leatherjunkie

yes swivel knife body is not most important part of the knife. the blade is the most important. The body will aid in comfort in your hand to use. Top of line blade for retaining sharpness is leather wranglers swivel knife. You will pay about 200 bucks for one of his knives. But you wont need to sharpen it out of box. just need to strop it. Barry King also has decent blades. His swivel knife body is also comfortable to hold and use. I use my Ed Labarre bear maul swivel knife the most. It just fits my hand and easy to use. Chuck Smith old smoothy swivel knife and Henley swivel knives are good too. The key is find one that fits you and blade retains sharpness. Don't worry about brand name so much. Jim Linnell said you can sharpen a straight screwdriver to do swivel knife work.

when i apply black dye i usually dip dye the piece. then i use a blue paper towel(blue paper towel seams to leave no lint and holds up better) and buff the excess black dye off while still damp from the dip dye. i do this to buff out and spread the dye to an area that might of not taken dye right away. only do this for a few mins. then just let dry for a day or two, then just add some bee natural saddle oil. then apply finish and no rub off of black

Pounder, if at all possible do not wait to get Chuck's video. Its one of the best produced videos and most informative one i have seen on holster making. i still watch it to refresh and spark my mind into action.

After taking Paul Zalesak's class on sharpening, I am able to sharpen my swivel knife now without fear of ruining the blade.

geez, KT.... i thought you finally gone and done a plain jane rig..... theres nothing plain about this rig,... beautiful as always...

looks good. you can use a piece of antler to burnish the edges also. not sure about this but it was suggested to me not to use suede as a lining for holsters as it can trap dirt and debris thus scratching the handgun as you use the holster. i havent used suede to line anything yet as i always just use veg tan leather cause i usually dip dye my stuff.

everyone gave you some great information. but wondering why no one mentioned evoo(extra virgin olive oil) as a finish oil? also there are natural dyes you can make for dying your projects. for example you can use used coffee grounds, walnut hulls and rusty water for old time dyes. the vinger black dye may not work for you due to the smell of vinger. i also have great results using leather balm with atom wax as a finish. you can get it from tandy. Wyosheen is the new name of Neat Lac since tandy does not carry it any more. it has a very harsh smell but it works real good as a finish. the following link is to cas city that has a lot of information on making old time dyes in your house: http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,11991.0.html

atom wax is a finish not a hardener. when you go to wet form the holster do it without any finish on it. this way the water will leave the leather uniformley. as the leather dries from wet forming it will naturally harden to some degree. if you want it to be rock hard then there is more to do. i dont get my holsters to be rock hard because i dont think they need to be that hard.

was a great show for me. had to leave for home today due to work sat morning. Chan as always a great teacher for the classes i was able to attend. sheridan pattern layout and lacing.

Aaron already here waiting on you

I am the other way. I have the book but could not figure out how to lace looking at the pictures. the video worked for me. One thing that does help when doing 2 tone lace is to use lace that is have one lace shorter than the other about 8 to 10 inches. this way when you need to splice in more lace you are not having to splice in both at same time and cause a big bump in the project.

i have the barry king beader blade in my al stolhman swivel knife(tandy leather brand). works great and stays sharp as long as you strop it first.

go to tandy leather website and pay the 10 bucks to view all videos. they have a video on how to 2 tone lace double loop. the only hard part is remembering how to finish it. its real easy once you see it done.

yep and it has strange writting on it toooo. nice job on the sleeve...

aw beat me to it. was just gonna say belt sander..... use a can or something that is a circle to the size you want lay on leather or paper for tracing then cut then use belt sander to finalize shape

dip dye will dye the flesh side as well. i don't like projects that are dyed/stained on grain side only. to me this is not finished(unless i want the color contrast). using leather with a fairley smooth flesh side will help the finish process 100%. i switched to herman oak with a fairley smooth flesh side. after dying the holster i saw that the flesh side smoothed out more and when installing firearm(double check empty!!!!!!!!!!!!)during wet forming helps to smooth the flesh side up too. you did check to insure firearm is empty right????? light coats of oil and a final finish of any finish will protect the leather. Bobby Rose aka Treed(username on here) uses gum trag heavy on flesh side and slicks the heck out of it with a slicker/bone folder to finish stubborn flesh sides. Send Bobby a message or email he should get back to you. Sometimes I go a little overboard when it comes to making sure people check the firearm for empty. its not a dig, just getting my point out that you need to insure the firearm is empty and ammo is not any where close to where you are working on the holster and gun.

at the time you asked Bob to do this style Sass may not have allowed it in the game.

grain side is the front smooth side of the leather where tooling is usually done. flesh side is the rough back side of the leather. the spot you are talking about helps to hold the holster open for reholstering. its not necessary if the holster is formed right. i do my measuring, layout and stitching before i wet form the holster. auto handguns stitch line is 1/2 the thickness of slide plus thickness of 1 layer of lesliather. for example. 1911 slide is 1/2" plus 1/8" for 8 oz leather== stitch line on pattern. now mark 5/8" from the outline of the gun you drew. this is your stitch line. now glue sew and wet form then dye. then oil and finish

$60.00 for a head knife? you should be able to get an osborne for that price. hope you can spare some money and lots of time on sharpening equipment. the osborne knife that i tried was about as sharp as a butter knife. the reason knives cost so much is the type of material that it is made out of. the good quality knives will just need stropping regularly and sharpening once in awhile. Chan Geer told me he can cut up 5 to 6 hides with just stropping. after 6 hides he does sharpen it on a diamond stone. you would be better off stropping the hell out of a box knife then spending 60 bucks on a knife that needs lots of time on a diamond stone before you can try it out.

forgot to mention when you put the neatsfoot oil on your project do it after you let the dye dry for 24 hours. take some scrap leather and dye it then cut it into a few pieces and do the oil treatment to the scraps. each piece of scrap add more oil to it. this way you can tell how the oil affects the color with the times of oiling. you can use super shean, leather balm with atom wax, bag kote, whyosheen. i like to use leather balm with atom wax just dont use it on top of your project with antique paste. the leather balm with atom wax will pull the antique color off of the leather.

evaengineer, I finally purchased a good round knife last year from greycloud. website is :http://graycloud-designs.com/custom-knives/leather-workers-knives/utility-knife.html i have the chan geer model. its a small knife compared to most head knives you see people using. i am still learning how to use the knife. Paul Zalesak showed me how to sharpen the knife in his class i took this year. the knife is now sharp and easier to use. Paul Zalesak is owner of www.leatherwranglers.com he has videos on how to sharpen and strop knives on his website. He also sells a head /round knife and swivel knives. also when using box cutters always strop the blades cause they are not as sharp as they need to be with leather cutting. i learned this and my box knife cuts so much better now that i strop it. if you get a chance to take Paul's class do so its a great class on sharpening and he is loaded with information.

looks good. to me the belts are screaming for a stamping of some sort.....

very nice and unique

What Aaron said. Oregon Leather sells Herman Oak veg tan leather. The lowest grade that Oregon leather sells is better grade than Tandy leather sells. Herman Oak is tanned in the US, Tandy's is European tanned. Also try some Wicket and Craig leather. Once you try Herman Oak you wont want tandy leather again. also check out the Leather trade show that will be in pendleton on 24 October. just click on the link to find out more. you dont need to sign up for the classes to go to show. http://pendletonleathershow.com/classes-available/

looks good. remember one thing the dyes are designed to give the right color by oil. after dying apply a light coat of neatsfoot oil and let dry 24 hours keep applying till you get the color to your liking. always apply light coats and let dry overnight. after you get the color to your liking let dry for 24 hours then apply your finish.