Acydtrip

Ordered some leather recently and just couldn't avoid ordering a bundle of 'ugly leather' I love a bargain, and one or two pieces would make it worth it to me. There's some horrendous stuff in there that will never get used, but quite a bit of usable material. Problem is, I can only identify about 3 pieces. Unsure of what the rest is. I started searching here, and google (everything seemed about upholstery) but couldn't find a guide of characteristics, like unique look to the flesh side, or certain attributes that would indicate cow, goat, pig, etc. Does anyone have a resource?

$200 minimum? I set up my account, was told $500 first order, I thanked them kindly and called someone else. Another part of my business a vendor did that to me, I called the next one and pay a few cents more per piece, but they said $1 minimum order and wound up getting the thousands a month instead. I order leather from W&C directly, same reason, called and asked if they'd sell me a single side; not only did they, we got to chatting about deals and specials and whatnot, wound up tripling my order on the first call. I understand hobby vs pro, but if they require a resale/FEIN then it IS a business and should be treated as such. Minimums tell me they don't care enough about the small guy to help him get to be a big guy. We do shirts as part of our business, I'll do 1 or 1000, no setup fees, etc. I lose a bit every once in a while, but I've done a $15 job that turned into a $2k job because I said no minimum when asked.

Let me start by saying I do not know for sure... That said, it sounds like something I ran into decades ago when I made some strops for myself and my father (some hanging, some backed). If you cut a strip, apply some rouge, put it to use, you have a fairly uneven surface. Dad's method was to then take that, apply some spit, a blade, and elbow grease (usually wood carving knives) and after a handful of uses, it was nice and smooth and fairly even. If you're doing one for razors with a nice thin edge, they won't have the heft of a thick blade like for chip carving, and the roughness may cause an issue. Thus, boning/burnishing initially would smooth things out a bit and present a smooth and even finish from the start. Like I said, don't take it as gospel, just my thoughts and experience. Trip

Just a random thought and experience... I do all my cutting with X-acto knives after cutting the main piece from the side with a utility knife. Anyhow, I was working on a piece for an inlay and changed the no.11 for the third time, I put it up and decided to cut out some blanks. I was about to change it again and figured, let me just strop it a sec. HOLY CRAP, how did I never do this before? Rather than three passes of moderate weight so as to follow the line, it went through the 9 oz I was cutting on one swipe. I thought they were sharp, that touch of polish and it was like night and day. Trip

So recently, as I get back into this, I started buying up odd lots, scrap, pieces, etc. to expand familiarity with different leathers. So now I have a ton of things sitting in totes, unsure what to do with it all. I have a nice piece of lizard, my daughter loves it, too small and bright for anything I'd wear, but I started thinking about a bracelet. My wife commented on some ostrich (not a quill area, just nice, smooth, soft) but I didn't know if it was a leather that would wear against the skin... Sure, I wouldn't line something like that with snake, lizard, etc. but are any of the exotics tanned with anything you wouldn't wear? Trip

In my opinion, a desk is too low. I have one of the wooden workbenches harbor freight sells, little shaky if you start going back and forth like burnishing an edge, but other than that, nice and has 4 drawers and a shelf. I like this because of the height, I paired it with an adjustable tractor seat style chair from Amazon and depending what I'm doing, I adjust it quite a bit. I've also raised my slab a few times. Why? I have many herniated discs, arthritis problems, shoulder problems, hand problems. I should really just lay in bed and watch TV, but I'm stubborn. I find ways to make things comfortable. Many times I will even raise my feet up to change posture, but mostly I shoot for alignment almost like watchmakers (google watchmaker's bench, you'll see what I mean). Now, a bit tough on the shoulders, but having the work that high for tooling eases my back and neck significantly. Layout, cutting, etc I raise the seat to put me above the work, but then I'm not focusing as close on the work. Bright lights and my readers make it worlds easier, and I'm probably not the only one who has added a magnavisor for some things (threading needles, really fine detail tooling/dye work, etc.). You wouldn't believe how much a touch of eye strain can aggravate your neck, even if you're not craning to focus or see. Stitching is altogether different, I almost kick back a bit (get the seat with a backrest), put my feet up and use a pony, though I'm working on designs for a comfortable horse now. Frequent breaks, get up, move around (I don't smoke in the studio). Unless you have some crazy deadline, when you're feeling the strain, break for the day or for a while at least. I'm sure my wife would say the amount of glue/dye/resins I work with combined with the lack of ventilation probably helps a bit too... Trip

Barge, let it dry until... well, not sure how to describe, reminds me of knuckle squeak when gilding, usually a walk to the neighbor's and about two cigarettes. line up, press, smack the heck out of it with the heel of my hand, pause to regret doing that, do it again and then either leave it to stitch later or have right at it if I'm in the groove. The reason I like to leave it is that a bit more time and the glue doesn't muck up the needles as much. I've tried a bunch of different things, only thing I liked as much as Barge was Duall 88 from Hidecrafter a few years back. As Bikermutt mentioned, I stumbled upon a roughing procedure that works for me as well, I use the edge of the drum on my flex shaft that I'll later use to true up edges. Trip

Decades of experience and my stitching improved more than I could imagine (from hack to more than passable) in two practice sessions after watching, listening, and absorbing what Mr Armitage had to say. A poor craftsman blames his tools, but I'd say one of the biggest things was to order up the same thread and needles he uses, it was like night and day. I planned to buy some Seiwa chisels as he mentions in other videos, but bought some $15 ones off Amazon, spent a half hour polishing them up and I'm plenty happy, but I still do much of the work with an overstitch wheel and an awl. Trip

My wife gave me grief for an 'upside down' pic the other day, did a holster for a 642 and took a pic with the holster upside down with nothing under it (draws like a dream while wearing though I'm doing this as a side thing, because I like leather but got tired years ago of doing useless stuff. Not to talk down on things, some of my proudest possessions are large tooled works my father did (like full single bend size and bigger) but I've always been a function first kinda guy. So I get to do things that not everyone can do, have a wealth of 'customers' in that everyone I know wants one, so my stuff gets paid for, I get something to distract me from my 9-5 and 5-10 jobs. Point to that is, not a lot of budget for dummy guns, though I'm calling Duncans about a shield this week, since I have 5 asks for them. All the rest of the now 9 requests are each different. Sure I could roll the cost in, but other than my buddy, how often will I get a request for a second gen Taurus Millennium. if I can mold them up cheap, and later use those to make casts like Duncans, I'm looking at maybe eating $10 the first round, rather than $40-45 and it makes one-offs easier to deal with. Back to the topic though, not being familiar, I thought 'bulldog' was the smaller offering, didn't know it was specific to the .44, his may very well be the undercover, being the .38. I know the one he has and the 642 will nearly fit the same holster, they're that close. Can't get those 30 caliber clip magazines for the bulldog...?

I just started looking at them, wasn't wild about it when I fired it, so I never learned much about them. Unfortunately, his is a 38spl, so apparently different dimensions. Sorry. Not to jump topics, but interesting you had the aluminum one. Do you prefer them over the urethane dummy guns? I'm in the middle of a research project on casting dummy guns (will do a write-up once done) with the target to bring the cost under $10 each for a urethane copy (mold and casting). May use the urethane copy to do some aluminum castings down the road, but having a materials sourcing issue for a foundry build. Trip

Specific caliber? I was about to start on a pattern for a charter arms, pretty sure it's the model you're talking about, roughly the same size as an S&W 642 but with a hammer?

Thanks for that! I may give that loop style a shot, though my concern on the PPK is the weight (dang thing weighs almost what my polymer 45 does...) 30+ years working leather and I'm just starting in holsters, so I'm making as many styles to try as I can. I've seen the method in the second pic, haven't given it a shot yet, but I think that'll be on the list for this weekend for sure now, I have some doublestack Taurus mags to do, was actually just sitting here filing the heck out of my nails so I didn't mar the surface when hand molding again

? Not sure which was the old one and which was from this post, but is the top pic for a pocket, or are there loops/clip on the back? I ask because I'm about to redo a pocket holster for my Walther PPK, have a Galco I've used for a while, but it's on it's last leg, was wondering how the slick finish worked and if the little wing that Galco says catches your pocket was really needed. Can't quite tell, but it looks like in the second pic, when the holster is on the belt, the basketweave winds up matching the angle on the mag, yes? Nice crisp lines on the molding on that, what weight leather was it (I'm still practicing my molding, I can't get them that deep and clean without the flat area looking like I abused the hell out of it...) Trip

I'm new to holster making, but some of the concepts definitely cross to other disciplines. I would think that there are a few considerations, first being how much drawing there will be, as that's where friction would be a downside. With minimal drawing (not training/range use/etc.) it would seem to me, and I've seen mentioned in a number of discussions, that a molded firmer fit would reduce wear over a looser fit where the gun is freer to move around more with normal motion. Use and carry mode would definitely factor into my decision on lining as well... I'm not really thrilled with a fuzzy pocket holster I bought for my PPK years back, even though the only thing in the pocket is the gun, there is a tremendous amount of crap stuck to the inside and outside of the holster, seems it picks up and holds onto anything, lint, grit, you name it. I do like the holster and may remake one with a smooth lining in hopes of preventing that. Regardless, all of my firearms for carry are stainless (it's Florida weather down here...) so not much worry on bluing, but the pocket holster and accumulated crap has worn shiny spots on the slide. a hybrid I have for my 45 has worn shiny spots in short order, on the kydex side, enough to put me off using it for the most part (though I do love the way it carries).

Yup, line 24 snaps as well as the pull the dot snaps (same size). I ran into an issue with the length of the back/post, which was both refreshing, as I usually trim them down, and frustrating, as I didn't really want to let the snap into the leather. I've got pounds of #9 and #12 rivets in 1" length (why buy shorter, yer cutting them anyway), and I figured that would be at least as tough as the thin tube that gets folded in to hold the snap; I have been wrong before, thus the posting... The other situation I'm still on the fence about. I've talked to several folks who were all for the idea; basically, I'm not looking forward to lining every holster, the snap for the thumb break bothered me. I feel the need to line the strap to cover the back of the snap (which are steel) whereas using a copper rivet poses a softer material to come in contact with the slide, if there's any transfer, routine cleaning removes copper... granted this may not work for coated slides, but surely it'd be fine on the two stainless slides I carry daily, copper being soft enough to not damage the stainless. That and they can be set more firmly into the leather. #9 fits just as well, being a similar diameter to the snap posts. I spun up and heat treated some tools this afternoon, but a walk-in machining job came up and took the evening from me, so I didn't have time to take pics or test them yet. Trip

I've run into a few specific problems that I feel could be solved by swapping out the snap post/cap for a copper or brass rivet. Wondering if anyone has any experience with doing this... I gave it a shot yesterday and the biggest problem, maybe why I haven't seen much info on it, is peening the rivet inside of the snap. I'm off to the other half of my shop to make a right-sized setter set to try it out (worst case, I can reclaim the material and use it for another purpose). Figured I'd ask in case someone has seen it/done it/knows of a reason NOT to do it. Thanks for any thoughts or input! Trip

Thanks guys! I've got another one sitting on the bench now, waiting for some thread to come in, figure I might as well start on another one for me, thinking on how to make it both IWB/OWB and look like it was just one or the other. JLS, thank you for the kind words. I will say my wife didn't find the first part as funny as you did, but it's good for a laugh in hindsight He's the only one that gets green, like a brother to me, and green is definitely a nightmare (I thought it was just me...). The roses are for his girlfriend, it was a bit of a surprise and girlie was definitely the goal. Have another one coming up with a pokemon on it...for a former Marine in his mid 30's. I feel a bit silly just thinking about it, but he's got more guns than some of the local shops, so what he wants, he gets Trip

So apparently I signed up here back in 08, when I started working with leather again after a number of years away (military, family, other hobbies, etc.) but I apparently never posted. I've been reading extensively for the last few weeks and figured I might as well toss my hat into the ring (although the leather hat I've started is a whole other category and a nightmare unto itself...) Decided I needed a quick holster for an 1851 Colt (Pietta) I bought to celebrate landing a new job. Only problem was, I had just started a new job and the gun drained my bank So I pulled down what was left of a double bend off the shelf, set up a work area and had at it. Overall, not bad, but I'd rather not share that one at this point. So that one wrapped up, I decided to correct all my mistakes and build a range holster for my PPK, as it was a pain dealing with the pocket holster I had. I wanted an OWB, riding a bit high, with a detachable thumb break (red/brown below). Works well, nice and stiff, doubled 5oz(ish). My buddy and his girlfriend instantly wanted something, so I said I'd do 5 total as practice, just to cover cost of materials and toss me a couple bucks if they were happy. He wanted a near identical one for a Millennium, but it had to be green and he wanted a design, so skip the removable snaps. Went through several designs, finally chose a shamrock with kind of a carved stone look. Rather tough to photograph, but really nice depth and variation to the color in the sunlight. She, on the other hand, wanted something flashier, had to have roses and fit her M&P Shield 9mm. I'm not overly thrilled with the tooling on the roses, but hey, first tooling in 15+ years... Stitching on the back wasn't as nicely lined up as I'd have liked, but it's not seen, so I'm ok with it on a practice piece. In looking at it, you'd think it'd be tough to draw and would need more relief under the grip, but it was discussed at length when I was making the pattern and was a design choice. In reality, it draws just fine for her, can't even notice the extra bit that would have been relieved... The next one is sitting on the bench now, the prototype for a S&W642 was tested out the other day and my buddy fell in love with it to an extent he's thinking of getting a 642 (this one is for his dad's). The 'prototype' had too many issues for the number of folks that will see it, he also decided after it was done that rough-out wasn't the way to go, thus, it went from #3 to prototype and will live in a box on my shelf with the other 'life lessons'. Thoughts and opinions welcomed, I'm not comfortable selling yet, but with these two in the wild now I have 7 people asking when they can get in line, seems another asks each day...