AJ2018

Thanks Gary, I still have to stitch the cap on the knob by the baseball stitch and then stitch a cap on the rubber pad at the back of the leather piece, then finally put some eyelet and lacing. Tooling wise I could of done way better but I live in an apartment building and noise is not allowed that's why I only knife it only. Will post more pics I. The next stage. Cheers AJ2018

just to keep the fox updated , here are some more photos after adding some baseball stitch. working on the cartridge loop now , if you got a good idea based on my project, please share we might benefit from your ideas. so far my plan is to add to two leather conchos at the ends of each side of the cartridge holder and probably stitch each eye of the cartridges separately, because as you notice i have no room from making a slotted cartridge loop, my leather is 5-6 oz and I am planing to split it to 2mm and try. cheers AJ

some more progress, stitched it all round as in the images and wet formed it. more stitches to be done after stitching the cartridge loop holder on the leather. 0.8 mm stitch size were used. next project will use 1mm thread size. cheers AJ

very simple to do , its DIY thing ..... grab some 5-6 oz veg-tan leather and split it using a leather splitter with a thickness of 2mm and then follow the iPhone spces on the apple website for the dimensions, if you don't like to proceed with dimensions then all you got do is to put your iPhone in a zip lock bag and then put the 2mm splitted leather in a warm water for about 20-30 minutes and then take the wet leather and lay it on top of the iPhone with the ziplock on so the iPhone wont get in touch with the wet leather, and then form the leather from the side using a leather awl and then place pins (like the one used on news board) around the iPhone where you ran the leather awl, you might face a small problem where the leather crumble a little around, so all you go do to fix that is to cut the leather where the bulges are in triangle shapes or if you like to leave it crumpled around the edges of the leather that is fine because its going to be removed when the wet leather forms and drys out. after it dries out, remove the pins around the the iphone and put the iPhone away, and get yourself the stitch wheel with 6 holes per inch and run around the leather where the pins used to be, after that leave about 1/8" extra material away from the stitch line, after that, grab a leather cement and put it only at the 1/8" clearance area and glue it to the base of the leather, by now you should have the base of the leather and the front piece where you ran the stitch wheel. leave the cement to dry out, and then grab a leather chisel and punch holes around the stitch line where you ran the stitch wheel, after the holes are done, stitch the leather using saddle stitch and then all you go do so to sand the leather edges with 150 grit sand paper to smooth the surface, its preferable to wet the leather edges and then sand it lightly to get a smooth surface, after that dye the edges with the desired color and then use the slicker to burnish the colored edges using gum trag. and finally dye the iPhone case whichever color you like. I wont recommend using water based dye because they rub off a lot even after applying the sheen finish on them , so its recommended to used oil based dye. (oil based dye takes some time to drys out so be patient and don't touch it before its completely dry or it will leave some finger prints on the leather after it drys out) just after you dye leave it one full day 24 hours to dry in a room temperature, no direct sun light. BINGO you got an iPhone leather case

applied some custom leather dye by mixing dye colors, pending some sheen or beewax. cheers, A.J

Just an update of the project , I added some artwork using swivel knife and waiting for the 1mm thread to arrive from internet order so i can stitch it all around. the thread color is deep brown with contrast. now I need to think how to make a leather splitter so i can make the thin lace to stitch the buttstock pad piece and stitch the knob behind the trigger guard.

Here is the Solidworks 3D Model of the Browning x-bolt SS Stalker 30-06 sprg partial stock image. it took me 2.5-3 hours to model it, started to get gray hair from it , very complex features were used to model it. let me know what you guys think of it and if you drawn one using solidworks expert features please share. . Cheers, A.J

No problem thank you, I will try it and see how it goes p

Thank you so much for your input Hildebrand can you post some pictures to show the precision and the kind of lace that lace maker makes please ? I am interested to see the precision if you can.

Thank you Gary, I am still working on it slowly till its done , every stage i do , I will post it on here, I know the majority of people have hard time including the rifle knob section behind the trigger so i took the challenge and did it using solidworks expert modeling features, and Photoshop CC 2018 cheers, A.J

currently in stage one of cutting the leather, so far everything is perfect, I am going to do a 3D look cartridge loop by stitching cartridge loop over the body of the leather. have a look at the current pictures, just had the leather yesterday. its 6-7 ounce veg-tan leather which is very beautiful I have not stained and tooled the main body yet, i only applied dark brown to the cartridge loop base with tooling. This project is for Browning x-bolt SS Stalker 30-06 sprg rifle. and will do more for other rifles. when the project complete its going to look fabulous i believe as the leather fitted snug on the stock, I am going to cross stitch the top middle center line of the body and and then lace the bottom part. and cross stitch or lace the knob which ever look nicer, I am going to be using Black Bonded Nylon .7mm Leather non waxed thread and for lacing the bottom not decided which thickness of lace I will be using but will keep you updated. the lace maker tool that I ordered off eBay did not arrive yet and not sure if anyone of you have used it before, its the small black plastic piece like a pen shape, it has a blade inside and you attache the leather to the hole and keep pulling to get a long lace, but how is the quality of the lace in this tool? is the thickness consistent ??? The programs i used were: Solidworks 3D/2D Expert features, Photoshop CC 2018, Adobe PDF , and obviously Printer and leather lets see what you guys think so far. cheers.

Browning x-bolt Stainless Stalker 30-06 sprg Pattern Rev 3 .... Pending some more addons.. x-bolt Stainless Steel Stalker 30-06 SPRG Rev3.pdf if you like to print this and see how it matches on the actual rifle , use paper size 17" x 11" or whats called Tabloid as paper type if you using PDF printer. this case will cover the x-bolt stock up to the LOP (Length of Pull) which is the distance from the center of the trigger up to the end of the recoil pad. if you like a new version to cover only the buttstock up the the LOC (length of comb) then drop me your feedback that is very easy to do.

there is a solution to the eyelet problem, what i suggest for you is to put the eyelets on a small rectangular shape of leather and then stitch that rectangular piece with an offset on the actual buttstock cover that way the buttstock cover will secure your eyelet from scratching the stock. its very easy to do but don't make the rectangular piece too big, make it so it can take the eyelet and 1/8" for stitching it to the buttstock cover and then for the final put leather loop and loop both side of the buttstock cover. second which rifle you working on now? are you extending the leather to the trigger side? like as i am doing with my browing x-bolt???

Browning x-bolt Stainless Stalker 30-06 sprg Pattern Rev 2 .... Pending some more addons.. Browning x-bolt SS stalker 30-06 spr Rev 2.pdf

here is an Elk-Head-Pattern modeled using Photoshop for those who are interested to use it. Elk-Head-Pattern.pdf

Great work guys keep it going. Thumbs up

This is my initial Progress still have to do the cartridge loop and and Oval pattern shape that connect the knob behind the trigger to the rest of the material. over all lets see what you guys think. x-bolt-leather-Buttstock_Rev1.pdf

I am making a new pattern for my Browning x-bolt stainless stalker 30-06 sprg rifle buttstock leather and cartridge loop. I am very good at making the pattern however I have a question about the leather type: A) what type of leather should I use that is not expensive (medium priced)?? BB) should I put a leather antique stain first then apply leather oil, and finish it with a sheen? I will share the full pattern in PDF after it's done for whoever is interested. The pattern I am making is precise because I am using AutoCAD and Photoshop. Cheers.