Denster

You won't find better service and after sale support than Tippman. End of story.

Like I said it's not a bad thing. Once it is broken in you get a great fit that lasts and lasts.

Yes I've noticed that. I believe it is because of the blocky square nature of the Glock. You can get the stitchline real close and when you mold get a lot of leather in con tact with the pistol. Not a bad thing just takes a bit longer to break in.

No downside whatsoever. You will end up with a very nice belt.

Dwight Must be something with us Ohio boys. I have two Boss stitchers that I use for 90 percent of my holster work.

One other thing. Make sure you get an air filter to put inline between the compressor and the aerostitch. Keeps moisture out of your machine. Also pick up some air tool oil. Put four or five drops into the foot pedals oill inlet every time you use it.

The one I bought was 3.5cfm. That is not enough to run continously but you don't really need to. There is an air reservoire with the compressor. Most folks can get by with one of the pancake compressors. It mostly depends on the type of sewing you are doing. If you are doing really long stitch runs at a fast speed you will need a larger compressor.

Harboer Freight has a heavy duty tool stand that works great. That's what I have mine mounted on. Only about $40 but you have to assemble it yourself.

What Luke said about using one size smaller in the bobbin. Having the extra pressor feet is very useful. I found though that the material guide and stirrup pad were not really necessary and sold mine.

It is an ether of ethelyene glycol which is antifreeze very close to alchohol. In any case it acts as a solvent for the collagens in the leather the same way alchohol or heat and water does essentially glueing the fibers in to place. Much less expensive to use those methods. None will make belly leather suitable for holsters.

OK it is an ether of ethelyne Glycol which is antifreeze. Very simialr to alcohol. The effect is the same it acts as a solvent for the collagens in leather the same way alcohol or water conbined with heat does. Essentially glueing the fibers into place. My original post on the subject explained that.It will not make belly leather suitable for holsters. If you need that effect for cases or something you can get the same much cheaper just using alchohol or water and heat.

I think Dan was refering to revolvers as that is a popular place to put it with the enclosed hammer J frames. Will work equally well over the slide of an auto.

I'm not sure there is such a thing as pull through snaps. The pull through designs I've seen used regular line 24 snaps.

Well it looks like I kicked a sacred cow right in the udder here. I agree that buying quality tools is the wisest investment. The "best" tools is a matter subject to opinion. As to the future value. I buy the knives I use for practical purposes not investment. That said I like the folks that believe that the older tools are so much better. I have owned most of the old names over the years and I still buy them when I can find them. Like Bruce I clean them up sharpen them and sell to those folks at a tidy profit. I also agree that if you properly maintain your knives they rarely need to see a stone. Right off hand I can't recall the last time I sharpened any of the three knives, an older Osborne and two Weaver's, that I regularly use. When I say regularly I mean cutting out 8 to 10 holster patterns and misc accessories every day, five days a week. Gee! Does that make me an active leather professional?

OK! OK! I'm not going to fight with you guys. God knows I'm as big a tool junkie as anyone. I still maintain there is no magic steel. By magic steel I meant one that stays sharp nearly forever and when it does need touched up is easy for anyone to do. I think you guys lost track of the OP's question. A person new to round knives and sharpening them. Do you really think that an expensive knive requiring several diamond hones to sharpen is the place to start?

We will just have to agree to disagree. I still maintain there is no magic steel. A harder blade will maintain an edge longer at the expense of more difficulty sharpening. As to new knives arriving dull and taking three to four hours to sharpen. That is just not so. A Weaver is ready to go right out of the package. A new Osborne might take five or ten minutes. The worst I've seen are those from Tandy, that I've sharpened for friends, and they only took slightly more time. Again as to sharpening three to four times per project as opposed to sharpening every three or four projects. With a sharp Osborne or Weaver I can cut out eight to ten holster patterns before it is time to touch up the blade on a paper rouge wheel which takes about thirty seconds and I'm ready to go again. There is nothing wrong with owning a custom knife if it suits your fancy. Understanding what you own is the important thing.

Then simply get the Osborne, or one from Weaver or give Bruce a call. You likely won't get more than $60 invested and you will have a very good knife to learn with and use for a long while. At that it is only about 15 or 20 dollars more than a guaranteed piece of junk. The point is you can spend 150 to 300 on a round knife but you are buying looks not useablity.

You may be right Art. It doesn't have a maker's name just the tool series and most of that series are Barry King so I assumed. My bad! Anyway it is a great knife.

It sounds like you may be setting yourself up for a dissapointment due to overexpectation. There are many good round knives out there but none made of magic steel that stays sharp for a long time. When using any round knife you need to be stropping it frequently. And if you are cutting out several projects in a day you will need to restore the edge more than once. It is imperative that you learn to sharpen the knife correctly. Some steels will hold an edge somewhat longer than others but this can be a double edged sword in that it makes them more difficult or requiring special means to sharpen. It has been my experience that beyond about $60 with a round knife you are only paying for aesthetics. The Osborne's or the Barry King knives sold by Weaver are about as good as you are going to get as a balance between ease of sharpening and edge holding ability.

Or you can rent them here. www.smartflix.com I agree Chuck's DVDs are excellent.

Thanks for the positive replies guys. Hope it helps someone with their work.

Thanks again for the info. I guess I'll go with Tippmann. If you are satisfied with them I'm sure I will be.

K-Man Thanks for the info! Do you have any preference as to who makes your dies. I do business with Weaver, Tippmann and Texas Custom but I've never had any clicker dies made.

I was wondering is that drum dyed WC backs and is the color struck through on it. Certainly is a rich color. K-Man I'm curious. How large a part are you able to click out with your Weaver bench press?

This subject came up on another forum and I offered to do a tutorial on the subject as it seems to be a problem area for a lot of makers. I thought it might be useful to post it over here also as the question seems to come up frequently. Right off the bat let me say! This is not the only way to do it but it is the way I do it. It is simple and works every time. Getting a close stitchline in a holster is important as it is mostly responsible for it's long term retention ability. I'm doing this with a lot of photos because drawing mental pictures with words is not one of my strong suits. Let's get to it. Photo one: First I establish a base line with a 90 degree verticle line on a piece of posterboard. Photo two: Next I lay the pistol or revolver, in this case a P7PSP, with the top of the slide right on the verticle line and the muzzle flush with the baseline. Then carefully outline the triggerguard to the muzzle. Photo three: Now just above the baseline 1/8 inch I draw in another line parallel to the base line. The purpose of this is that with some holster designs I want the muzzle flush with the end of the holster and I will use this higher baseline to register on the bottom of the holster. On other designs I want the muzzle recessed 1/8 from the end of the holster and use the original baseline to register. Photo four: Getting a little ahead of myself I use my stitchline pattern to lay out my glue lines on the inside of the panels once I have established the measurements to follow. I'm kind of fussy about gluing as much of the panels as possible. One of my pet peeves with holsters is seeing a separation of the panels in the belt slots. Photo five: Here I've glued up the two panels and stitched the outer one. Then I insert the gun and push it as far up against the slide stitchline as I can and place a spring clamp as close as I can get it to the triggerguard. Photo six: Now since the leather isn't wet I can't get as close to the slide stitchline as I want so I measure the gap between the top of the slide and the stitchine. That is where I am pointing with my stylus. In this case it was 1/4 inch. I take half of that measurement, in this case 1/8 inch and mark that much ahead of the lips of the spring clamp in the perifereal stitch groove. Photo seven: Now I do the same to the bottom again marking in the perifereal stitch groove. Photo eight: Now I remove the gun and flatten the panels out. I measure top and bottom from the slide stitchline to the dots. In this case it is 3&1/4 and 2&1/8 inch. I write these measurments on the stitchline pattern. Photo nine: Now I use the pattern registered on the bottom of the holster to connect the dots. Photo ten: Now stitch up the triggerguard panel. Photo eleven: Did it work? Sure looks like it. I can now use this stitchline pattern on future holsters by just measuring over from the slide stitchline top and bottom and connecting the dots with the pattern. Photo twelve: This method as described requires the bottom of the holster to be 90 degrees to the slide stitchine. This is a normal method of design layout. It will also work for those designs that are not 90 degrees by adjusting the baseline. This method will also work with envelope style holsters, such as avenger, but since there is no slide stitchline to register from you will need to insert the gun in the holster each time and mark the top and bottom then connect the dots with the stitchine. I hope all of this was clearer than mudd. Two final photos.