Dwight

That may be true, Ken, . . . but who puts a rifle in a leather scabbard and leaves it for any length of time other than on the horse?? I don't know anyone who does / did / or plans on it. May God bless, Dwight

The chrome tanned story is pretty far blown out of proportion. From what I've been able to understand it's more or less an old wive's tale, . . . maybe some fact somewhere, . . . but nothing to get real uptight about. A very reputable holster maker wrapped a mild steel rod in a piece of chrome tanned suede, . . . stuck it in a personal locker for several months, . . . pulled it out, . . . nothing, nada, nein: no corrosion or rust. I wouldn't worry about it. Got the deerskin??? Do it, . . . and have fun. I only like suede better because it is a bit thicker usually, . . . and might in some rare case be a tad more of a cushion if the weapon got dropped on concrete or something. Plus, . . . all things considered, . . . suede can be an inexpensive liner. May God bless, Dwight

No, YinTx, . . . when I do a rifle scabbard, . . . I simply line it with suede, . . . contact cemented to the exterior. It IS THE padding. I personally don't like those nylon padded gun bags, . . . prefer a canvas one with no liner if I'm not going with leather. Our veteran honor guard used to have canvas bags with sheep wool liners, . . . hated them, . . . couldn't keep zippers in em. May God bless, Dwight

For anything but a saddle scabbard, . . . I like suede, . . . Would not line a saddle scabbard. Too much traffic in and out. May God bless, Dwight

Mine is the Tandy version, . . . widest part of the useable blade is just shy of 6 inches. I've pulled 5 1/2 inch leather thru mine to make a special type holster. Key is keeping it sharp, . . . which I do. Just wish I could get my regular knives that sharp............. May God bless, Dwight

Also, . . . while I'm not a betting person, . . . I would be inclined to think that what you did was move the actual cutting edge forward. That makes it really hard for the edge to pick up the cut. Cutting tools like this are sometimes a pain to adjust, . . . you can move your blade up and down, . . . and forward and back, . . . all of which can have a profound impact on the way the machine cuts, . . . and even IF it cuts. Check to see that the leading edge of the blade is behind top dead center of the roller, . . . not very far, . . . just behind. May God bless, Dwight

You might take a look at this: It's a Tandy Splitter, . . . but it looks very similar. May God bless, Dwight

When I buy a side or double shoulder, . . . it stays rolled up until I need it. Stands on end in the bottom of my leather vault. It's basically a box, . . . 4 x 8 sheets of particle board make the front and back, . . . 2 x 12's make the sides and tops. I put some 1/2 inch conduit along one wall, . . . bent some re-rod into "ell" shaped pieces, . . . attached 1 x 2's to the re-rod, . . . put nails in the 1 x 2's, . . . punch small holes in the leather and hang it inside the vault. In the drawing there is just one "ell" and one hide hanging, . . . but I've got several and the ell's swing out so I can see what is hung in the one behind it. Not bragging, . . . but this is one of the best Ideas I've had in a long time, . . . works really great, . . . could be scaled down smaller or thinner, . . . depending on the needs of a person. I could see one made of 2 x 4's standing behind a bedroom door. All my pieces that will go into a 16 by 30 storage tote, . . . goes in there. If they are too big for the tote, . . . they stay in the vault till they get cut down. May God bless, Dwight

My Tippmann Boss would do that with no problem, . . . simply by turning it inside out, . . . using contact cement, . . . and bringing only a few inches of the edges together at a time. I did one similar to it for a wedding gift one time, . . . spent days on the thing, . . . was really proud of it. The bride later gave it away to a Goodwill type shop. May God bless, Dwight

Avengers in my experience, . . . are good for a light, small, non bulky weapon. Put a full size or commander size 1911, . . . a P85, . . . CZ75, . . . a Python, . . . or similar size and weight weapon in it, . . . they are not long in the woods to opening up in the pouch, . . . and / or the back loops become stretched by the constant movement. Some folks who are not as active in their activities may not experience this, . . . but I'll take a pancake any day, . . . better yet, . . . an IWB. But opinions differ, . . . and that is a very good looking holster design. May God bless, Dwight

Melonie, . . . get Weldwood brand, . . . I've used it for 40+ years on more things than I can recall, . . . leather is just one of them, . . . cloth, lumber, metal, etc. Secondly, . . . go to a Harbor Freight store, . . . ask for acid brushes, . . . http://www.harborfreight.com/36-pc-12-in-horsehair-bristle-acid-shop-brushes-61880.html Most of the time, I use one today, . . . it gets hard by the next time I need it, . . . so I pitch it. but at less than a dime apiece, . . . it is good to be able to use a new one every time. A very thin coat on both surfaces, . . . go over it with a heat gun or a hair dryer, . . . get both pieces dry enough that they are no longer sticky, . . . put em together, . . . and put some pressure on it. Sometimes I'll lay a piece of wood on the leather and smack the wood with a mallet, . . . makes it stick right real good. You will rip the leather apart if you need to take it apart, . . . most of the time. If you are doing big pieces, . . . lots of the cement, . . . make sure you have adequate ventilation, . . . it does stink. May God bless, Dwight

I would not think of sewing anything leather, . . . without first contact cementing the parts together. Makes life so, so, so . . . . much simpler. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Johanna............. May God bless, Dwight

Quite honestly, . . . don't know about anyone else, . . . I've become a bit tired of this site having become a dumping ground for every oddball leather jockey who has to present 20, 30, 40, or however many pictures, . . . hog up the whole top of the display, . . . and load the activity with (as of today) someone's idea of making this a catalog shopping experience for cheap motorcycle garb. If someone does a "Mona Lisa" in leather, . . . present it, . . . share it, . . . show it off, . . . but it does not have to knock off every thing else for 3, 4, 5 days, . . . with 15 different views or lighting options on the same flower. Yeah, . . . grumpy today. May God bless, Dwight

I'd be awful tempted to come up with a couple of 1 inch wide straps at the bottom, . . . going up to maybe 1 1/2 right at arm pit level, . . . and have someone sew up an artificial cinch to go up and over your shoulder. It would be wonderfully comfortable, . . . and unique, . . . but not overpower the beautiful purse you made. May God bless, Dwight

The only final finish product I know of that will stop that process is Resolene. It has a UV blocker built in, . . . I have never had a dye job go south that was protected by Resolene, . . . and have had others that were not. THAT is the reason I use Resolene on virtually all my projects. May God bless, Dwight

I would probably first try using a thicker leather, . . . maybe 8/9 oz, . . . get it good and sloppy wet, . . . and do my berserker mad man attitude to imbed the chain mail into the leather with a small mallet, . . . rolling pin, . . . tin bender, . . . or a press if you have one. Once you get what you wanted imbedded in that area, . . . if the leather is too thick, . . . shave some off the back side with a skiver or a round knife. The key I have found to getting "new" projects completed, . . . is simply the old saying: "Where there is a will, . . . there is a way". It ain't perfect, . . . but it has worked for me for 72 years. May God bless, Dwight

OK, . . . we have two pieces of leather cut, . . . ready to turn into a holster. I lay my template down on my little cutting board, . . . lay the weapon on the template (picture 15), . . . then take the front of the holster, . . . that has been thoroughly dampened for this part of the process (picture 16) and position it above the weapon and template so it will wind up in the right position. In picture 17, it goes into the vacuum bag, . . . suction turned on, . . . left on for something near 15 or 20 seconds, . . . released, . . . then re-done after positioning the bag so it pulls it in a bit tighter. As you can see in pictures 18 and 19, . . . the front of the holster has all the dimensions and contours, . . . while the back is seriously flat. Let the front dry, . . . dress some of the hard to get to edges, . . . glue it all together, . . . sand the edges smooth, . . . sew, . . . punch the slots, . . . bevel and burnish the rest of the edges, . . . dye, . . . dry, . . . finish, . . . and VOILA, . . . holster. Oh, . . . and that is a pine derby version of the Shield. It works. May God bless, Dwight

I got asked how I make a flat back pancake holster, . . . and so I thought I'd just drop it in here. This is for the "first one", . . . somebody wants a holster done that I don't have a pattern made for that one. To start with, I have a couple of different "templates" that get me started on this pancake holster. One is for 1911 size or bigger, . . . and the other is for small auto's and 5 shot revolvers, etc. Picture 1 should show the two of them, the little one stacked upon the big one. This holster is for a S&W Shield, so it will be the smaller template that I start out with. In picture 3, I lay the weapon down on the template, . . . get it where it looks like it will work the best, . . . In picture 4, another piece of manila folder is placed behind the template and the weapon to lay out the sweat shield. That is depicted in picture 5. The sweat shield attachment is then cut out and taped into position on the template as in picture 6. In picture 8, we see another piece of manila folder, . . . cut so that the front two pieces are the same contour, . . . but with some extra length in the back (see picture 9). That second piece of manila folder is then molded down around the weapon to get a semblance of the size I will need to complete the holster (picture 10). Hold on tight to the back end of those two pieces of paper, . . . remove the gun, . . . turn it over, . . . and mark the cut line for the back edge in picture 11. You'll notice in picture 12, I cut it a bit bigger than the line, . . . I'll be throwing away a couple square inches of leather, . . . but it will NOT be too short, . . . Pictures 13 and 14 show the two pieces cut out, . . . and getting ready to become a holster. (continued on the next post)

Your question makes a lot of sense, . . . unfortunately like the one "When will the sun burn out?", . . . neither has a perfect answer. Each holster will be just enough different from it's predecessor, . . . that the dimension used on the first, . . . "may" not work on the next. As previously mentioned, . . . dampen the flap, . . . start the holster through it, . . . put the gun in the holster, . . . then pull her up good and tight. Most of the time, you will be able to get away with using the same dimension, . . . but if you are very careful with the leather thickness, . . . cutting the blank out, . . . and your sew line, . . . it'll work good. The key is getting the first one done so you have a solid pattern. Take your time on it, . . . it's worth every extra moment you spend on it. May God bless, Dwight

I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you see the results, . . . May God bless, Dwight

The last time I ran across the exact same problem, . . . I found out it was my dye. Earlier when I didn't have any Feibings reducer, . . . used something else, . . . and threw out a quart of Saddle Tan dye because of it. I won't make that mistake again. Now when I buy dye, . . . I buy reducer, . . . still mix em all at 50 / 50, . . . and don't have that problem. I also found that if I form first, . . . and dye later, . . . the dye is ALWAYS more uniform. May God bless, Dwight

First things, . . . first, . . . the only item every protected by leather as a "water proof" covering was the original cow, sheep, goat, lamb, deer, or other animal that wore the skin. Veggie tanned leather is not, . . . and for all tense and purposes, . . . cannot be made to be WATER PROOF. Anyone attempting to make it such is fooling themselves and their customers. Four coats of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly on your hunting boots before a big hunt in the swamps will do for the first time out, . . . but later, it will have to be done again. That is about the nearest you can get to water proof. Water resistant, . . . that you can do. I do it all the time with veggie tanned leather belts, holsters, knife sheaths, cell phone cases, . . . etc. I use oil dyes almost 100% of the time, . . . and I let them dry for a minimum of 24 hours, . . . and then the resolene is applied, . . . thinned 1 to 1 with water, . . . and is applied very lovingly and carefully with a bristle brush. Apply a liberal coat, . . . brush it left, then right, then up, then down, . . . making sure it fills every little void. Brush lightly until there are no more bubbles. Add a second coat within about 2 hours, . . . then let that dry for 24 hours or more. Do this both inside and outside. May God bless, Dwight

Sorry, . . . just now saw the question, . . . answer is like stated above, . . . I don't thin unless somehow the can leaked enough air to become thick. I keep this from happening by buying a quart can, . . . then putting some in a pint can that I work from. Usually, it never thickens because I use it up, . . . but when it does thicken up, . . . a "very little" acetone will do it well. Like I said earlier, . . . it works, . . . but Slipangle is definitely right, . . . you can come up with some kind of a buzz if you are in an enclosed area with the stuff for long. May God bless, Dwight

I made my own from a piece of electrical conduit, . . . but if you got the 20 bucks, . . . this is what I would do. May God bless, Dwight