tsunkasapa

Very nice. I need to make a 1911 holster for a friend that's wrong-handed. I need to keep my mind on it when laying it out. I already have a right-handed one.

So, it's been quite some time since I've been here. I was offered a job as Traffic Control Supervisor on a road project that was keeping me busy with 60-70 weeks. Didn't give me much time for anything but work and sleep. That was back in '24. The job lasted until November, and on the day before Thanksgiving I took my wife to the Dr for 'abdominal discomfort'. We were told she had a mass in her abdomen, and we would have to go to the hospital and get a CT scan. Turns out 'the' mass was 3, on her liver, pancreas and kidneys. I will condense the next 7 months, but it was a very ugly fight with cancer that didn't respond to treatment, and I lost her the end of June last year. So, the last half of '25 I just really didn't feel like doing much. But it is a new year, and I have been getting myself back together. So, I hope to be back here more often going forward.

My wife and I went to Anchorage to watch the Iditarod 2 years ago and rented a car. I walked around the car videoing the same the time the rental guy did with his tablet. When we left, we dropped the car at the airport as it was early AM. A week later they sent me an email that all was satisfactory and deducted the deposit off my card. I don't know if my documenting it helped or if they were truly satisfied, but no issues that time.

There is the issue. Chrome does not take dye like veg tan. At one time there was a line of dyes for chrome. Feibing's I believe.

I have never had a local Tandy. All the years I've done this I've had to drive 1 1/2 hours to north Seattle, 3 hours to Spokane or 4 hours to Portland. I have gotten to know some of the folks enough that I felt comfortable ordering from them, but they never last. And the last 15 years or so they have really gone downhill, leather, tools, all of it. They just aren't the business they used to be.

Welcome to the group. Lots of good folks and information here.

I've used both. No real difference between the two, just a matter of which you find more comfortable.

pictures would help. But not seeing what's going on, you MIGHT be able to dampen the lining and stretch it back out. It sounds like it has totally dried out. If that works it will need to be reconditioned.

Having lost everything to a wildfire, including my shop building, I know how starting over goes. You have my sympathy.

Of course it is. I picked up on that when he said he was '45 years old' as if that meant he was 'old'. Hell, I have concert T-shirts older than that.

Never liked the mauls for just that reason. I have used mallets all the years I've done this. Maybe because as a carpenter I've used hammers for almost 50 years. But I never liked the round heads.

I use linen and hemp for the simple reason I refuse to use synthetics in any form whenever I can. I do not wear clothing made from synthetics, I do not sew with them.

It looks like he is in Arizona, or perhaps southern California.

It looks like it might be the Leathercrafter and Saddlers Journal. Where in central Washington? Ellensburg here.