alpha2

Thanks for the link. I can see where if I sewed the holster "upside down", that holster plate would work like his stirrup plate did, where you run the stitch line against the formed side of the holster. I do the 80/20 style of holster, where the entire raised side of the holster protrudes from the flat, or mostly flat back. Using the holster plate like that would put the back side of the stitching on the front of the holster. I'm not sure I'd like that. With the 80/20 holster, I haven't needed a holster plate, just thought I might be missing something. I noticed where Don mentioned that his Cobra parts worked without any grinding being needed. That was NOT my experience with the Cowboy. Considerable bending and grinding had to be done before things fit properly. Also, he used 3 in 1 oil on his machine! I can't imagine it's as non-staining as sewing machine oil.

I do a lot of holsters, but not one yet with the holster plate, because I can't figure out how it's supposed to be used. I'd love to see a short video of someone using it. To be fair, I haven't needed it yet, that I know of! Maybe it makes something far easier that without, but it's beyond me to see it. I do more belts than holsters so maybe it's not worth the effort/time to change things out. I gave up on doing webbing projects because it's way too much trouble to reset everything on the machine.

I've used a French skiver to take the rivet area down just a bit. Then smash them flat. I admit it's a "belt and suspenders" (belt and braces for you non U.S. types) approach, and likely overkill. Jeff

All of what they said...and more! Great work.

Youtube videos under "rolled handle".

Oh, I don't know...I'm 68 now, and am just now, reading all this, glad I never went crazy and bought a bell skiver! It always SOUNDED like a good idea! I swear, I managed, when I was working, to install and calibrate all manner of high tech, digital, 3d, cone beam, volumetric tomographic x-ray equipment, but my Cowboy 4500 gets slightly out of time, and I'm all thumbs. If I didn't have our amazing resources, (you know who you are!) and their youtube videos, I'd buy a really big boat, and use it for an anchor. I don't have any idea what people did before the internet. I likely had an idea, years ago, but I've forgotten. (Remember libraries? Neither does anyone else!) I just discovered, that you can have cheap Tandy leather, and a REALLY sharp head knife, or a REALLY good leather, and a maybe almost sharp head knife, but you can not, under any circumstances, have cheap Tandy leather and an almost, not quite sharp head knife. I have determined though, that Tandy leather needs to be cut with a hacksaw. A SHARP hacksaw. Still learning at my advanced age.

I think a lot of the hardware is available in brass, which won't rust either. I must agree on getting info on zippers from, well, those that sell zippers online! My pet peeve when I was searching for a long zipper for a rifle scabbard, was that no one or two places had the zipper and the hardware I needed! Shipping costs for anything now is absolutely insane, and I would have to get bottom stops from one place, top stops from another, a pull from another and a zipper from yet another, because they didn't even have top/bottom stops in the same color or size at the same place that had a pull in that color/size! I finally found a place online called "The Zipper Lady". Looked up her shop location, it was just across town from me! I won't expect that to happen again in my life.

Every time I set a copper/brass rivet, I kick my self for selling my rivet gun after finishing my airplane. Stupid!! Stupid!! I still have some rivet sets, but they won't work with a hammer.

Was that machine stitched? Because the outside of the flap has the leather pushed out around the holes, indicative of machine stitching. The underside of my machine stitching usually looks like that. It's only partly alleviated by hammering down the stitch line. For something that small, I would always hand stitch, as the front side on the sheath body, becomes the backside of the stitch on the flap. If it's hand-stitched, as appears on the sheath body, I suspect you are using stitching chisels, which also push a lot of leather on the far side. Stitching awls are better than chisels in that regard. But, as I'm sure you're aware, that is a whole other endeavor! Everything is a trade off. Other than that, it looks better than my first attempt at the same! Not my quote, but..."I can teach you all the basics of leatherwork in a day or two, after that, it's all practice!" (Don't you get sick of hearing that about EVERYTHING???)

Slightly off topic, but...My ex-dentist called them "vanilla envelopes". Obviously too much college.

Thanks, guys! It didn't start out that dark. The body of it started Fiebing's Light Brown, which was far lighter than client wanted. So I put a couple layers of Dk. Brown on, still a bit light, but okay. The at the end, I rubbed in some of my finish concoction, which darkened it considerably! I actually was a nice brown, with black airbrushed around the edge. Kind of lost that effect. When I delivered it, the client asked for two more holsters. So I guess I guess I get a second chance.

The reinforcement is to hold the top of the holster open inserting/re-holstering gun. For my smaller gun holsters, (LCP, Kimber Solo, etc.) I just rely on the stiffness of the leather after forming. When I do use reinforcement, I use slightly thinner piece than the rest of the holster. It's considerably easier to form the holster that way. It just needs to add some thickness, not necessarily double it. My opinion only. Holes there do look big. Jeff

Weldwood contact cement is not designed to adhere properly when wet. Also, as stated above, it doesn't need to be a thick coat at all, in fact fairly thin is best. Especially when you are going to have a visible edge. You can sand and burnish on edges with too much cement, and you'll still have a line between the parts.

I see the holster is not wet-molded to the gun. And no strap of any kind. What are you planning for retention, as the gun is effectively horizontal in the holster? One doesn't want those yay-hoos at the corral laughing when the gun falls out. And don't sweat the basketweave flattening out at the fold, I know I've done it, and I'll bet almost everyone has on a early holster. It's a big part of the learning curve. A learning curve I'm still waiting to straighten out a bit. Jeff BTW, my first Mexican loop holster was my first holster, for a breaktop H&R revolver, and I won't even put the pics up on this forum. 'Cause it was NASTY!

That is a great use of those closures. I've got a couple, and haven't figured out what to use them. Now I have to get a bike!

Regarding corners: Look at what Pastor Bob said above, about sanding the edges last. Your method of a lot of straight cuts to make a rounded corner is actually quite popular, but the final sanding is what smooths the corner into shape. Another tip, use a coin, or if there isn't one of the proper radius, anything round the proper size, and use that as a template, cutting around the item. There are acrylic templates from various sources with English points, half circles, and various shapes in different sizes. I use those a lot. If you don't have a sander to use on the edges, just get those foam sanding blocks from the hardware store, I use 300 and 400 grit to finish edges. A good burnish will take it from there. Just an aesthetic thing...that snap is pretty big for the size of the item, but likely right for the thickness of the leather.

More questions than answers on that ad. My opinion. It does come with large spoils of thread, and leather hides, though!

That'll work!

Yes, skive. (Because, now that you've perfected over -pounding rivets, (my personal strong suit), you can learn to screw up skives, right?) Sorry, flashbacks to my first attempt at skiving. The outside pieces can be skived pretty far on the inside edge, as the welt is taking the edge of the blade. And, rivets are a nice touch, but with today's threads that won't rot away in a few years, the rivets are there in case the stitching fails. And, they're pretty. With practice... One more comment on skiving, sharp as hell is not nearly sharp enough. Sharp tools in general are very important in leatherwork. (Also in other things, I'm told). And with leather tools, the skiver is right up there in importance, re: sharpness. More expensive skivers/round knives hold an edge better than cheap, conversely, cheaper ones work, but stropping after each cut is almost needed with those.

I wish I'd thought of that. I cut all my welts to fit, which is a pain. At least with sheaths. Holsters, the welt makes a turn at the bottom such that I make two parts to the welt. Such a simple solution.

I was doing some work with webbing a while back, but adapting my CB4500 to use different thread, tensions, needles, etc. got to be too much trouble. Trying to get the 4500 re-set to do leather again was a challenge. I'd bet that machine would handle those duties quite well. I didn't do enough of it to get another machine, and had no place to put it anyway. If you think you'll ever get into strap work with webbing, I'd keep it.

Yes, that will cut the leather badly. Is that really what Osborne tools look like today? That's pathetic. Looks like it was made with an angle grinder, with a coarse wheel.

My CB4500 has a lock nut in the threaded shaft, same size as the one that is at the base of the black knob. (In fact, that's where mine usually rests, against the one next to the black know, don't use it much.) It locks against the c-shaped part, and keeps it from changing position. Your machine doesn't appear to have that nut. It's not as quick to make changes, but it allows you to stop the knurled ring at any location, instead of just where there's a notch.

When I still had my plane, I could be there in about 10-15 minutes and look down at the hikers on the top, from above. I couldn't help thinking about how long it had taken them to get there! I never thought Pikes Peak was that photogenic. The only view I can remember is from the Springs, though.