Denster

Boomstick: Thanks for the response on the squeaking holster situation. In any case whether it exists or not it's probably a good idea to go for a secure glue up. I'm not real good at doing build alongs but here is a link where I got the original idea. This guy did a really good build along with detailed photos. http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?...ic;f=2;t=000066 As to expanding the idea to buttons all I did was punch circles in 1/8" reductions then hot glued them to a dowel and shaped on my belt sander soaked them with glue again and finished by hand. Nothing wrong with staying with the tried and true methods. Certainly no one can fault your results. Regarding your comments on the the thumb break you are probably right. I think when I get some time to experiment I'll try it with the throat collar and see if it stiffens it enough I can drop from 8oz to 6oz. Make one up for myself and carry it around for a couple of months to see how it holds up If it works good I'll post it.

I suppose you could you'd just have to be carefull how you applied it.

Twin Oaks. Thanks for mentioning that about adding tannins with the tea. That is sometimes necessary. As to adding tea leaves to the roon. I think I'll let you do that experiment. Give it a whirl take a few sips and report back to us:)

Shorts. Bow making is as fun as holster making just not as profitable. I make Osage self bows and Bamboo backed Osage bows. On the superglue with leather I should have mentioned it is important what superglue you use. In this case I found the best was the cheapest. I use the cheap stuff from Wal-Mart five black tubes for $1.99. It is super thin and penetrates well. One other thing I forgot while working don't scratch any itches and keep some fingernail polish remover or acitone handy because you will eventually glue yourself to yourself:)

Here is what works for me. Your mileage may vary. Making the vinegaroon. Get one gallon of the cheap Wal-Mart vinegar. I like it because it is cheap and has a pop off cap in case I forget to bleed off the gases. 5 pads of OOOO steel wool. Any steel wool will work the finer stuff just dissolves quicker. Degrease the steel wool. I use simple green full strength and then rinse the wool. Forget about rust it doesn't add anything to the mix. Tear the wool into strips and stuff it in the vinegar cap and put away for three or four weeks untill the wool is all dissolved then strain through a coffee filter or whatever into another jug. Your "roon" is now ready for use. Actually you can use it after a week or two but it works better after a month. To use dip your leather into the roon for thirty seconds or so and set aside for ten or fifteen minutes. The baking soda rinse may or may not be necessasary. I use this for holsters so I do it and it does get rid of most of the smell. Let dry and use as normal. The color will vary with the leather and the amount of tannins in it. The reaction is between the ferric acetate and the tannins. You will have from a medium blue to a deep navy. When the finished product is oiled with neetsfoot it will go jet black. You can also wipe the roon onto leather with the same effect just not as deep penetration. I dip because I color pee assembly and want the color all the way through so I don't have to re-do when I edge or cut grooves. Why use instead of dye. Cheaper, easier, more even, will not transfere to clothing, did I mention cheap. That's all there is to it. Hope this helps.

Boomstick. Those are some very interesting comments. The super glue on the edges is one for the notebook. Thank you. I had not considered baby powder on the belt slot. I believe it could lock up the slide on a pistol. By the way that wasn't by any chance a personal experience was it? Regarding the squeaking of a holster due not the panels not being glued between the stitches. Have you ever personally observed a case like this? The reason I'm asking is that early on I only glued the edges of holsters to hold them for stitching, by hand in those days, and never experienced any squeak nor had any reported to me by guys I made them for. I am curious as to a first hand experience. The reason I asked about superglue and it's potential was an application I have used it for numerous times, not related to holster making. That sparked an idea I've been toying with related to holsters. Some time ago I picked up an idea on TradGang a traditional archery site. A fellow used layers of different color veg-tan saturated with superglue to build up a back on the grip of a longbow and for the arrow rest. It looked really beautiful so I gave it a try. Worked great and all of my bows now have it. I learned that you can control the penetration of superglue on leather. Put down a thin coat first and let dry and the next coats will penetrate no further. Keep putting down wet coats and you can get it to penetrate nearly clear through 6oz. So why would you want to do this? Once you have the layers built up to suit and the leather saturated let the glue dry for a couple of hours shape with a file and sand from 80grit to 220 and polish with 0000 steel wool and you have what I would call leather under glass. Beautiful. I've also used it to make leather buttons for archery bracers. So what does this have to do with holsters? The idea I was toying with was to use superglue on the flesh side of holster throat collars to stiffen them possibly on the flesh side of the thumb piece on a thumb break instead of a plastic or metal stiffener. What do you guys think? Worth experimenting with or should I go back and sit down at the stitcher and put my brain in neutral?

Twin Oaks: You're welcome, thank you for the kind words. You made some good points regarding attitudes. It is much more useful to express ideas and if someone has a different experience for them to state that also. It is not useful to just dismiss the idea without stating the specifice reason and being product specific. ie: not comparing apples to oranges. If you have done tests with a specific product in a specific application and it failed then state how it was done and how it failed. As to the dreaded squeaking holster. There seems to be more than one thought on the matter and why and if it happens. I would be very interested to hear from someone that has actually experienced it where it was not a part of breaking in and went away quickly. For myself I have experienced squeaking leather but never a holster. My experience as a retired cop, like Lobo, relates to belts not holsters. Every three to five years we would have to purchase a new Sam Brown belt because that is what the department required. For the first several days the squad room sounded like my joints during a weather change:) After this period the belts learned to behave themselves and adapted. This may have been what Lobo's experience was and what he was relating. K-Man brought up an interesting point about TightbondIII I'll be interested to hear what his findings are. The tightbond series are darn near wonder glues as far as woodworking and also seem to have an affinity for leather. My second business is in traditional archery. I've seen guys use TBIII to bond sinew and rawhide to the backs of self wood bows with good sucess. Now if you want to talk about a stressful application that is it. The traditional glue for this is liquid hide glue which while hugely strong is very succeptable to heat and moisture and the TB is not. As an aside. Does anyone have any thought on the use of superglue in leather working?

Shorts. Glad you found it useful.

No need to apologize no offense taken. I think Lobo's original post was more presenting his observation and an option rather than a suggestion to change, but that's just the way I took it. Rather than rely on another posters statement that it was not a safe and secure methodology for constructing a holster and it had been conclusively shown, which it had not, and to satisfy my curiosity I decided to do some tests. Before I made a switch to Glue-All I'd do still more testing. Since I've got a couple of Gallons of Leatherweld that won't be anytime soon. For the record Bianchi does not soak holsters in Hot oil. In the DVD series your are refering to he mentions warming the oil during the winter time to about 80degrees which is the same thing it recommends on the gallons I buy from Weaver's. As to soaking, the holster and belt he makes in the series are 7oz lined with 6oz. That will soak up a lot of neetsfoot without affecting the integrity of the holster. It would be totally out of place on a CCW rig. Speaking of CCW I looked at your site. Damn nice holsters. If you weren't so far behind I'd order one and I make holsters.

No one was suggesting you switch. In any case you wouldn't save any money with Leatherweld, it is more expensive than Barges. I only decided to try it when I observed John Bianchi recommending it. As to the comparison with Elmer's Glue-All that is just what I observed.

Work Sharp. Yes that is what I was refering to. Late night rain fade.

If you want the best thing for sharpening and honing check out the sharp-all by drill doctor. Sears caries them and has very good prices usually. I originally bought one for plane irons and wood chisels and it will get them scary sharp. I also use it now for sharpening my tube and bag punches and round knife. Get the more expensive one, about $200, it runs slower and has more features.

You can't tell it is there at all. I take great care to get the glue clear out to the edge on all surfaces. If you get some squeeze out it can just be wiped off.

The Elmer's Glue-All is what Lobo was using. The leatherweld dries clear as does the Elmers and is flexible. How thick you put it on determines your working time. Thinly spread you have a couple of minutes. Good for holsters. When I'm doing belts I put down a wetter layer with a foam brush and you have time to do both the belt and the liner. The belt I'm wearing right now is 8oz veg-tan lined with 4oz calfskin. Made it about two years ago and glued up with leatherweld and no problems. No cracking and no separation.

I read this thread with some interest. I’ve wondered for some time about the similarity of Elmer’s Glue-All and Leatherweld. Just was never motivated to experiment. I’ve used Leatherweld exclusively for a couple of years now, having switched from Barge’s to cut down on the set up time and have been very pleased with it. Quick set up and very strong bond. I’ve also used Glue-All for general purpose woodworking when I wanted time to position the pieces and the work would be doweled or screwed. In that application I have no complaints. Just to be clear about what we are talking about here. Glue-All is a white glue but very different from the Elmer’s white glue you get in the school section at Wally-World, that glue only offers a temporary and weak bond adequate for school projects and safe if eaten. Glue-All is a permanent bond glue best for porous materials such as paper, cloth, (leather is porous) and good for semi porous such as wood and pottery. It is sold in the hardware section by the 4oz, pt, qt and gallon, pretty inexpensively I might add. Yellow woodworking glues mentioned in some of the responses are a different animal entirely. I decided to do a direct comparison between Glue-All and Leatherweld in several areas and these are the results. Observations: Glue-All and Leatherweld are both the same color and viscosity. As near as I can tell smell the same and taste similar. Dry time: I smeared a thin layer of both Leatherweld and Glue all on the flesh side of Veg-Tan hide. The Leatherweld dried beyond tack in two minutes the Glue-All beyond tack in just under four minutes. Bond: I glued several straps of 8oz veg-tan flesh side to flesh side clamped and let dry for ten minutes. I took four of the straps and threw them into a sink full of hot water to soak and proceeded to pull apart a strap glued with Leather weld and a strap glued with Glue-All. Leatherweld: Separated through the glue line with a strong pull, the bond was more than adequate for sewing and handling. Glue-All : Separated through the glue line with about the same force required for Leatherweld again adequate for sewing and handling. I then removed the four straps from the sink, which were by now thoroughly saturated. I put one each of Leatherweld and Glue-All in the convection oven set at 180deg. I then proceeded to pull apart the other two straps from the soak. Leatherweld: Separated through the glue line with only slightly less force than when dry. Glue-All: Separated through the glue line with about the same amount of force. After an hour in the convection oven the two straps had curled and discolored. I removed them and pulled them apart. Leatherweld: No separation noted on the edges a significant amount of force was required to pull apart and separation was not through the glue line instead leather was pulled from the opposing piece. Glue-All: No separation of edges and again significant force was required to pull apart and separation was not through glue line but leather pulled from opposing face. The final test was to glue straps and let dry for several hours. Leatherweld: Significant force required to separate. Separation was not through glue line rather from leather being pulled from opposing face. Glue-All: Again significant force required to separate and separation was not through the glue line but from leather pulled from opposing face. As a matter of curiosity I bonded two pieces together. One of which was glued with Leatherweld and the other with Glue-All. The bond obtained after ten minutes dry time clamped was indistinguishable from those obtained with same type gluing. It kind of looks to me as if old Lobo might be on to something

Scott Just paypaled you for one of the rotary burnishers. Dennis

Scott Is that email address your paypal account address? I wantto order one. Dennis

Tina Doesn't hurt to poke a hole or two, but then it's a mess when you pour it. Check the lid when you buy it if it's like the wal-mart brand and just snaps down you don't have to worry if it's a screw lid just don't tourn it on tight or poke a hole in the lid either will work.

Tina This is the way I do it. I gallon of wal-mart vinegar, I like this brand because it has a pop off top that will release if I forget to bleed off the gas every few days. Five 0000 steel wool pads. I soak the steel wool pads in Simple Green to degrease and then rinse and tear into strips and and stuff into the vinegar. I use 0000 because there is more surface area for the acid to work on. Shake it up every few days. I about a month it will have turned a deep burgundy and most of the acid has been used up. Strain it through a coffee filter to remove the remaining particulate and you are ready to go. I generally have a second gallon brewing so I can replenish the one I am using out of. The viegaroon will work after about a week, as has been stated ,but will still be pretty acidy and you might want to neutralize with baking soda.

This is how I do it. I outline the gun on a piece of pattern stock following the exact outline of the weapon except under the trigger guard where I extend about half the thickness of the guard. Then I cut out the outline and I have my stitchline pattern. Once the holster is glued up I put the gun into it and with my stylus I mark where the stitchline starts behind the trigger guard and ends at the muzzle. I then line up my stitching pattern top and bottom with these two marks and trace it with the stylus. Then I use a freehand groover following the line made by the stylus. Works everytime with a nice tight stitchline, no holsters in the trash, no turning the air blue with invectives. Life is good. Hope this helps.

Bruce Thanks for the response. I guess your experience may be why Tippmann discontinued it. I was guessing, just looking at it, that having an octopus in your geneology might be helpful. I did wonder what you did with the presser foot. Do you just raise it to the max and rest it on top of the attachment and let it thump along?

On a whim I bought a box stitching attachment for the Tippmann Boss on eBay. Tippmann no longer makes this attachment and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with it or possibly an instruction sheet I could purchase a copy of?

Hi Nice looking holster. A price around $60 seems to me about right.

I sell a lot on eBay. You can do well if you put some effort into it. John is right good pictures and a good but not overly wordy description sells your items. I always run basic auction starting at a dollar. Is it risky? I used to think so but experience has proven that wrong. On the other hand I had very little luck with fixed price listings. Ask yourself when you do your listings what you would want to see and know if you were a potential buyer. Answer all questions no matter how stupid they appear to be and offer a reasonable return priveledge. It works and you can make money. eBay has changed a lot since I started selling there in 98. I don't agree with a lot of the changes but it's their site and their rules. I'll stick with them as long as I can still make money.

Unlikely that your knife has lost it's temper unless the edge has been heated in some manner. Most likely cause is not removing the wire edge when sharpening. If the wire edge is there it will cut fine for a few inches then roll over. Light stroping will reallign it and it will cut for a few more inches and roll. I remove the wire edge by honing on 1200 grit glued to a piece of plate glass then stropping on a rouge charged leather. I can cut for quite a while before I hear the leather being cut. When I hear the crunch I go right to the strop. I can keep the knife going most of a day before honing again.