dikman

Yep, tight curves in particular would be a problem. Doesn't matter though, I just had to buy it when I saw it! You know the old saying "He who dies with the most toys wins."

I saw this little thingy at Aldi and for $15 just had to buy one. Rechargeable rotary cutter, says it can cut up to 1/4". I tried it on a piece of old saddle skirt, 1/4" thick and quite hard, and it cut it nicely. The blade is interesting as rather than being round it is octagonal so has sharpened "points". Could be useful for softer leathers.

Thanks for the kind words folks.

That lathe is a a beautiful piece of work! It looks like only a couple of those hole punches have been used. An amazing find indeed.

A veritable Aladdin's Cave! Did you buy the lot? (I probably would have!).

I've long wanted a cobbler's hammer (mainly 'cos I don't have one!). I remember my dad had one but it disappeared a very long time ago and wasn't among his tools when I got them. Very difficult to find, particularly used, so I thought "why don't I make one?". Can't be that hard. Hah, should have known better! I found a ball-peen hammer head for $3 and away I went. First thing was to reduce what I think was a very large tent peg to fit the hole in the head to prevent it from collapsing during the forging. I don't know what steel it was made from but it was tough to move under the hammer! Then it was time to start widening the head and likewise I don't know what the steel is in old hammers but this stuff is also hard to move. Once it got below orange heat the hammer had no effect on it. Eventually I got it to a suitable width and then mashed out the ball part to a flat. This hammering, by the way, didn't do my tennis elbow much good!!! I cleaned it up on the belt grinder and then heated it to non-magnetic and quenched in oil. I thought I'd have to temper it but a file could still (just) mark it so I called it good. I suspect the mass of the head was too much to cool quickly enough in oil and suspect quenching in water would have been better but it should be hard enough for leatherwork. I decided to leave the oil-quench coating on to give it some rust protection and just polished the face. The handle is from some Blackwood that I cut down years ago and saved just-in-case, need to give it another coat of linseed oil tomorrow. Was it worth it? Dunno, but it's something I just had to do.

Did the test piece stick ok? If it did then you're probably just imagining that something is different. If you thin it too much, however, it might reduce its overall effectiveness, I guess.

Know anyone with a welder? Have them build up the damaged end with weld and then file to shape, creating new teeth.

All my holsters were made glued flat and then folded, it's inevitable that wrinkling will occur although sometimes it's possible to minimise them. The last holster I made was a SlimJim style and I wanted to carve it so used thicker leather for the outside but this time I tried pre-curving it while glueing to the inner (as Dwight suggested). It did make a neater finish although it was a bit more messing around getting it right.

I've only made a few Western-style holsters so I have limited experience but I would have to question that article, it seems to me he is making a blanket statement that he considers fact when in reality there are lots of variables when dealing with leather. My first couple of holsters were made using fairly light leather (I can't remember the weight) with two layers glued back-to-back. By the time I'd finished they were rigid, and still are. I progressed to using the same weight for the liner but a slightly heavier weight for the outside, only because I thought it looked better. I noticed he mentioned using a suede liner, that is going to be softer than a "normal" hide so won't add much to the overall stiffness. Also, leather that is wet-formed tends to gain stiffness. The best thing you can do is try different combinations to work out what style you like and whether lined or unlined works best for you, but at the end of the day the customer will determine which style you make.

I use Xylene, a bit like Toluene. Nasty stuff but it works (the fumes are......exhilarating).

Soak your little pieces in water (hot water?) to soften them - might need a few days - then try a blender. Hopefully it will turn them into mush and then dry it out? No idea if it will work.

Best way is to fit a speed reducer pulley as well.

Dwight, you're not alone, I occasionally find jigs that I made and can't remember what for.

A finer grit and go slow, not too much pressure as it's easy to burn the leather. I think chrometan is going to be problematic as it's generally a softer leather. And yeah, it can make a lot of dust!