Frank

Bowden Brand saddle trees and Timberline are what I would suggest although there are tree makers here on the forum. You might want to give them a shout.

I had a recent run-in with eBay as well. I finally had enough and contacted my Congressperson, my State Attorney's Office, Anti-Trust Division and also the Federal Trade Commission. I wrote and called each one of them when eBay made it mandatory to use PayPal or another form of electronic payment. They are TYING 2 different services when you only want to use one, which is eBay. These actions are indeed illegal. They violate Anti-Trust Laws. Also since eBay purchased PayPal in 2002 it made them a complete monopoly because no other online auction site could compete with eBay. I did some digging and found that eBay owns A LOT of stock in every major online auction site. What a shocker! The State's Attorney's Office was very interested in the information and had several complaints regarding these matters. They were getting in touch with other states to try and start a lawsuit against eBay, depending on how many people complained in each state. I ended up writing a 10 page research paper on this. If you have the time, I urge anyone who uses eBay to contact the in individuals noted above in your respective state. Now eBay is charging sellers 12% plus insertion fees along with 3.9% in PayPal fees. Something definitely needs to be done. This paves the way for crooked buyers to take advantage of the sellers because there is no recourse to protect the sellers, only the buyers. I sell once in a while and now I have stopped doing that. I just can't afford to lose that much money on some of my items.

We have relatively high humidity here in Wisconsin during the spring and summer...I can't wait to move to the southwest! Maybe then the shrinking problem will occur more frequently. The glassing that I am referring to China is stretching of the leather when it is cased with a smooth piece of glass or wood. The better you glass the leather, the less shrinkage that I have found anyways. It also tightens up the leather fibers. You can tell a big difference by trying to cut a piece of leather that has been cased and glassed compared to a piece of leather that has just been cased. You can find the glassers through Barry King tools and also Douglas tools.

Shrinking shouldn't be too much of a problem if you glass the leather really well after it is cased the first time.

If you look up Beiler's Manufacturing and Supply in Ronks, PA. they carry felt pens and dye jars that work great for dying edges. A couple words of advice if you order from them...they only accept checks as a form of payment. If you order the dye jars and felt pens, DO NOT order them as a complete set. Order the jars, jar lids, and pens seperately and put them together yourself. I think it comes out to $3.00-$4.00 less per set if you do it yourself. I hope this helped you out a bit.

I did get one taken. Here it is.

Not a problem at all. I think one problem that might come of the concealed SA holster is that they should be made strictly right, left, left x-draw, or right x-draw. Because they have stricter limitations as far as position they are carried in, I don't think they fare well being made as a right hand draw that can also be used as a cross draw. That's just my opinion as far as how I feel carrying mine. Do you want me to post it on here of it might be easier if you PM me your email address and I can get a photo set since I have a bunch more to take today anyways. Let me know.

Hey all, I know there have been post before about how troublesome it is to set the standard spots by hand. I also went through the same frustrating dilemma. Recently I went to a flea market and found a bunch of spots so I picked up a container of 100-200 spots for $1.00. To my surprise they were 5 prong spots, not the standard 2 prong spots. My dilemma was fixed!! These set great without any mishaps but there is one problem....where do I get more?? I am going to take another run down there on the weekend and see if I can get a bunch more if the guy still has them. Has anyone else seen the 5 prong spots, or know where to get them? Any info would be much appreciated.

I have a nice concealed holster for my single action. I didn't make it though, I bought it a while ago. Not much of a concealed holster maker here. If you want photos of it, I can email some to you. It might give you a better perspective.

You might want to try streichers.com. They sell law enforcement gear including blue guns. There are certain things that they will not sell to civilians but I believe that they will sell the blue guns. I hope this helps.

Just remember one important thing about vinegar. It needs to be neutralized after using it on leather. Vinegar by itself will remove bluing from a gun in about 5-10 minutes and it's not a good thing to use on gun leather without neutralizing.

Hey All, I am in the midst of upgrading my tools. I am selling a SaddleMaster 360 draw down stand with strap and spreader. It is in decent condition. Anyone wanting pics or further info can email me at: frank@rockingksaddlery.com Thanks much.

I really never thought about it but I'm wondering if the amount of salt in the blood might dry rot the leather? I don't have a problem with the other aspects at all, just the amount of salt.

After doing a couple of saddle and some odds and ends things, I have really come to like the U-82 saddlers oil from Weaver. It's very light and absorbs instantly. The stuff seems to penetrate the leather exceptionally well. I then finish with tan-kote like a lot of you all do. My instructor and I did some mixing of oils while I was out there and tested them on leather. The straight U-82 did the best job as far as penetration. We just rubbed it on quickly with a small piece of shearling.

Thanks for the info. I'll have to look into all possibilities. My instructor went out and bought all the Neat Lac in South Dakota, Alaska, and a few other states. I don't use quite as much as him so I bought out all of Wisconsin. I've tried having my dealer look for more but it seems that it's pretty much all gone. Hopefully I can figure out a good replacement for it.

Thanks Ed. I used neat lac since it was super easy to apply with a brush and it dried almost instantly. My saddle making instructor got me started with using it. I'll see how the fiebings edge kote works. I use the tuff kote for the finishing coat on the leather itself but never used it on the edges. I appreciate the headds up. Frank

Hey All, I'm not sure how many of you use Tandy's Neat Lac but if you have a chance to grab any you might want to do it today! They are going to stop manufacturing it again. I bought the last of it in my area and the dealer said he cannot find it at the main warehouse or any other store that he checked. I used it strictly for finishing my edges but now I have to find something new to use. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Just a suggestion but I know that Brownells and Midway USA carry "easy to apply" chemicals that darken/antique brass, copper, aluminum, etc. Gun guys use them when they have a brass or aluminum grip frame on their guns but do not want to pay the extra cash to buy a steel grip frame. From what I hear, they work relatively well.

Thanks much! I will have to go and grab the book this week and get started on the holster. I appreciate all of your comments and suggestions.

Thanks for the photo. It is somewhat similar to what I had in mind. I have a couple of months yet so hopefully I can come up with something.

Thanks again. I'll take a look at the book and see what I can come up with. I doubt I'll purchase the video since I'm fairly certain I wont be building many holsters for others, but I appreciate the advice.

Thanks for the info. Evidently El Paso quit making them a while back. I really do not have the time to hit the gun shops around my area at all. I did find a guy that makes the holster similar to what I was talking about. The link is: Auto Holster I'd still like the trigger guard cut out a little more than the one in the photo, but you kinda get the idea of what I am looking for. I was going to make my Chief a holster similar and a matching belt. Thanks in advance for any info you might have. Frank

Hey All, I'm definitely new to the forum but been around leather work for a while. I've made some saddles and some single action holsters and the like. I just got out of the service and my Chief is getting set to retire. I'm trying to get my hands on a Pike holster type pattern for a GI 1911 kinda like the one that El Paso Saddlery carries. Chief just bought the 1911 last year and I figured a nice retirement gift would be for me to make him a personalized holster for it. Any and all help would be much appreciated. Thanks again. Frank