Denster

I use a 8" antler tine polished to a high finish on the ball and tip, a set of real bone folders and some basswood clay modeling tools. The modeling tools were a suggestion from Partilce and are really useful.

Weaver's has Hermann Oak drum dyed black in 6/7 and 7/8 strap sides. Very reasonable price and it molds very well. I use a lot of it for holsters.

Give Kevin at Springfield Leather a call. They will sell you a couple of sqft. The last I bought was very reasonable and really nice.

The rear slot and front loop need to be parralel to each other. When I do a pattern for an Avenger style I start with a belt width drawn out on the posterboard then lay the gun over it at the cant I want and draw out the front half of the holster. Cut that and fold along the center line to draw out the rear and finish cutting out. Next transfere the belt lines to the rear of the holster. Using a square mark out your rear slot 90deg to the belt lines. I use the pattern and the belt lines to draw out the throat reinforcement and incorporated rear belt loop and stitch lines for the belt. Hope that is clearer than mud.

+1 on the Bianchi videos. Go to www.smartflix.com and you can rent the set for a lot less than it costs to buy it. To answer your question they are cut on a curve and John shows just how to do it. Lots of good info.

The advantage I find to boning the details through the bag is that it takes far less pressure and the details are held in place and I don't have to go back over them. I find I get better results than I do with the press and boning at the bench. Setup and teardown is only a matter of a minute or two. Probably mostly boils down to personal preference as you certainly can't fault K-Man's results in any way and he does make a point that a press can do double duty as a clicker and I find mine useful working with kydex..

I've used vacuum almost exclusively for the past couple of years. In my opinion, with the proper setup, it is better than using a press. I do have and use both. Vacuum has the big advantage of being able to bone the detail right through the bag. Just don't go the cheap route with a vynal bag the slightly more expensive poly bag is best. As to wrinkles just clamp your bag to your work surface with spring clamps and you will have no wrinkle problem. Do a search for vacuum here and you will come up with a rather lengthy post showing pictures of the outfit I use. Most of which came from veneersupply as I recall.

About a three second dunk is enough for 8/9OZ. More is too much for forming and molding but has no effect on heat drying. Get a oven thermometer you can read through the glass and set the temmp to turn off at 130 degrees.

The Blackhawk guns work well. Sorry to say though that if you ordered from Botach you may not live long enough to get the gun.

With really heavy thread like 416 it sometimes helps to just bring the thread between the discs without wrappng completely around. With lighter thread make a complete wrap. The thread will be around the bolt with most of the tension provided by the pressure of the discs on the corssed over thread.

Best to stick with the Ring's Blue Guns. The ASP red guns are frequently not in spec for holster making. Just go direct with Rings to order.

Bellies can be used for all kinds of neat stuff. Knife sheaths, Butt covers, archery bracers, pocket quivers are just a few that come to mind.

If you have even a remotely close stitch line the railed frames wouldn't fit anyway so mold away.

Dwight. The terminology you are looking for is the S type chisel point needle. It's really the only good one for sewing heavy leather anyway.

That's interesting. I've not had any problems with either hard or soft jacked cracking. I do prefer the soft jacked for me at least it works easier and the finished product looks nicer. That said I wouldn't hesitate to use hard jacked if it were all that was available and the customer wanted horsehide. Propably more of a situation of preference and working tecnique than anything I suppose.

Steven. Vinegaroon is ferric acetate made by dissolving iron (most commonly steel wool) in vinegar. This reacts with the tannins in leather turning it black, a very deep black when treated with neetsfoot oil. Since it is not a dye and the color is "in" the leather it does not bleed. A comment on stiffening veg tanned leather after forming. This does not occur from the moisture removing anything from the leather but from the moisture releasing collagens from the leather it is much more pronounced when heat is applied between 120 and 130 degrees for around a half an hour right after the forming and is significant with either veg tanned horse or cow. Think liquid hide glue here which is actually a product of the collagens. The fibers are essentially glued into place to hold the molding. I find that either horse or cow makes a fine holster. I like the soft jacked horse that I buy from Steven for holsters as it more readily absorbes moisture and takes molding better although as Jeff said not as well as cowhide with the detail molding he is noted for. The final product, after heat drying, is just as firm as using hard jacked just with better detail and it takes finish better. Longevity wise I don't know that there is a whole lot of difference and the final determiner is how hard it is used.

The punches from Texas Custom are made from good material. You may find though that you need to regrind and resharpen them to a less blunt angle for use on heavy veg tan. I had to do that with mine and to the set Particle received. It also helps to have a 3 or 4 pound maul to drive them 4lb is better. I can go through two layers of 8/9 Hermann Oak with one solid whack. You also need a good poly board and a solid surface to punch over. Once properly ground and sharpened they rarely need touched up.

You really need to try Hermann Oak it is as good as we all say it is. If you want tor try before you comit to a large purchase call Kevin at Springfield Leather as they will cut you a section that is within your budget. Good people to deal with.

Ceaser The 40 durometer pads aren't hard they are firm gum rubber. With the vacuum system I do the detail boning right through the poly vacuum bag. Do a search on this site for a detail post I did on this system with pictures just search for vacuum. The pump I use came from Harbor Freight it is 3.5cfm less than $100US.

Put the holster in a zip lock freezer bag and put into a padded bubble mailer and send first class mail. Less than $3 with the cost of the bubble mailer and will get anywhere in the US in three days sometimes less.

I don't believe you will get the results you want with hard rubber pads. Remember the rubber has to conform to the surface detail of the gun to move the leather into following those details. That does not take a huge amount of pressure to form the leather. 40 durometer gum rubber pads seem to work pretty well for this. Vacuum bags also work well and is what I use almost exclusively.

Do not have a gun for self defense because you are incapable of defending yourself and it will only be used against you. Well if you believe yourself incompetent to defend yourself and choose to be a victim that is certainly your right. However you have absoloutely no right to make that choice for anyone else. It is an absolute fact that average citizens successfully defend themselves from violent predators thousands of times a year in this Country. It is also an absolute fact that States that have concealed carry laws have seen a significant decrease in violent crime rates while those that do not have seen an increase The old saw that"when seconds count the police are only minutes away" is absolutely true. That from a 35 year law enforcement veteran. Register all guns then if someone is caught with an unregistered gun you can penalize them severly. That ideology accepts that it is perfectly OK to impinge on the freedoms of the law abiding to attempt to control the criminal element. Most states put the responsibility for crime where it lies, with the criminal. It's one degree of offense, say robbery, while unarmed. A more serious offense if you are armed and if you are armed with a firearm it is the more serious offense plus a separate offense for using a firearm.

You might try giving crimson trace a call, explain what you are doing. They might sell you an inert shell to attach to your dummy gun.

Interesting thread. Hadn't seen it before. Learned a few things. I wasn't aware that Australia had sunk to the same level as the Brits with their insane equal force rule regarding self defense. Makes you wonder how much force a woman being raped is allowed to use? An observation on gun control laws. Once you have laws prohibiting criminals from possesing firearms and prohibiting the criminal missuse of firearms anything beyond that should be called Law Abiding Citizen Control Laws, because law abiding citizens are the only ones who will obey them.

Hey Lobo! Thanks for the tip. I had to go to Lowe's this morning to return some excess roofing material. Went to check on the scissors and Lowe and behold they have them for $9.98. I have to cut patterns this afternoon and if they work as well as you say my poor old carpel tunnled wrist will thank you aslo.