. When we tried the "Chocolate" it was PURPLE on application! Good thing we tested it first.

Thanks, Karl.

That toilet seat is classic!!! (nice work, too!) Hedge

We just finished a Quigley for a customer. This one, we both worked on. Myriam is more meticulous than I, so she did the punching, dye application and lacing. I got to play around with cutting the belt, stamping and doing the finish. (I'm going to make one for myself and do all the work, doggonit! ) We got a Paasche airbrush to apply the dyes. Boy, does that do a good job! So far, I think this is the best one we've made.

Thanks, Tom. And a Happy New Year to you and the rest of the forum! How's this for cold and frost bitten? Nothing like a -52 deg. F wind chill to get the blood flowing...or is it slowing? So far 31 inches of snow have fallen and the fat lady hasn't started singing. Started back into some leather work between fix ups around here. Sure hoping to get the leather shop finished this year and get into some serious work. Hope the new year brings new friends and good times for all! Hedge

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone. I really appreciate your help. Here's a pic of a test piece with the solution I've decided to go with. Once everything is dyed, all should blend. Hedge

Thanks, Merrik. That's not a bad idea! I'll work one up on a piece of scrap and see how it looks. That won't significantly change the design.

Rick, Thanks for the input. Yup, going to give the method a try on my next six-gun belt. I assume you just run some lacing through the loops in the back to keep things together? Know what you mean about stitching. Sure gets old fast! btw-love your avitar.

I like this idea, Jordan. It's definitely something I'll work up on a different style belt. Unfortunately, it won't work on this one. The cut will be on an exposed portion. The paper path shows how the loop leather is supposed to run on this design.

Tom, Thanks for the idea. I think I'll try it on another belt. This one, though, won't have the room.

Mike, I'll give stamping a try and see how it looks. This was my last piece of quality leather and there's no time to get another. Guess I'm kinda quirky...I'd rather try to hide a mistake rather than waste a fine cut of hide. I've got another piece but it's flanky on the back and I won't send out a flanky backed belt.

Good idea, Bob. Bad thing is that it's at the very end where the loop leather will exit and be laced to the belt. It's on one of my Quigley's, so the design is fixed.

Had a bounce on my slot cutter. Anyone have a way to clean up this cut before I scrap all the work and start over? Wouldn't be so bad but it's going to be on an exposed portion. Hedge