CedarCreek

Thanks, I hope so. I delivered them tonight to the customer, the belt fit and she seem very pleased with the rig. She and her husband are just getting started in SASS so they may be back for shot gun belts in the near future.

Not yet, I will be getting with them this weekend to finish the deal. thanks

Well it has been awhile since I have been on the site, so I hope I can figure this out. I just finished a set of holsters and thought I would post some pictures. I am open for comments and thanks for looking.

Beautiful knife and I like the sheath too. I think the random stamping almost complements the knife blade and makes a neat set. Maybe shes on to something. CC

I to use a simular set up. I chuck what looks like a stitching awl without a handle in the drill press. then I can sit there on a tall chair with the drill press running, punching holes like mad, touching the awl every now and them with some wax. CC

Well, sorry I did not post the out come to this sooner. All did turn out fine. I had no trouble collecting. However I did complete the project about a week sooner than I origanally told the customer. Partly because I was not busy with other things and mostly because I was nervous about the whole situation. When I called him to let him know the rig was ready, he sounded a little surprised and I got the feeling he had to scramble a little to get his funds together. He showed up later that day and seemed happy with my interpatation of what he asked for. Thanks to everyone for the words of advise. I think the biggest thing that I took for this whole situation is collect a nonrefundable deposit. I think I will continue to ask to hold onto the customers gun/guns for design and building. I think that will make sure they come back. thanks again, Cedar Creek

Yes I built the belt and holsters start to end. I almost aways start with a blank sheet of paper, so rarely do I end up with two identical rigs. The double mexican loop cheyanne style has been around since the cowboy so I can't take credit for that. I try to interject my personal touches and building tecniques as much as possible, but when building period peices you can't get to crazy. CC

I posted these in the holster section but I thought I would stick them here too, just to get a little more exposure. Let me know what you think. Just finished them yesterday. Thanks

Both holsters are veg tanned leather and the belt is herman oaks harness leather. And yes the holster for the Richard's Conversion is a cross draw.

Well just finished these today. I will be calling the customer tomorrow and hopefully he likes them. I will keep you posted on the final outcome. Meanwhile let me know what you folks think. Thanks CedarCreek

It looks good so far. I also dye my western holsters before I stitch and mold. It insures that I get dye on all the surfaces and I can keep my stiches white.

Well everything I have heard from you guys has echoed what has been going on in my head? At this point I am committed to the job and I will continued to biuld and nice functional holster. I will do my best to meet all of Mr. Customers requests. Maybe he will end up being my best customer yet, maybe not and lesson learned. Since almost all my work is western rigs and a number of gun manufactures building clones of the origanals, rarely do any two fit exactly the same. That is the main reason I ask to keep the the customers guns. I have a fairly gun selection of guns but by no means do I have them all. I maybe wrong but I don't beleive the selection of western blue guns is as great as autos. Anyway I would never expect to keep the customers guns if he didn't pay, but it does gaurantee that he comes back when the job is done. At least then he will have to say he doesn't want them to my face . Well, as Lobo suggested, I will start asking for a non refundable deposit. since all my rig have basical been one of projects. It is only if I am lucky do I get to use the same pattern twice. If it doesn't work out I will post some pictures, maybe some one here will like. Thanks, CedarCreek

Thanks for the reply. All good info and advise. The problem with this particular customer is requests like: I want it to be a good holster but I want it to look like it was made by a less than crafty mexican, I want it a little lighter color than that but a little darker than this with streaks and blotches, I want it to fit me if I loose ten more pounds and if I gain fifty more pounds, I want the holsters to be lose a floppy but I don't want my fancy new guns to get their finishes worn or fall out. All things I am capible of doing, but I told him I build a good quality, functioning holster and some of those requests negate want I do. I gave him every oppertunity to back out of the deal at the time of the origanal meeting if he didn't like our product. He quickly assured me that he liked want we made it would be fine. I hope my need for work isn't over powering my common since. One more question. Do any of you makers hold on to the customers guns for fitting the holster, and if so have you had people reluctant to leave them with you? thanks again. PS Sorry about all the posts. My computer keeps submiting them before I am finished

Hello, I have some questons for the holster makers who have been building holsters for people other than themselves. Have you ever turned a customer down and why? Have you ever had a customer come pick up the holsters and tell you they didn't want them? If so what was the reasoning? What gaurantee do you have that you wont get stiff in the end? I would like to hear stories and suggestions on the subject. The reason I ask is because I am currently doing a job for a customer and I am getting a bad feeling about it, and I have already invested some time and money into the project. I have my own style and ideas on how a holster should be design and built, but I am open to some input from the customer. The problem with this customer is I'm affraid that there may be no satisfy him. I showed him samples and pictures of what I make and we spent a considerable amount of time just trying to figure out exactly what he wanted. Since then he has called me three or four times wanting to add or change something. He wants this double holster rig for his civil war/ cowboy reinactment hobby. I am currently holding his guns for designing and fitting the holsters, but in the end I do not think that is a guarantee I will get payed. I've built a few dozen western holsters for my self and customers and not had any issues. I've posted some on here and I feel they are a quality holster. Well I could go on about this with more detail but lets see what kind of responses I get. Thanks CedarCreek

That is odd, someone on here that has done more holsters than I, might know exactly what the problem is, but it looks like to me that you burnished the edges in question with a burnishing wheel prior to dying. This in turn left a very uniformed waxy band around the edge of the holster, which wont allow the dye to penetrate the leather. Right or wrong, I dye the leather before I burnish the edges. After burnishing I stitch the lined areas, I glue and stitch the main seam. Then burnish the main seam. Last I soak the holster in warm water and fit the gun. Maybe that will help. Looks good, keep trying

bennadatto The way I do it is on my cowboy holsters, which I line : sand all my edges, then cut my stitching groves. Next I round all my edges. I will then take my stitching wheel and start marking my stick holes. I start from a corner, usually the top of the main seam on the front side of the holster working my way accross the throat and around the fender. stopping at the top corner of the main seam on the back side of the holster. Then I run the stitching wheel down the main seam starting at the top corner down to the bottom corner. This is done on the front and back side. Then I count the stitch marks on both sides to verify that both sides are the same length with the same amount of marks. I try real hard to make sure the first and last stitch of the main seam land right at the corners. If the number of holes do not match, adjustments need to be made until there are. Then you can punch your holes, fold, glue and stitch the main seam. I have even done it by marking and punching hole on the front side of holster, then folded, glued and sanded main seam. Next groved back side of main seam and then punch hole on threw from the front side, taking care to hit grove on back side. Another tip is when making your pattern, fold the paper in half when cutting it out. this should insure that both sides are the same length and should end up with the same amount of stitch marks. I may have left something out but that is the main idea. Hope some of this made since and helps...sounded good when I was typing

I would have to see some pictures. Unless there is something real special about them I do not see why not.