TrooperChuck

Thanks for the replies. I'll make one based on Al Stohlman's book and wear it for a while to give it a try. Sounds like good advice.

Hi folks. It's been quite a while since I've posted here and I forgot how much excellent information can be found in these forums. I make a lot of holsters, knife sheaths, and belts in my shop and I often get asked to make shoulder holsters. When I first opened my shop, five years ago, I took on a couple of shoulder holster orders but was very disappointed with the finished products. They just didn't fit the customer properly without a lot of constant back and forth visits for adjustments. Eventually, I simply decided to never again make any shoulder holsters! But, I keep getting requests for them. So, my question is, do any of you have a pattern(s) for shoulder holsters that actually fit well and function properly?

Hi folks. I've never made a pair of boots but we do a lot of boot repair at our leather shop and have all the equipment and machinery needed to make boots. Lately I've had a desire to make myself a pair of 6" moc-toe work boots, similar to Red Wing's 1907 boot. Does anyone have patterns for cutting the leather for such a boot? As I mentioned, I've never made boots before, but I figure if one has the skills necessary to make a saddle then making a boot shouldn't be impossibly difficult.

Unfortunately, I don't know what other states require. I suspect Bikermutt is correct in that there may be different rules for private vs. business transfers. CaptQuirk: You rock! I'm gonna go upstairs and tear the tag off my mattress right now! Just to show how hip I am, I might even live stream my outlaw-ness on Facebook! Dwight: Carving some dummy guns out of wood sounds like a good idea! thanks

LOL!!!! You DID make me look!

Thanks. I have those books, but it's been so long since I've looked at them I forgot the section on rough out. thanks for reminding me.

Awesome!

Nicely done. Both the knife and the sheath. I really like the finish on the sheath.

Good looking bag. Simple, rugged, and well made never goes out of style. I like the way you attached the handle. No way that is going to rip out. Someone's going to be proud to have that bag.

Although my shop is named Boulder Creek Saddle Shop, holster making has turned out to be the majority of our business. This holster, made for a Browning 1911 .380, is the first holster I've finished with acrylic paint.

Dwight's comments about shoulder holsters are pretty much the same as what I have been telling my customers. Hollywood has done a great job of convincing folks that shoulder holsters are really cool, but my experience with them is just the opposite. I was an Alaska State Trooper for 22 years and, like most guys who had to wear a gun on a daily basis, I have a whole drawer full of holsters I bought, tried, and didn't like. The shoulder holsters are in that drawer. I've met a few guys who really like shoulder holsters and wear them daily for CCW purposes. But, I'm convinced those guys are the exceptions rather than the norms. The other reason I'm not a fan of shoulder holsters is that I believe you should carry your CCW gun in the same position every time. In a stress situation you will automatically revert to whatever holster position you've used the most. If you usually carry your gun on your hip, you're going to reach for your hip when under extreme stress. When the chips are down and you really need your gun you don't want to find out it's not where you thought it was.

When I first started my shop I had no mold guns, so I had to take in the customer's gun in order to make their custom holster. But, I soon found out it is illegal to do that! Unless you have a Federal Firearms License you can not legally take a gun from the customer to make their holster! As ridiculous as is sounds, taking a customer's gun and then giving it back to them after you make the holster is considered a "transfer" and to legally transfer a gun nowadays you need an FFL. Crazy! I know. But, it's the world we live in nowadays. So, I ended up getting myself an FFL, but I am also now buying mold guns to add to my collection of tools. So, I've had to add a couple dollars to the cost of my holsters to help offset the cost of the mold guns. Some mold guns can be used for a variety of gun models. For instance, if you buy one Colt single action revolver mold gun you can use that to make holsters for any of the Colt clones and Ruger Vaqueros.

I make a lot of double layer belts in my shop. Here in eastern Washington there's a lot of folks that have CCW permits and they often want a belt that's not going to stretch out of shape when carrying a gun on a daily basis. There's no way I would consider making a double layer belt without stitching. Nowadays, because I get so many orders, I machine stitch my belts but I still enjoy doing some hand-stitching. I actually find it to be very relaxing. As for which glue to use, barge contact cement is a good choice. At a recent leatherwork seminar Chris Andre, of Slickbald Leather, told us of a test that was done to compare the strength of various contact cements. Surprisingly, regular old Weldwood contact cement, which you can buy in any hardware store, came out on top. For a hobbyist, another advantage of using Weldwood is that you can buy it in 2-ounce bottles, rather that the one-quart or one-gallon containers that most others come in. About hand-stitching... it's not as tiresome as you might think. That is especially true if you pre-punch your holes. In fact, if you aren't used to using an awl for stabbing holes as you stitch I definitely recommend pre-punching. Your holes will be more uniform and even with a punch. As someone else suggested, punch your holes, clamp your leather into a stitching horse or stitching pony, put on one of your favorite movies, and start stitching. With pre-punched holes, I can hand-stitch at a rate of one inch per minute, six stitches per inch. So, doing an average belt should only take you about the length of one movie. Wrap some tape around the middle joint of your little fingers if you're not used to hand-stitching. Just a hint.

I'm looking for some advice on making a rough-out saddle. I personally don't care for rough out saddles and have managed to avoid making any but I now have a customer who really, really wants me to make a rough out barrel racing saddle. Normally, I decline these jobs but this is one of my frequent customers and, in a moment of weakness, I agreed to make the saddle. Instead of grumbling about it, I'm trying to look at it as a chance to expand my saddlemaking/leatherworking knowledge. So, are there any special tips or practices for rough out leather? Which leather do you use and what do I have to do in the way of prepping it?

Up until recently, all my saddles were totally hand-stitched. Horn, cantle, billets, skirts, everything was stitched with double needles. Stitching the skirts was often a challenge because I didn't have a stitching horse with deep enough jaws to hold the skirts in a good position. The old cowboy who taught me to make saddles never used a jerk needle, so I didn't either. Last year I bought a Cobra 4 stitcher at the Southwest Leather Trade Show. Since then, I've used the Cobra 4 for stitching skirts and straps. I still hand-stitch horns and cantles, but I doubt I'll go back to hand-stitching skirts. It used to take me about 2 hours to hand-stitch a pair of skirts. I can now do just as good a job with the Cobra 4 in about 15 minutes. When leatherwork was just a hobby for me I didn't mind spending a lot of time on hand-stitching, but now that I'm running a business with customer orders constantly coming in I am really happy to save time (without sacrificing quality) with my stitching machine.

I know lots of folks have had good success with the Tippmann Boss, but my personal experience with that machine was horrible. When I first opened up my saddle shop I wanted to do all my stitching by hand. It wasn't long before I realized that hand-stitching wasn't going to allow me to keep up with the number of orders coming into my shop. So, I bought a Tippmann Boss in the hopes it would speed up my production. That turned out to be a $1500.00 mistake! The Boss I bought NEVER worked consistently. I spent hours reading and re-reading owners manuals, watching how-to videos, and calling the Tippmann technical support guys. NOTHING helped. Within two months of purchasing the thing I stopped using it. It's been sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, ever since. I subsequently bought a Cobra 4 stitching machine and I love that thing! Works great, every time.

Any buckskinner would be proud to have that bag!

Here's a view of the quiver with bedroll and axe attached.

I really enjoy traditional archery and have been wanting to make this new quiver for quite a while. The quiver has two shoulder straps so it can be worn backpack style. It also has a couple extra D-ring attachments so it can be switched to a single shoulder carry or a hip carry. The pocket on the front of the quiver contains a small metal tin in which I store an extra bow string and some basic survival gear. (Matches, tinder, a small folding knife, etc.) The quiver has two buckled straps on each side for strapping on a lightweight bedroll and a small axe to be used on overnight bushcrafting trips. For the haversack I made one half of a 1920's model U.S. Cavalry saddle bags. I modified the front flap, eliminating the standard billet and buckle arrangement, so I could latch/unlatch the flap with one hand. I also stitched a couple of small patch pockets on the inside. The haversack is big enough to hold a small cook pot, a drinking cup, a small alcohol cook stove, some food, and assorted personal items. All in all, I'm quite pleased with this set-up. It gives me the ability to carry some minimal overnight gear when I get the urge to go for a trip into the woods with my longbow.

I've often been frustrated with various methods of dyeing edges. Wool daubers, small brushes, sponge, etc. Perhaps I'm just prone to goofing up, but none of these methods worked for me. Recently I've been using an old jumbo sized felt tip Sharpie marker. This marker was pretty much all used up and I was wondering if I could re-charge it with Feibing black oil dye. I used a scratch awl to poke a hole in the top end of the barrel. Being thin aluminum, it was easy to poke a hole, then enlarge it with a phillips screwdriver. I then used an eye dropper to fill the barrel with black dye. I put a piece of masking tape on the end of the barrel to close up the hole. Now, when I need to dye edges I just grab the marker and make several passes over the edges. It works quite well on smaller projects such as pocket knife sheaths and small belt pouches, but gets a bit tedious on longer edges such as gun belts. The advantage of using the recycled marker pen is that I'm not getting any bleed-over or "oops" on my leather. (This has also helped reduce the amount of swearing that is heard in my shop!) I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure the same thing could be done with dark brown dyes, if you could find a jumbo-sized brown marker pen. When I'm not using the marker I store it point-down so dye doesn't leak out from under the taped hole in the top. After dying the edges I use a small sponge to apply water and then hand buff it with a scrap of canvass. Sometimes, if I'm feeling ambitious, or if the edge just doesn't look as shiny as I want, I will wipe the edges with liquid glycerine soap and buff it again with the canvass. Chris Andre, of Slickbald Leather, taught us the glycerine soap trick at his holster making class at the last Southwest Leather show in Arizona. I don't know if this will help anyone, but it has worked okay for me. (That is, until I come up with some other hair-brained idea of questionable practicality!)

About a year ago I saw someone's pancake style knife sheath and really liked it. I went back to my shop and started making a few for some of the pocket knives and multi-tools I own. These things are great sheaths! They are super easy to make and are extremely practical. Holds your pocket knife or multi-tool securely, yet allows for easy access and drawing. Here's a couple I made for my own use.

I make a lot of holsters at my shop. When I first opened the shop I made holsters out of a single ply of leather, usually 8 to 9 ounce. The holsters looked nice when they left the shop. One day, though, a customer brought a holster back. He'd been wearing it almost every day for several months. I was surprised how loose and floppy the leather had become after months of daily use. The fibers in the single ply of leather had stretched and loosened to the point that the customer was having trouble reholstering his gun. I started researching ways to combat this problem. I looked at adding "eyebrows" and sewing on sections of stiffener leather. While these things have worked for many holster makers, my personal preferences didn't go in that direction. I recently took a holster making class from Chris "Slickbald" Andre, who talked quite a bit about the benefits of using two plies of leather for all holsters. For most normal jobs he recommended two layers of 4/5 ounce leather. Two plies of 4/5 oz glued flesh to flesh gives you a final thickness of about 9 ounces. Since taking that class I've been using two plies of leather for all my holsters and have been very satisfied with the results. The holsters are stiffer and seem to retain their shape better. The only down side I've experienced with using two plies is that wet molding is just a little bit more difficult. You can mold the two layers tight enough to provide a good amount of "retention," but the shaping of the leather doesn't transfer well to the outer layer. I haven't been able to reproduce the "molded to every line and contour of the gun" appearance that is so popular nowadays. This hasn't been a big problem because most of my customers are more concerned about holster performance and practicality rather than appearance. So, I guess this has been a long-winded way of agreeing with some of the other folks who have already said they use two layers of leather to make their holsters. Give it a try. I think you'll like the results.

I have a small two-quart crock pot in my shop in which I keep a neetsfoot oil/beeswax mixture. I mix mine up with a lot more oil than wax. When cold, the mixture has the consistency of pancake batter. I can't tell you what the actual ratio is... when the pot runs low I just add more oil and more wax. If I had to guess, I think the ratio is about 4 parts oil and 1 part wax. So, every morning when I show up at the shop I turn on the crock pot to let the mixture heat up. All my holsters, sheaths, and belts are finished with this mixture. I use it on saddles, too. I've never used anything else. After the mixture dries I buff it with a soft cloth. When I want a bit more shine I apply a coat of neutral Kiwi shoe polish. I know there are a lot of other ways to finish leather and I'm sure many of them are excellent. This is the system I use and it's worked well for me. None of my customers have complained yet.

Well, Colt W Knight, you were right! I've been attending the Southwest Leather Worker Trade Show in Prescott, Arizona and took a 3-day class on Western Gun Rig Design and Construction taught by Chris "Slickbald" Andre. The class was awesome. We had two Cobra Class 4 sewing machines in the class so I took advantage of the opportunity and used those machines as often as I could. Bottom line... I got hooked on those machines! In fact, I bought a brand new Cobra Class 4 from Cobra Steve this morning. Good bye, Tippmann Boss. Hello, Cobra Class 4! I am really looking forward to getting this baby set up in my shop! By the way, if you ever get a chance to take a class from Chris Andre, don't pass it up. I've learned more about holsters from Chris in the past three days than I would have learned in a couple years by myself. He's a great teacher and I'm really glad I took this class.

Thanks, Uwe. That Pierson #6 would indeed be an awesome machine to own. Unfortunately, the little bit of research I've done tells me they are hard to come by. For simplicity's sake, I've been looking at the Windham Cub. Not entirely convinced it's the right machine for me, but I'm considering my options.