chuck123wapati

that is nice looking alright i would love to see how the mechanics work.

great tooling wish i could do that well.

Thanks man!!

it appears its a hide that has never been tanned. you can soak it in water to rehydrate it. then if indeed its not tanned you may be able to but I've never tried on a 20 year old hide. if it has been tanned you can tell the inside will have been fleshed of all the fats and meat. If not then you will have to stretch it, flesh it out and then tan it.

i think your choice of glue was the biggest problem. Use contact cement or elmers type, then you need to compress the handle. if the handle has a bolt end that is great other wise you will need to build a jig to compress. Sand then burnish.

That is a nice design! i always stop my designs in the middle of the holster right down the center of the front as no one sees the back and so much tooling definition is lost forming at the bend. BUT i see no harm in going all the way if you choose, not a thing wrong with that. maybe over lap a couple of the leaves onto the cactus ovals and change up some of their sizes I would suggest a compass and French curves to create the stems into more fluid turns. Another trick i use is to scan a copy and shade in all the negative space. this will show you haw much background you will have and how it effects the design. i can see some large areas that could be filled like under the top flower and along the left edge

you have carved out a niche!! Beautiful work and awesome variety in your projects.

i have cut off needles to make them shorter for stuff like this.

your woodworking skills are amazing. your eye for detail and perfection will no doubt follow over into leather. And the good the good thing is Leather and wood go together in a lot of projects. as well so do some of the tools and skills .

2" wide piece close up

you can get a fluer de lis stamp from tandy then just bevel around it. i can measure mine to see if it fits your design.

beautiful work and an awesome subject. god bless!!!

i wish i did i use the one on my computer but i cant figure out what it is? I open the pic then right click and use resize option best for emails and messages. its just called microsoft photos on windows 10

they can be any of the four things a thumb rest usually rounded to fit the thumb, They can be really sharop and used for sawing lioke the ones on survival knives or as fred says there are knives made with the purpose of catching the blade and on some just decorations. on these i would have to say thumb rests. they can be any of the four things a thumb rest usually rounded to fit the thumb, They can be really sharop and used for sawing lioke the ones on survival knives or as fred says there are knives made with the purpose of catching the blade and on some just decorations like these on mine. on these i would have to say thumb rests.

Those and other mini flowers rule the desert for a few weeks in places they are so thick they look like snow. Most folks drive thru Wyoming and never really see it. even the ones coming here for vacation. my beer of choice is PBR lol. guiness is really expensive but i sneak some once in a while. I tried brewing my own beer one time but found i was brewing almost non stop lol.

i bought some 1/8th inch stainless all thread and made a super small beveler for just a couple bucks to get in those tiny spots. plus some lifters and a sculpting tip.

awesome job all three are top notch.

beer battered and deep fried! lol nice indeed!!!

ok i made a new thread , i figured Fred is getting tired of his thread being stomped on. Sorry Fred!!! First of the year the desert here is literally covered in flowers but you have to get close to see them lol. i will get some more as time allows.

ok i will get a piece sanded down and stained so you can see the grain

man that sounds good!! we had chicken fried elk steaks last night with champ and homemade gravy.

nice tooling !!

thats some nice steel and nice leather glad you are getting healed up.

awesome indeed lets see that steel!! I just went out and picked up some sage brush, cut it up for scales it makes some pretty stuff.

yeesh thats a quandary alright i think it depends a lot on the thickness of inner liner if your using very thin i dont see much problem at all doing it either way. But the question is how thick of a liner can you get away with before wrinkling inside I would tool a bit of scrap and run some quick tests to see if forming after gluing would cause wrinkling. you may also want to think about skiving you outer piece along the bend before gluing in the liner , that may help reduce the problem with liner wrinkles and softening of the tooling impressions both are caused by the leather bunching up and or stretching out. I would also love to find out your progress i have a slim Jim to make for my dads old shooter also but I've never lined them shh don't tell the guns they think they are nice and comfy living in the rough. anyway i tool very deep then form my unlined holsters because you lose some impression when forming around the bend, i expect it and tell my customers to expect it as well.