DeWayne Hayes

That is gorgeous work all the way around!

Beautiful piece of work! That is one case where I'm not sure if you're wearing the holster, or the holster is wearing you, but either way - great looking piece!

Brilliant work - I've been thinking about an apron, myself. Well done!

Absolutely. I will split a canister over two or three projects until it's exhausted. Bear in mind, you use more dye this way, as a lot of it gets sprayed right past the edges of your project (as with any sprayed medium), so you'll see your dye jar going down faster than you might expect, as opposed to a dauber, where it all goes into the leather. But I freely move the Preval from one color to another. Give it a little blast to clear out the old color still in the tube, then carry on. Also bear in mind this one little trick - when you're screwing a Preval directly onto a Fiebings 4 oz jar of dye, you'll need to trim a tiny bit off the end of the Preval's plastic tube that extends down into the dye. They're made to go into a different reusable reservoir and are just a tiny bit too long for a Fiebings dye jar, but with a sharp knife or razor, if you trim it just a bit, you can screw the Preval unit right down onto the Fiebings jar and eliminate the need for a separate reservoir entirely. Very handy! BTW - I'm in an apartment too, and I just step outside in the parking lot and spray my piece quickly. You certainly don't want to spray that pro dye in the apartment!

No, it's one and done - once the canister is spent, it goes in the trash. They're around $10 a pop, so not cheap, but the trade-off is never having to clean an airgun or maintain a compressor, etc.

Yep, I can get full use out of a 4oz bottle with a Preval.

Just to add to your options, I gave up dying with a dauber almost immediately due to streaking and turned to first airbrushes, but later the much simpler Preval air canister. https://tandyleather.com/products/preval-power-unit?variant=31977386868867&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA75itBhA6EiwAkho9e4ayMpy0bMgtdKQ1BZLIJiDI4YnGrzmROkU0Ke8gBK-oJLUoiP6_pBoCSP0QAvD_BwE These will literally screw right into the top of a Fiebings small jar of Pro Dye and you've got an instant air gun with no clean up - use it until it's empty and throw away. It's my go-to method for dying now unless I'm doing Black, which I never have any streaking issues with when using a dauber. But that's the only color I do by hand. Anything brown or tan I use the Preval sprayer. Hope this helps! DeWayne

Thanks, guys!

Right on. Since all the holsters I do are cross-draw, so long as they have a 1.75" belt loop, I can slide them on there. I think I'll probably make one in black for the black holsters. One other benefit of this "modular" system that I've found is that I can easily pop the shoulder strap over to the other side of my neck. I imagine if I were wearing it all day, it might be really nice to swap sides to take the strain off the left side of my neck and even things out a bit.

Awesome - thank you!

I'm thinking I probably better use some brass washers on both sides of where the shoulder strap attaches to the horizontal strap - otherwise those small brass bolt heads are going to compress too deeply into the leather - not to mention, the washers will add rigidity to that intersection. Does anyone know a source for brass washers? Maybe 7/8" OD, 1/4" ID?

I should make one with a sheep's wool fly patch sewn onto the shoulder strap!

Decided I wanted to make an Alaskan style "guide holster" or chest rig, which allows you to fish up to your belly in water while keeping your self defense sidearm close at hand and dry. I could have bought one of these, but I wanted to have some flexibility - I wanted to simply use my standard cross-draw holster and be able to remove it when I want to wear on my belt. I also wanted something that would break apart for ease of packing/transport - in other words, not a complicated 3 dimensional "cage" but something that could easily lay flat or be rolled up. Finally, a last value add is I can use the horizontal strap as a belt when needed. So, theoretically, it's a chest rig AND/OR a cross draw belt holster rig. Good ol' Fiebings English Bridle Pro Dye, followed by Leather Balm + Atom Wax. Very simple (as is my style and limit of my abilities!). Hope you all enjoy. DeWayne

Ha ha! I work Veg-tan wet for my holsters, but the 8-10oz is as big as I've gone. Someday I'll get in the ring with the heavyweights!