HandyDave

Looks like a great holster specially for your first one. It looks alot better then my first attempts thats for sure.

Great work on bringing a classic piece back to life. Id like to mention how i cut old rivets or messed up rivets. Sometimes i drill them out but i have found if you take a metal putty knife or even a cheap skiving knife. Thin it down and make it sharp. And you can slide it between most objects and rivet. Give it a smack with mallet and it slices right threw rivet. On something like your old belt this trick would have worked real good.

Really like the asian inspired tooling on the veg tan pieces very well done. I think the bags would sell and you could use the same duffle pattern and do your tooled pieces all sorts of different ways not just asian designs. Only thing would be your margins since you said it was all hand stitched and all the other extra work you put in. I dont know if you could price high enough to make them profitable. I get the calls all the time wanting prices on stuff and when you tell them price most times they bring up how they seen other "handmade" items on etsy or other online stores for half of what i need to charge to be profitable. Theres a huge difference when you press cut a stack of pieces then run them threw a sewing machine and project is done in one day. Compared to hand cutting every piece hand tooling hand sewing and project takes you double to triple the time.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. It was a fun project. And a good piece to practice my carving. My family and friends love it when im practicing new techniques and making new patterns cause i allways give my first test pieces to them. I got 5 younger sisters and there allways asking me to make this or make that. Of course they get everything on me what they like to call the family discount. I told them if they started payin for all the stuff i make them i wouldnt have to seek outside customers lol. But its great free advertising for my stuff when they show it off. Well free for them. I probably would have never made a purse or laptop bag if it wasnt for my sisters wanting them. And now i make as many bags as i do holsters and such.

Thats really cool. I love the old advertising stuff. He was created in the late 20's and there is still a few companies that use his character. All the big electric companies used him at some point but he was fazed out mostly by late 70's early 80's. I know its not ok to recreate trademarked logos and such. But i only did it on this pouch as a gift for my friend. He about had tears in his eyes when i handed it to him. I told him i was workin on something for him as a thank you for the wiring help. But i didnt tell him what till i handed it to him.

A good electrician friend of mine helped me get my workshop wired and powerd up. So i wanted to give him a custom leather piece for helping me. I usually do gun leather,belts and bags so the tool pouch was a fun different project. I do alot of stamping but have only done a few carving pieces. The reddy kilowatt character on the small front pocket on this pouch is by far the hardest carving ive done to date. I hope the leather family here enjoys.

Very nice piece. Im sure your sons friends are gonna be super jealous.

The customer wants double prong and belt to be 4inch full width. I tryed to talk him into letting me taper down to 3 inch for ends. Cause there are 3 inch buckles everywhere. Ive even messaged a couple of the companies that sell the 4 inch belts with buckles i need to see if they will divulge there source for the buckles. I guess they consider it trade secrets cause i havent got no response. Thanks for all the help guys.

As title says i need a source to find good heavy duty 4 inch double prong buckles. I find plenty of belts for sale with these buckles but search after search and cant find a source to buy just the 4 inch double prong buckles. Hopefully someone here will be able to help me. And thank you.

I do alot of the lighter holders with my scrap. And small folding knife pouches. And can coozies and such. Usually about once a month or 2 ill take my scrap box cut every small project i can get out of it and throw away the scrap thats left un usable. But even the smallest piece of scrap can be incorporated somewhere. Earrings are great way to use the tiny pieces up. My father sets up at flea markets on weekends and i give all these small projects to him to sell for me. And we split the take. And since there scrap small projects they dont have much time or material cost. I love big custom builds but the quick small projects cover all my material cost and keep everything runnin.

I did the 2 mag pouches so basketweave looks like it just goes up and over. But i intentionally did the holster different direction and added a groove line around it just so its matching the rest of piece but also stands out a little. The 12 oz piece of black leather sewed to main panel back is there so customer can put his screws or whatever he wants to use wherever he needs to too fasten to wall.

I allways have trouble getting pics on here. Heres another before i got done with pistol and mag

Hey guys and gals i just finished a piece for a great customer of mine. He wanted something nice to hang on wall of his camper that would hold pistol and couple extra mags. So when he and his wife are out on road seeing some of the country he will have close access if need came along. Ive made many holsters and mag pouches but this is first time ever making wall art. Let me know what you all think.

Thanks alot for the input guys. When i said i use 2 loops allways with no problems i meant 1 loop but woven threw 2 holes instead of up and back threw same hole. This was my first test at using this method and it worked so good until i bent the strap and casings fell out. The loop leather is 5/6 oz veg tan and strip is 5/8" wide for 38 speacial rounds. I cut the slots 1/2" long using 1/4" hole punch on ends and sharp chisel to finish.

Heres the pic of strap bent where the casings will fall out freely.

Ok here is couple pics of the test piece i did doing the ammo loops wovin up and back threw same hole. This was first time i tryed this method and as i said in initial post the 38/357 casing hold just fine when strap piece is flat or slightly curved. But when bent as in pic casings fall freely out of loops. I like the simplicity of this method just need figure out what i did wrong.

Hello all ive been doing leather work for just a few years. It started with just wanting to make my own holsters and knife sheathes then kinda side business. Ive built and remodeled houses for 22 years and now I am fortunate enough to be able hang up my tool belt and work with leather and gun finishes full time right in my home shop. I just started a website that shows a bunch of my work ive done if anyone is interested in checking it out. hillbillyhydrographics.com. I am no master of leather by a long shot and sure i will have tons of questions for the people here with alot more experience then myself. I love what i do and if i can help anyone here with the little knowledge i do have ill be happy to.

I make my ammo loops on belts and slides by using 2 slot method with bullet between the 2 slots with leather woven threw. Ive never had any trouble with this way. I dont care for the sewed on loops myself but have done a couple sewed if customer requested. The problem is i did a sample piece for some padded rifle sling cartridge slides using the woven threw single hole method and it works good until i bend the piece like it would be over your shoulder and bullets fall right out. What did i do wrong in this type of ammo loop? I know ammo loops have been covered a bunch on this forum but in my search i couldnt find this specific problem. Flat the bullets are nice and snug in loops. Bend it like it would be around a waist and bullets still fit good. But bend the strap a little more like it would be on your shoulder and loops lose all tension on bullets. Ill try to get a pic of my test piece so you guys can see and maybe be able help me.