particle

Mijo - you're right - the slits are kinda large. The tip of the blade is about 3/16", whereas my awl is 1/8". That being said - if someone really wanted to, they could buy one of the other chisels with a larger blade and wider spacing, then make it slightly narrower by laying it flat on a belt sander I suppose. I may consider that with mine, as I wasn't impressed with how it looked when I practiced hand stitching with it. I was hoping to use it to sew the flap on journal covers, but it'll need to be modified first I think.

Awesome - thanks Dwight! Looks like a great way to minimize the paperwork.

Dwight - that sounds like a great idea! I'm curious about the shipping label part. When we print our USPS shipping labels, the top half of the page is instructions - would you care to share a sanitized version of your 8.5x11 sheet?

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=46785entry295908

The dimensions on the USPS site list the 1092 and 1097 as practically the same size. How much does it cost you to ship with those boxes? Which service are you using - "First Class Mail Parcel"? Never felt like (or been accused of) I was ripping customers off when the customer can clearly see the shipping costs when they place an order, but if there's something a little cheaper, I'm all ears. Especially if it still offers delivery confirmation, which I doubt it does...

I exclusively use USPS Priority Mail. The boxes are free, the mail driver picks them up from my front porch (if I schedule a pick up), and it's really not that expensive. I usually charge whatever the retail price is on the USPS website. Most of my stuff goes in the medium sized box for $12.35. If it'll fit in the small box, we'll refund a few bucks and charge the customer $5.80. The only shipping cost complaints I've ever gotten have been from international customers - it's insanely expensive to ship internationally.

Here ya' go! I just purchased the 609-9 and it seems to work fine. https://www.osborneleathertools.com/category.php?cid=13 You can see the angled slits here...

I usually wipe out the excess with a paper towel, then run some denatured alcohol through it (I use Fiebing's Pro Oil dyes). Once it comes out mostly clear, I spray directly into an old tooth brush and scrub the brush back & forth, up & down over the nozzle as I'm spraying. I'll pour a little more clean denatured alcohol into the bottle and spray it a bit more into a paper towel. That's usually all I do. Every now and then I'll remove the needle and wipe the tip down with the paper towel I just sprayed into. Be very careful using pipe cleaners - the little fuzzies can come off the pipe cleaner and clog up the internals of the airbrush, and they're VERY difficult to remove. I don't use them anymore, and quit spraying acrylic sealers with my airbrush unless I'll only be using it very quickly and can quickly flush & clean it out to avoid acrylic buildup.

If you're not already on one, find a message board the focuses on black powder revolvers, then become an active participant of the forum. Once you have a few dozen posts under your belt and people become accustomed to seeing your name on the board, start posting photos of your holsters in the gallery section. If people like your work, they'll likely post in the thread or via private message, inquiring about getting a custom holster made, wait times, etc. I think you'll be surprised how quickly you'll start getting orders. Regarding a website - you might consider creating a Facebook page, then linking to your page in your signature on the message board. Once you have a holster for sale, post it in the gallery on your FB page with a price. Once it sells, edit the description to indicate it's sold. An even better option would be a website built with something like Wordpress that's easy to edit. If you use PayPal, you can generate buttons that link to PayPal with a "Buy Now" option, then place the code on your website - just make sure to remove the button from your site so people won't keep trying to buy it. You can also do something like a Picasa Web Album, then embed the album on your website. Use Google Picasa to edit your albums on your computer then enable "Sync to Web", which will automatically sync the gallery on your computer to the internet gallery. You can add a description to your individual galleries, which should automatically show up on your website. If someone contacts you and wants to buy the holster, send them a PayPal invoice, then once payment is made, change the description of the holster to remove the price, or remove the album from your website altogether.

Last time I was on Springfields website, I think I saw they were selling small squares of Herman Oak for small projects. Probably costs a lot more per square foot, but a lot cheaper than buying a whole hide. Just something to think about.

Ahh - good ol' Tandy leather.... Here is my 6th holster - it, and all my previous holsters, were all made from Tandy leather... This was my very next holster (#7, and my first Avenger holster), and the first time I used Herman Oak. I didn't magically get better at boning - the leather played a HUGE part by simply being easier to work with. That, and I think this particular hide may have been slightly thinner. Here's my next one (#9): Give Springfield Leather a call next time you order leather and ask for some Herman Oak. Or order directly from Wickett & Craig - they'll split the leather to whatever thickness you want for no additional cost. Having a real bone folder will help immensely too because they're nice and smooth and slide over the leather much easier.

Looks interesting, but I wonder if those unsupported corners at the opening could manage to get pressed inward, resulting in an accidental discharge. Personally, I'd consider adding a steel insert to make those corners less likely to bend inward, or I'd extend the stitch line along the bottom of the trigger guard all the way up to the opening. If your intent is to make more of a universal holster, perhaps the steel insert is your best bet...?

Looks great! They'll only get better as you go. A little more definition in the boning would help with retention - what thickness leather are you using?

I guess I didn't really mention it in my previous post, but I have also been following my edge dye with a wax/burnish. I usually just use paraffin though. This is my basic process: Dampen and edge Sand the edge with 220 grit sandpaper Rub the edge with my burnishing stick Let the edge dry, then dye with a dauber - Or, if I don't have time to let the edge dry, I'll dye the edge with my black sharpie Dampen the edge, then rub paraffin over the edge Burnish with my burnishing stick Buff the edge with canvas cloth Check the edge and re-dye if necessary, then re-wax and burnish/buff again I haven't had any problems with the dye transfer since I've been using this process, but I also stopped using Barges cement - I'm now using a water-based contact cement.

Perhaps it's different with drum dyed leather (don't use it, so can't say for sure), but I tried applying it with a dauber with a single, quick rub over the thread to avoid lifting the color, then let it dry completely. When I buffed away the excess, it still discolored my thread. I threw the crap in the trash - hate it. Love the feel of it, but if you're at all worried about discoloring the thread, don't use it. Again, maybe it's different with drum dyed leather. Also, if you apply it too heavily, it will leave sort of an embossed edge around the heavier areas that's nearly impossible to get rid of. Apply it very sparingly. If I were going for a wax-based finish, I'd opt for one of the oil/wax products like Montana Pitch Blend (I still haven't tried any of those types of products because I wanted to make my own to save money).

Bronson - that's what I used to do, until I upgraded my website with a shopping cart system. It simplified the accounting side of my business since we didn't have to manually generate invoices for each order we shipped, then wait for payment before we shipped the order (yes, we didn't collect money till the order was actually ready to ship). Then, we started requesting payment before we started building the order. It seemed increasingly we were getting orders for customers that traveled a lot and were oftentimes overseas and would need to wait till they got back to the US to pay. So, we'd have to move on down the list and email additional people to see if they still wanted the order, then invoice them, then wait for payment, etc. - I just want to cut leather, not fiddle around with invoicing and such. Plus, there was (not very often) people that had no intention of actually buying the holster - they just wanted to waste everyone's time. Thus, I rebuilt my site and incorporated a shopping cart. I just waited too long to incorporate an open/closed order system.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I only accept PayPal, though I've not read to see if there are similar time limits noted in the agreement. I ended up just closing down my hand made products temporarily so I can focus on clearing out existing orders. I think in the future I'll just accept X amount of orders at the beginning of the month, and close the store once the limit has been reached and then reopen the following month. That seems to be the trend among some holster makers anyway.

I've started a holster Saturday morning, and shipped it out on Monday. It really just depends on how fast you want to rush it. You don't really want to soak the holster in water too soon after dying. You don't want to mount your reinforcement piece too quickly if the edges have been dyed & burnished if you're using Barges cement because the solvents can wet the dye, and the dye can rub onto the holster body leaving little black dye streaks sporadically around the perimeter of the reinforcement (happened to me several times...). I think best case, cut, edge, groove & dye the pieces first thing in the morning. Let it sit for maybe an hour, then sand & burnish the reinforcement edges with a little water and dye the edges (in the areas that won't be glued together). If I'm rushing it, I'll dye the edges with a black wide-tip sharpie. Glue and assemble, burnishing & dying the glued edges after you've sewn them. Wet form after lunch, then dry in an oven for about 45 minutes at low heat, then immediately oil the grain surfaces and let sit in front of a fan till that evening. Burnish the interior with gum trag and touch up & burnish the edges again if necessary. Turn the fan back on and continue to let it dry overnight. The following morning, apply your finish and let it hang to dry, which probably leaves enough time to slip it in a zip-top back, box it up and leave it on the porch for the mail man.

I keep pushing my turnaround time noted on my website further and further out, trying to slow down new orders, but now I'm starting to worry about the legal problems of taking payment up-front. For those of you that require payment up front, do you know what the time-limit is for acceptable delivery times? I'm assuming there is one, and need to know if I need to consider incorporating some way to take deposits up-front instead of full payment.

Pete - I'd probably charge $40 for just the plain wallet with no tooling. And like billymac said, at least $60-$80 tooled. Heck, I charge an extra $60 just to tool the reinforcement piece on my holsters. But, I agree you can only charge what the market will bear. If you're happy with the price, that's all that matters! Maybe you should crank out a bunch of simple ones for the local folks, then make some nicer ones for the Eureka Springs tourist crowd.

Great idea Pete - if you don't mind my asking, in your original post you stated they sell well for $40. Is that WITH, or WITHOUT tooling? Your tooling looks great - I can't imagine selling them for $40 tooled - especially after paying $15-18 for the kit. I'm not knocking the kit price in any way (I think it's a fair price).

Here is Tandy's page with quite a few to choose from: http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/home/department/hardware/bag-clasps-closures/bag-clasps-closures.aspx Here's one from springfield leather: http://springfieldleather.com/17093/Clasp%2CSwing-Lock%2C1-1-4%22-Gp/

No - it's practically water proof. I dropped a bit of water on one of the samples, and it just sat on the surface. It did penetrate maybe 3 pores just a bit, so it's not entirely waterproof. If the leather is split thin enough, it's quite flexible. W&C will also do an additional treatment on the leather to make it more flexible - I believe it's called jacking.

Love to - scared to waste a bunch of leather again though. Maybe I'll try again with some scraps I'm about to generate from an upcoming project.

If it's just a one-off, you might call Galco and see if you can order a replacement clip. I didn't see it listed on their website, but their others seem to sell for around $10... ouch! Makes you wonder - if he mangled a metal clip, how in the world does he expect a plastic clip to hold up!?!? It'll be even thicker, more obtrusive, more likely to snag on stuff. I'm with you - he had to have done it on purpose.