dikman

Lots of youtube videos to watch and learn more about leatherwork.

Indeed! If you join a car or motorbike forum I can guarantee there will be a thread titled "what is the best oil to use?" and there will be endless discussion/argument about the subject.

There's enough there to cut it back to a uniform distance all around, using the distance from the tail feathers as your reference, and then sew it onto a backing piece that can be larger to allow for a decorative stamping if needed. Just depends what it's going to be used for.

Cool! You did a great job on the paint. If I need any conveyor belts stitched I know who to contact.

Technically, here in Oz we are only allowed to transport handguns to and from the range (or a gunsmith/dealer, who will be suitably licensed to accept it and have the necessary paperwork). Having said that it varies from State to State, here in SA it is possible BUT there is paperwork involved and the receiving person should have a handgun licence. Plus Handstitched is in Western Australia where their Firearms Regulations are in complete disarray due to politics! Firearm owners there have to be very, very careful at the moment.

I suspect you could also use medicinal/food grade mineral oil too as it won't have any of the additives you get in many industrial oils.

Yep, if you're not sure what to use then it's the safest.

Interesting that google comes up with nothing for that model number. Kgg is probably pretty close to its capabilities, you can see the bobbins in the photos and they are small. It is definitely not a holster-making machine. And yeah, what "1/2" shaft" has to do with anything beats me.

That's different! It appears to be well looked after too.

I bought mine off Ali-express, cheaper than ebay at the time. Some now come with a hose between the compressor and airbrush which could be handy for getting in tight places, I suppose, but it's getting away from the portability aspect a bit. There's a huge number of generic airbrushes available now, and pretty cheap, ranging from external mix (I have a Paasche, very handy and as you say easy to clean) to double-action with bottom suction feed, side feed, top gravity feed and a pistol grip type with a largish paint bottle on top, and all pretty cheap. I've ended up with all of these and I've got no complaints with the quality of them. One thing I did was to polish the needles, it might not be necessary for spraying leather but I did it anyway. One of my grand-daughters is very artistic and creative and one day when I mentioned airbrushes her eyes lit up so I've "lent" her one of my compressors and a top-feed airbrush, she was very excited about trying something new. Knowing my wife I suspect "donate" is a better term.

There are plenty of youtube vids showing how to make a pattern but it's pretty simple for a slimjim, basically do as you said, fold some cardboard around the gun and mark out the shape and allow for the stitch line. If you look at the top of this section there is a tutorial on making a slimjim.

You've got quite the collection! That Chameleon is an interesting device, I've never heard of them before (which probably isn't surprising). As for your question about the "self-contained" unit, I have one but haven't used it much only because I haven't done much airbrushing for a while. It works well and is certainly convenient as I don't have to drag out compressor, hose etc. I bought it after reading about the idea on various modelling forums, most who used one seemed happy enough with it. There are various types available, some have a removable battery pack so you can swap them when they go flat. Theoretically, any "modern" airbrush should fit onto the compressor container as all of the China-made models have the same thread size, but I couldn't guarantee it. The older Badgers won't fit without an adaptor, likewise Paasche.

Like others have mentioned, Chapman have a great range and are excellent quality. I bought them for working on firearms but find them useful for lots of other stuff, they have parallel sides on the blades and some are very thin, not always easy to find.

I've often contemplated trying this then using photoshop to make up a pattern. Looks like it might work.

I've never used edge paint, just dye if necessary and burnish. I figure that paint, by it's nature, might eventually peel off.