chuck123wapati

Your holster is pretty good for the first time!! An old cook told me once "patience makes the best sauce" Take your time , let your leather case out properly no matter how long or how you soak it, spray it, dip it in one toe at time, whatever super secret expert advice, I use Bobs method too, sometimes sometimes not. Cut an extra scrap of the same leather to test on, jab it with your finger nail or stamp, something every once in a while until you see it creating the right impressions, they should be crisp and darker in color and most importantly they don't show signs of fading or popping back out. One thing to look for If your leather is to wet or your knife to dull it will make the swivel knife stick and jerk along as your try and cut.so if you feel that jerkiness then you know one of two things are hampering you. Al Stohlman will never lead you a stray you can get his books cheaply, some for free in the Tandy library!!! And my last suggestions on learning this craft, you will be using and looking at designs created by people who have been tooling for most of their natural life so don't expect your work to look as good for quite awhile. Just have fun with it and realize you will create your own personal techniques as you go. Also make some stuff without tooling too so you can learn the basics of sewing , dying, finishing etc. most of my tooling is still on scraps i usually do two or three practice pieces before committing to the final piece. Good luck to you my friend we all started just like you at one time and are very willing to help.

i wont be doing any leather work today the shovel is calling.

Those are beautiful but I didn't know African Bullfrogs carried knives lol

I don't know if i do them right but here's how i do it. For an 8oz thickness holster for example i would use two pieces that equal 8 oz. One( the base layer thickest piece) under the snake skin, one over( the piece you cut out for the skin to show thru). and then i use the cutout piece also under the skin to raise it up level with the outer piece. The outer piece should cover the whole holster so it looks inlayed.

dont have any for the xl's you may have to do some figuring.

vests.pdf

i was referring to your belt loop slots, no biggie, what i do is make them narrower plus i skive them a bit on the back side where the belt rides.

i would find a pair (that fits you) at some yard sale or thrift store and deconstruct them. You can find out everything you need to know that way including thread sizes and stitch length.

i think your inlay looks great!!!! i would have lost some of that leather on the outside of your loop and ran the stitch line closer to the loop hole but that is just esthetics no one will see the loops. Nice lookin holster IMO.

Dang that's nice lookin!!

if you have a business license you can ask each to give you a bid. make sure your specs are equal to both companies. One or the other may be able to go cheaper, in my experience as a manager both can go cheaper but you have to ask. Thinking about it a business license may not be necessary but you do have to ask!! i buy construction stuff this way all the time. Or you can get a quote from one and take it to the other and see if they can / want to beat it.

man that's cool!! now if I only had a bobbin big enough to get it up to speed lol.

In my case you would die laughing, picture an old short fat guy frantically waddling along holding up his britches with one hand and swinging away with the other..

you know there are some plausible theories that civilization was started with the discovery of Beer and is what really set about agriculture. I haven't been to a pub/bar in probably 30 years.

man they have some nice pelts!! still thinking on what i could possibly make with a hot pink skunk pelt lol.

very cool sheathes Frodo!!!!

cool surfin sheath???!!!!! indeed all your stuff is top notch it takes me five hours just to think about building something like this.

those are nice indeed plus that rough out is just bada**!!!

beautiful work my friend, you have honored our flag wonderfully!!! AND OUR SERVICE MEN, god bless you!

sweeeet! indeed.

perfect IMO!! That's a working tool there.

that's a nice heavy duty rig for sure!!!! it looks awesome

probably not strong enough, just use plain white vinegar. i use 0000 washed steel wool but even old nails will work. it takes a while just leave it sit and check it weekly.

yup you cant tan hide without stretching it. When we tan( my son and I) we can almost double the size of a hide by stretching it on a frame and BTW that's what those funny square clamp marks are on the edges of hides you buy. They are stretching clamps!! The process known as tanning simply takes out the mucus and some of the natural glue and also replaces it with whatever the tanning chemicals used after which the hides must be stretched until dry or the natural glues remaining make it hard again, btw that's why your veg tan gets harder after wetting it!!! And that is where hide glue comes from, by slowly steeping raw hide in hot water!!! Then you add oils to soften the hides in the same manner as oil is used to remove gum from your kids hair, it breaks the bonds of the natural glues holding the fibers together. As for shrinking yes they shrink back to the original size some more than others depending on the stretching methods used. The hat brim i did the other day shrank about 1/4" all around after i finished it the other day even after tooling it and i used no dyes. Dyes aren't the culprit its a matter of how much the hide remained over stretched during tanning.

Good to hear your doing better, it is all about what you eat. My wife saw this doctor on you tube explaining how bad refined sugar really is, it is literally put in almost all processed foods we eat or drink here in the US. The sugar lobby has hid the reality of sugar by subsidizing studies that make fat to be the bad guy. She and the kids quit using anything with processed sugar three months ago, kept the fat in our diets in fact we switched to beef tallow for cooking instead of the processed vegetable oils, and she has lost 43 pounds my son 42. I've lost about 20 only because i didn't use extra sugar the way they did in coffee and juices. so now my diet advise is dump the sugar!!! at least as much of it as you can.