VMTinajero

What stamp did you use for the border? It is different & nicely done.

It's a beautiful belt. If you are going to put two pieces together to form the keeper, practice skiving them down before glueing & stitching them. Personally, I would take a thicker piece of saddle skirting and just add decorative stitching to make the keeper rather than stitching two pieces together, because with the interior bending back against the grain it will always be harder to case. How are you wet casing the keeper? I have steel bars in different widths that I wet case my keepers on that help make nice, hard corners. How did you like the Wickett & Craig leather? I've never used it but I'm itching to try it- it looks very refined & classy. I used to like working with the Muir McDonald leather; it had a different, waxy feel to it, & it carved like butter.

Here is a California style holster I made about 21 years ago for an 1858 Remington New Army. This was my first holster carving in this style:

Those are some BIG scales, though. I normally just use a large camoflauge tool. These holsters are about 25 years old & were made for Colt SAA 5.5 inch barrel:

Beautifully done! Now, to be Devil's Advocate, I'm going to interject something that seems to slip by most people. If you want to display a rig that is beautifully antiqued & says "I've got history", that is all well & good. What slips by most people, & this is probably Hollywood's fault, is that if you are doing re-enacting, or wish to portray a time period from 1865-1900 for example, the holsters & gun belts are not going to look that old, because they weren't! Same with the towns- a lot of westerns show the towns looking already like ghost towns, but are supposed to be set in the post Civil War period. Towns were new & springing up across the country- they had fresh paint & were only a few years old a lot of the time. This was something that the movie "Tombstone" got right- everything looked brand new. This is not belittling anyone's work at all- the rig is beautiful. I'm just pointing out a thought process that a lot of people forget when it comes to western re-enacting...

Very nice!

The problem with using suede is that it is usually chrome-tanned, which is corrosive to the pistol. If you don't keep your pistol up against the suede a lot, & regularly clean it you might be ok. The other problem with suede is that it picks up grit, & the sliding in & out of your pistol will wear on the finish.

It depends if you are going for historical accuracy or a modern interpretation. Traditionally, California style holsters were medium weight, usually with no lining. If a lining was used, older holsters would probably have been lined with felt, and later versions buckskin. Most had a toe plug. There were not many leather stamping tools around when this style first appeared, so most carving was a low-relief style & not the modern Sheridan style of carving popular since the 20th century. They were not stiff holsters compared to nowadays, & I've never seen one that was lined with a 2-4 oz leather like modern replicas. They were cross-draw & made to secure the pistol; a fast draw was not the primary intent for a traditional California-style Slim Jim holster. Attached is a pic of a beautiful replication done by my friend & mentor Jack Stewart in Ash Fork, AZ. He is a master craftsman & my inspiration for improving my skills.

Howdy folks, Just getting back back into leatherwork after a long time away, but I originally started in 1989, when I joined SASS. I'd like to hear from any other leather crafters in AZ, especially if you are on the East Valley side of Phoenix. I don't have any leather so I was thinking of sorta maybe forming a co-op with other locals to make a bulk purchase from Herman Oak and/or Wickett & Craig and pool our orders. I used to love the Muir McDonald leather, but I found out they went belly up while I was away. Hope to make some new friends here.

Very nice! Did you skive down the keeper enough? The top picture looks like it is pretty tight, but the bottom pic looks like there is a bigger gap. Overall great job!

Yep, two days is overdoing it by about 47 hours, 59 minutes & 45 seconds... you've also taken all the natural oils out of the leather, so if/when it finally dries out it's going to need a good reconditioning...