Ross

This holster was made for a Chief of Police. He will be using it for on duty and off duty use. It's lined, with the lining wet molded to the pistol. Not really my cup of tea, but the customer knows what he wants. Any feed back appreciated.

got better than half baked impressions. this holster holds *securely*. and i agree with ye on the second comment. the buttons i put in this holster do not touch the trigger, but i still wouldn't use them on a single action.

btw, i use red guns to mold the leather by hand. will the heated kydex melt the red gun?

when ye are making holsters with kydex, what do ye use to fasten the holster to the loop? i keep seeing screws. chicago screws or some other type? i've never used kydex before and i've got a couple of holsters i'll need to use it on. can i punch holes in the kydex and sew through? by hand of course. any help appreciated.

how did ye set the "nut" in the leather to screw into?

i've had good luck with polyurethane. too much looks like plastic, but just a little looks pretty good.

This holster was made for concealed carry with the holster itself inside the pants. The two straps loop around the belt and snap closed. The straps are sewn on the bottom to help the straps to lay flat and increase concealment. Wet molding helps to ensure the pistol stays in the holster till needed by holding it with friction. There are also two raised buttons just inside the trigger guard, one on each side, to keep the pistol secure. These two features are such that no retaining strap is needed, so the pistol is available with just a tug. This holster was created for the Sig P220. Does it conceal? It surely does. Wearing even a simple vest, the pistol shows no bulge on the outside yet is easily accessible. Sitting down however does show a slight bulge. This should present no problem as chair backs and sides would prevent the bulge from being visible. With the holster in my hand I can turn it upside down and shake real hard. The pistol does eventually come out, but it takes a lot of shaking. It won't fall out when worn though. Comments welcome.

I saw the vest tutorial beaverslayer did, and I liked it. I've never made clothing other than hats and never with chrome tanned leather. I've never made lace with chrome tanned leather either. Anyway, it occurred to me that I had a winter jacket with patches on it for my business but I really had nothing for the summer and a vest would be pretty much what the doctor ordered. The way beaverslayer had his tutorial arranged meant making a yoke with tooling leather but I didn't feel like that would be enough room for what I wanted to do. And I had no pattern. So I cut up an old t shirt that fit pretty good, cut it in half and adjusted the curves and angles using my calibrated eye. In other words, I winged it. Remember, I've not worked with chrome tanned leather other than one purse I made my wife. Boy is this different from veg tanned leather!!!! Making the vest took me 40 1/2 hours start to finish. The patch took about 2 hours to make and another couple of hours to sew on. This leather is slick folks and there was a learning curve for me. I was afraid that the patch would pull down on the chrome leather so I lined the vest with the same leather as the outside was made from. I didn't want to glue the patch on, so I marked center line in chalk and repositioned after every stitch. As ye can see, I got a bit of puckering. Not much and I'm not sure I could have prevented it. I haven't yet made the patches for the front. Those who've done this kind of work before are more than welcome to pitch in with comments and suggestions. A couple of side notes: *My wife was very glad when I finished this vest. She claims I got a bit testy. *I used acrylic paints for the bright colors on the patch so it would not fade. Of course that means chipping is possible down the road, so I sprayed polyurethane for the finish. I figured it was tough and would help hold the acrylic paint on. Time will tell, but it made the veg tanned leather a bit brittle. I don't think I'll do that again. *No way I could make and sell these with the amount of time it took to make this one. I'm assuming that with practice I would get faster. I hope. Again, any suggestions are appreciated.

I was making a game table. It needed to be antique. I marked, cut, dyed and carefully splattered dye across the board. It was time to seal the surface and go on to the antiquing. I grabbed my spray lac and depressed. Horror! It was not spray lac. It was a honey oak dye I'd used for some trim in our kitchen. Wait a minute.... That looks pretty darned good! So I sprayed the entire surface with the honey oak dye. I'm very pleased with it and more important the new owner is too. Needless to say, I will be checking a bit more carefully when grabbing a can of spray in the future.

the postman... haven't seen that movie in years. about do for another viewing i think. good movie.

yeah i did. wrapped a piece of leather around my head for basic fit and went from there. there were many hours in the lacing, but other than that it went quickly.

having no pressing projects at the moment, i decided to make myself a kepi. i've wanted one since i was a boy. (don't ask. let's just say more than a few decades ago.) anyway, this is my version of the kepi. i looked at historical construction and modified it to suit me. i've not decided yet if i want to add a chin strap like the originals had. this is a great hunting cap too. unlike modern baseball caps, the brim does not obstruct peripheral vision but still provides shade and rain protection. all in all, i'm pretty satisfied with it. sorry about the quality of the photo. it's from my cell phone.

i made my wife a purse for christmas. it's the first time i've tried a purse of this type. in the past they've all been tooled.

makes me want to grab a sword and begin mightily yelling something or other. very nice job.

one thing i've done in the past when there were many letters and very small is to compose it exactly the way i wanted it on the computer in the font i wanted, transfered it to the leather and then used the knife to cut only one line for each letter. after finishing the leather i went back with water proof ink and filled in the knife cut. if my pen slipped it erased easily since i had finished the project before filling in the letters. then one more finish to lock the ink in. i'm not explaining this very well, so here's a picture demonstrating that i did several years ago on the flap of a book cover for a lady. the picture is not too good i realize. i've gotten better at pictures since then i hope.