Denster

Just drill the haft out very lightly oversize clean the haft of the awl and roll it in some two ton epoxy and stick it in wipe off the excess and let it cure. It will not come out again without heat. Keep a block of beeswax where you are stitching and every few holes just wipe the blade of the awl front and back (some guys stab it) over the wax and it will make going in and comming out ever so much easier. Saw an interesting tool once. A guy had a backing block he used on the side opposite of where he was punching holes to protect his fingers from the awl, the block had a hole in it filled with beeswax and the blade was lubed each time it went through. Seemed to work well for him.

I have two of the aluminum frame Boss stitchers and I don't think they can be beat for the work I do. (Mostly holsters & a few belts). I have never had any of the problems mentioned by other posters. Keep them clean and oiled and check the handle bolt every once in awhile as it tends to work loose or blue locktite it. They run better with poly than nylon. Adjust your bobbin tension to about one pound with 277 and heavier, less with smaller diameter thread and adjust your top thread for a nice stitch. Only have to mess with the tension when making a major thread change. If I were doing a lot of belts or other things that had long stitch runs I would get a Cobra or Adler but for short runs with lots of curves and turns the Boss wins. Tippmann has them on eBay and their website right now for $1,195 and used ones sell on eBay for $800 to $1000 depending on the accessories so they hold their value. Oh yeah and you won't herniate yourself moving a Boss.

Ray From one retired copper turned leathersmith to another, congratulations on your success. Website looks good and I agree with your not having direct order from the site. You make nice holsters and it wouldn't take long to get overwhelmed. Best of luck! Dennis

The Weaver Master Tool roundknives are super for the money. I have two. With only some stropping they will stay sharp for hours. I don't think you can find a better knife for any price. Just my opinion and yes I have Osborne's old and new the Weaver has them beat hands down.

Boomstick and Tac are right on. While it is do-able by molding to the gun with the largest overall dimensions it won't be right. Sort of like dropping a High Power in a 1911 holster. Even though he requested it the customer won't be happy and I'll give you one guess who he'll blame.

Boomstick: Thanks a bunch for the pics. I appreciate you're going to the trouble to do that. Josh : Here are the pics you asked for. As you can see I clamb the sides of the bag to the table. One of the tricks I learned as it keeps the bag from bunching up and it pulls straight down. All of those fancy attachments on the side of the pump are the accessory kit I bought from that site I posted. Basically it is just a filter guage and vacuum adjustment for how much vacuum you want to pull. That wood disc is the platnen I mentioned. It is grooved all the way around to keep a seal from being made around the air outlet before a sufficeint vacuum in the bag has been established. The white rod is rolled onto the end of the bag and the blue cover snapped over it to seal the bag.

Bronson: Looks kind of gimicky to me and time consuming to set up. Check that link I gave Larry with a little searching on that site he gives some good info for do it yourselfers to make their own bags and alternate vacuum sources.

Deb. The problem with that idea would be that the smooth sides of the bag would form a seal by themselves without establishing sufficient vacuum in the are of the holster. The purpose of the ridges inside the bag is to allow air to be evacuated. WhenI tried this method I used a couple ov sheets of heavy guage vynal inside the bag. The vacuum sealer will work for forming holsters but with the expense of the bags if you do very many you would have paid for a professional system. However if your intent is only to make one or two holsters and you have a food-saver go for it.

No problem Josh. I'll get some more picks in the morning.

Sure Josh. Anything particular you'd like to see?

Larry: Here is a link to where I purchased the vacuum bag. I also purchased the continuous run parts kit from them. Not absolutely necessasary but very handy. http://www.veneersupplies.com/product_info...roducts_id=2321 By the way I don't believe the shop vac will produce enough power for the job. You can get a 2.5cfm vacuum pump from Harbor Freight for about $80 or less when on sale. More than enough oopmh.

Boomstick: I sure would appreciate seeing those. Oh one thing I forgot to mention the holsters in the pictures are made of 7oz leather. TK: The hammers are back for a purpose. (guns are not loaded of course) If I don't have the hammers back and the safety up the slide tends to get pushed back when I push the gun into the holster for forming and it gives me one more thing to fiddle with.

K-Man : Kere are the pictures that show the detail that is brought up by the full vacuum. These just came out of the bag all I did while they were in was run my thumb along the slide frame line. Larry: I ordered the bag on line. The site is on my other computer I'll post you a link later. Yes the holster is sewen and wet prior to placing it in the bag. Careful with the retirement idea. That was my intention make a few holsters get a little extra fun money and take a big deduction on my taxes for a home business. Worked fine for the first year. Now I work harder than I did when I was working and I'm going to have to be really creative to keep from paying taxes.

rhall: Are you making a vacuum table? I'm not sure if I read your post correctly. Anyway what I'm using is a vacuum bag does both sides of the holster at once. If you allready have the pump the bag closure and inlet valve are only $45. Might be an easier way to go.

Bronsn: I use a bleeder but not the cloth you are refering to. The outlet valve has cutouts and I also made a platnen out of 1/2" plywood that has cutout going completely around, this goes under the outlet valve together they keep the bag from sealing itself at the outlet before the bag has pulled down around the holster.

K-Man. That is probably due to my poor photographic skills I should have cross lighted that to show the detail. The pocket holsters were formed at 18mgh while the unit is capable of 30mgh+ as it maxes out the guage. The pump I have is 2.5cfm one with more oomph might make a difference. What it is capable of for example with a Taurus PT1911 it will bring up the forward slide serrations take down pin end and slide/frame delineation. I'll be forming 1911s and High Powers in the next couple of days and will get some pics. I've considered making some lighter guage vynal bags for greater flexibility. Actually the foam pads didn't do a bad job however this was dense close cell foam. Can't expect them to be as good as gum rubber under 6tons though. In any case just using the bag provides better results and the advantage of being able to work details through it. I'll keep playing with it and see what I come up with. In it's current state it provides a good close fit without further work and the lines are exposed if I want to do a close detail job. I find that tedious. I'm not in yours and Boomsticks class when it comes to that.

K-Man: Didn't say it was a new idea just was interested if anyone else was using it and any tips and tricks they may have learned. I wouldn't expect you to have any marring with the press. What I meant by marring was as opposed to doing the initial forming by hand. The initial detail you are refering too is what I was interested in improving. Just a couple of things I have come up with is having a platnen in the bag to help increase drawdown, warming the bag to increase flexibility, Tried using foam pads over the gun/holster OK results not as good as just the bag. No real advantage to it over the press if you allready have one.

Boomstick: Thanks for the link. That answers my question. Seems like the same amount of detail press or vacuum on the initial pulldown. Like I stated the vacuum has the advantage of being able to work some fine details through the bag at least on the face side. Working time from the time I put it in the bag till I take it out, mind you this is two guns at a time, is about four minutes add a couple of minutes if I decide to work in some additional detail. As a matter of interest the total cost on this whole setup was about $175. While it is a somewhat significant time savings fom doing it by hand I found the most important thing was that there was virtually no chance of marring the work. Shorts. I'm curious why would you not consider it for forming leather?

Boomstick: Here are the pictures you requested. That is if I did this right. One is a Sig226R holster finished the detail is just as it came from the bag. The two pocket holsters just came out of the bag at a reduced vacuum as i did not want a real tight mold on a pocket holster. There are a couple of pics of the bag and pump. rdb: I did the search you refered to before I tried this. No one had mentioned this type of outfit basically it related to seal-a meal and a few post on a vacuum table. Different animal same principal. Jordan: I originally started heading this direction after a post I read of yours regarding your use of a foodsaver. I tried that and it works after a fashion. Big drawback is the bags with their air channels, lack of power, etc. Think of this as a foodsaver on steroids. Read that lots of steroids. I'd really like to see some photos of holsters that have been hydraulically pressed as they came out of the press to compare the amount of detail brought up by each method. One plus I hve found with this method is that some fine details can be worked through the bag while it is still under vacuum whithout any chance of marring the wet leather. If anyone is interested I'll post some tips and tricks with this method later. Ig I don't get to the shop and get some work done my btter half is going to KA.

Hadn't thought of that. Might work with one of the seal a meal devices. What I was refering to though was one of the vacuum presses as used to glue veneer to a base wood. Basically mine is a 2ftX2ft heavy vynal bag.The bag has a closing device on one end and a air evacuation connection in the center. I use a 2.5cfm vacuum pump and can pull 30mhg. This size bag can do two holsters at once and really puuls the leather down. Boomstick: I'll get some pictures in the morning of the results and of the outfit.

Just curious if anyone other than me used a vacuum bag and pump for molding holsters. Wondered what your experience good, bad, or indifferent was. I've had pretty good luck with it myself after working out a few bugs.

Burnishing doesn't take pressure when using one of this type just touching the leather to the burnisher and the speed and friction does the job. The fantastic leather edge burnisher does take pressure not a whole lot but some as you are creating heat against the wool felt pad to melt the beeswax/parafin mix into the leather.

I'll make it easy. Here is the link for the rosewood burnisher. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=15051

Hi Your option one will work great for burnishing. It's a take off on the method shown in John Bianchi's holster making video. Option 2 is a bit pricy unless you like to do wood turning. Go to the marketplace section of this website there is a guy there selling a allready turned rosewood burnisher for $38 shipped that can be chucked into a drill press or hand drill. I bought one and it does great the guy is a good craftsman. I replaced my well worn one with this one. Hope this helps.

When you apply neetsfoot it will darken all vegtans. You will always have light and dark places at first. Let it sit for a couple of days and it will all even out as the oil migrates through the fibers. Doesn't matter whose leather it is that's just the way it works.