Stetson912

If you're on a budget they have silver ones for $165... You could almost get 10 of those!

Has anyone been told their prices are too high? Well fear not! If someone comes to you and says 'your prices are too high..." Or "that seems expensive..." Just show em this. A $1500 paper clip.... Haha! "Complimentary delivery by Christmas" hehehe

Very cool clintock. Yeah, I'm afraid you're right jls haha. But that's ok with me.

Well it's all situational for me. For example, the fold over holster I made for my nephew for a cap gun, I marked out the holes on each side and punched through all the way down one side then the next. They lined up and I stitched them together no problem. But, a pancake I made I would mark the stitch lines and then partially punch with the chisels. The. Finish with the awl. Why? The pancake is 2 layers of 8 oz. While you could go through it with the chisel the size of the holes would be huge. And if you aren't completely vertical you'll get a wonky set of holes. The fold over was a single layer of leather. Pretty easy to sail a chisel through. And by being carful on my pattern and accurately marking the holes, it all worked out. You can use the chisels like a pricking iron. I do all the time. Thicker items like holsters etc don't need stitched at a high spi. Really 7spi is plenty and a lot of people fo less. This is somewhat preference. But the item is a lot thicker which lends itself to this. However, an item like a fine bag or wallet would benefit from finer stitching. So a higher spi chisel or iron should be used. You could use a chisel on these items if it's fine enough, but usually they are really chunky and the hole would be too large. I tend to use irons more for this. That said, crimson hide makes a great stitching chisel. Highly polished and the teeth taper unlike a lot of chisels that have teeth of uniform thickness. If you want a good chisel I'd recommend them. As for pricking irons, there are a lot of good ones. It depends on how much you want to spend. I like the ks blade punch irons. High end you have doldoki and Blanchard. Wuta makes a decent iron and I think Amy roke makes some but I'm unaware if they are available. There is also lekoza (I think that's what they are called) that seem affordable. And makers leather supply has a set they offer in after sizes also.

Very much so. Personally I never could keep a good truly consistent angle with just an awl and wheel. I wasn't terrible but not good enough. So my "crutch" should we say is using pricking irons. It's very easy to follow the angle with the awl. I use diamond chisels as pricking irons sometimes in the same way. All depends on what I'm working on. My chisels are probably 5/6 spi and my irons are 8 I think, so I use the chisels on large beefy items like holsters and sheaths and the irons on smaller things like small notebooks or wallets

I think stitching is somewhat relative. One person may not like a technique or method of stitching that others do. Some like round holes for flatter stitches or using a stitch groove to achieve that same look. And others (like me) like the more angled stitch look and use techniques and methods accordingly. I also don't like a groover at all. I never use mine anymore. That's not to say one way is better than the other. They both do the same job, stick pieces of leather together with thread. It's just the journey getting there that is different. Some like the groove to recess stitching, and there are times that it may be necessary, but for what I do, and the amount of tension I tend to apply, the thread is recessed enough without a groove, so I don't find it necessary for ME to use one. And the straight vs angle is all just asthetics if you ask me

Ok, good questions. I do a mix of both. Sometimes I mark my stitches with pricking irons and then use an awl to make the holes. Sometimes I use diamond chisels for chunkier builds and punch all the way through. Usually, I only punch holes on both pieces of leather when it's a basic stitch line that's easy to line up. Most other times, I mark one piece of leather and stick the other piece(s) to it then make the hole with an awl. There are ways to mark and punch holes so they line up nice. It really makes stitching easy. I'm going to recommend you look into Nigel armitage Vimeo video series. It is a paid subscription and I know there are those that are against that type of thing, but the information he provides is invaluable. He will also show you the pre punch technique and has a video doing that with a gusset. I believe it's about $4 a month. Not expensive at all.

Awesome, I'd like to see it when you're done.

Awesome, I'm going to o do the same. I think it's a good idea.

I'll have to use a strap or snap as I don't have any sort use. But I think the construction is a good method. It isn't full size and probably not as good as they used to be. I bought it on Amazon haha. Thanks!

I don't, I wish I did. I will have to figure out how to make a pouch for those caps now haha.

I hadn't thought too but that sounds like a good idea! Just a little box type thing to stuff a bunch into?

Or be the one robbing them... I wouldn't put it past him... He can cause some mischief I reckon. It is really over built tho, 10/12 oz saddle skirting for all of it haha. The little cap gun only weighs a few ounces hahaha although that's unloaded... We all know how heavy them 8 shot ring caps can get... Might add a gram or two!

I hope he does. Good way to get rid of that cheap skirting too, that stuff is fuzzy and hard to work with. Not much of an it left though now haha. I'm thinking I might add a hammer thong too. Just cuz

This project was fun, it's a Mexican loop holster and belt for my nephew. It is for a little cap gun I got for him. He is 5 and like playing pretend and stuff so, I thought this could help with that. Let me know what you think. The pics show the holster still wet and I'll just do a wax finish on it.

Very nice! Did you birnish the edges? I'm not familiar with the Sully but I thought it was veg tan. And in my experience, I run my wood slicker over the corners when I nip them like that. It rounds them out pretty nice. Awesome work!

Well butter my butt n call me a biscuit.. This is fantastic! Meanwhile, I'm over here and can't carve two parallel lines bahahahaha! Awesome stuff Mike!

My joke was auto corrected! It's supposed to say "I bet youre hoppy with that... "

That's pretty sweet! I bet you're happy with that...

Thanks Gary, I don't have a slot punch but I do want one. I did make my own pattern. I followed jls template on that with a few changes. Wow, that's a killer deal!

Here's another one off my bench. A holster for a SW Shield 9mm. I tried building it in the curved style. The retention on this one is really nice. I'm happy with that. Threw in a cool Paracord bullet bracelet for kicks, force patina 9mm shells to match haha. It is 2 layers of 4/5 oz stuck together. Critiques welcome. Thanks!

This, this is good. I like , more power to ya for painting that with a nail art brush. Beyond my skills haha.

Haha yeah, I like rings molds a lot. B ut the cooks work just the same. Not as pretty but that's not what matters haha

Right, I hear ya. I'm using a prepped mold that was sent to me for a m p sheild but I may cut most of it off haha. I just saw it on hold and it looks really close if not the same. I've also heard people cutting down commander molds to use for the officer model but, I don't like that either. It's the first 3.5" 1911 dummy I've seen though

From the pictures it looks pretty close to an officer acp. I've used cooks molds before and they are just fine. I prefer the unprepped version though. Prepped means they filled in the trigger area and put a "dowell" along the top to mold a sight channel. Only issue is it runs the whole length of the slide which is ok I guess, bit I don't like that personally.