PastorBob

Very nice. I have been doing the Avenger style for a bit now, using Slick Bald's patterns. Have you received any comments on the holster being unlined? All of mine are made with two 5-6 oz. pieces glued together, flesh to flesh, so they are smooth inside and out. If you haven't, I may switch to a single layer with the wrap around part. What thickness leather are you using? Again - Beautiful!!

If I use the cheap import leather, I definitely get blotching. When I use Hermann Oak leather, it is soo much better. I spoke with the team at Springfield leather. They say that the import leather adds chemicals to their veg tan process to speed it up. This can cause issues with dyeing the leather. According to them, as I am not an expert, the only difference with the PRO and regular Feibing's dyes are the PRO has an oil additive to help with flow of the dye. Again, not an expert, just passing on some hearsay.

love it. would hate to be their tattoo artist. LOL.

WOW!!!!!!! What craftswomanship! Maybe one day, i will be that good. Thanks for sharing.

Plenty of great ideas and information here. I have learned a bunch. Also, there are numerous videos on YouTube specific to different styles / techniques. Look for Don Gonzalez for tooling and dyeing, Weaver Leathercraft for the same plus different types of projects, and Joe Meling for more. These are just to name a few...there are many. Good luck and thank you for your service.

Welcome to the forum. Lots of knowledgeable folks here.

You know that guy that puts a screen door in the bottom of his boat coated with some sort of plastic spray?? That comes in white now, I believe. That may hold up and be less expensive than Line-X. You can buy it at big box home improvement stores.

Very nice work. nice detail and lines look smooth

Very nice. Haven't played D&D in many years. Would have been nice to have an official handmade dice cup.

made a similar design for a local knife maker that competed on Forged in Fire.

Even if its not marketable, I am sure you had as much fun designing it as making it. Sometimes the "figgering" is as much a challenge as actually doing the creating. Nice job on letting your creative juices flow.

Nicely done.

That looks like a fun project. Worthy group of individuals to create for. The undyed one definitely looks more symmetrical as far as the exterior. Not sure how you are creating your pattern, but one thing I do to keep patterns symmetrical is create half of the outline on half a piece of paper, then fold it over and cut it out. Similar to cutting paper snowflakes. That way, if there is any deviations, it is on both halves of the pattern. Imagine folding the image in half horizontally. Something else to consider is rounding the corners of the rectangular cut outs. That way you can use a round hole punch to create openings with which you can cut straight lines between the circles. It gives the corners a cleaner look and prevents over travel from the knife as you approach the edge of the cutout. On the dyed one, it doesn't appear that you beveled the banner where it over laps at the end. This would really help give it some depth. Thanks for sharing your creation. Anxious to see what it looks like finished.

6 of 6

Here is what I found.... 3 of 6 pages. 4 of 6 Gimme a sec....upload limit reached.

I bought a set of brass punches of various sizes from Harbor freight. I have a couple in the leather shop. One is perfectly sized for the large tandy stamps to use as a handle.

When I was playing with the LE, i wouild dampen a paper towel and dab off the char, each time turning to a clean part of the towel. Once done, I let it dry, then coated in neatsfoot only, and that I dabbed on gently. Otherwise, there will be some char that is spread around (one can't get it all with the paper towel). When I tried applying dye, it really hid and smeared the edges of the engraving. Some may have better luck, but I played it safe based on my experience.

https://www.weaverleathersupply.com/catalog/item-detail/00081-8/master-tools/pr_406 $60 https://www.springfieldleather.com/Edge-Beveler-French-130-1-2 - $55 wholesale

Yep. Send in a drawing and they send you back a die. There is a place in Texas I have worked with in the past. http://www.usacuttingdie.com/die-examples.html

I also, don't know how I missed this originally. My apologies. There are a lot of skills required to pull this off. It seems that when I have a project with several skills needed, I get one or two of them right and botch another. I have actually glued and edged a piece that was supposed to be stamped/ carved...before I carved. I have thrown so much leather away...but this is not something I would toss. Chalk it up to a good learning experience. Take notes of the steps BEFORE you start (like casing leather) so that no steps are missed. Sometimes I do, sometimes, not. I find that when I have to work a 4-5 hour project over several days, it is easy to forget where I was. Sometimes, I will leave the next tool to be used laying on top of the project as a reminder. I love the design you chose. wonderful carving work. Don't feel bad about "no comments". I have a couple posted in "critique my work" with no response at all. Not sure what that means. '

if you want to shell out some bucks, maybe a clicker and dies for patterns.

what an endeavor. Thanks for sharing. I haven't been able to get a nice set of loops for ammo yet.

If you don't have the US stamp, here is a link to one I have purchased and had great success, should you need one. No affiliation. https://www.shop.bunkhousetools.com/US-P0422a.htm?categoryId=-1

Welcome to the forum. I am not sure of any books per se, but know that for particular elements / products there are a number of YouTube videos on the subject. Weaver Leather does a great job on certain things, Don Gonzalez has great instructional videos on how to draw floral designs, Joe Meling has some great videos too. There are also several for how to create patterns for holsters, knife sheaths, etc. What type of patterns and designs would you like to create??

nice detail work. very sharp!!