donohueleather

Working through a few orders lately, and had a request for an inside the waistband holster with tensioner. Worked up some changes to my normal template to accommodate. With the adjustable tension, it might be my new favorite inside the waistband design.

Just finished a book cover for a friend. She was recently published and wanted to get a special edition cover to commemorate it. I thought it would be cool to layer up the shell so I could create some "scars" under the tears. I like how it turned out. (see the link for the book's cover art) book cover.webp

Purely cosmetic

Had an order for a custom 3 slot holster for a sig p365, the customer wanted some kind of fanciful artwork with his brothers nickname added. Did some drafts, went back and forth and ended up with the artwork you see. Once the pattern was worked up I ended up building the holster out of a 6oz (ish) veg with full suede lining (all chrome free suede). All sewn togther with some Ritza 1.0mm in white. I went ahead and put the two slots for adjusting cant on the back vs. front to keep the whole unit roughly in the same place so it wouldn't be so floppy on the straight draw. Couple of minor things I might change if I built this one again, maybe a slightly lighter veg body as it got rather thick after all the lining was added. Maybe 5oz.

Haven't posted in a while, been kinda busy. Had some time this past weekend and felt like I needed to go out and make something. Didn't have much of a plan to start with, then decided to just lay the laptop down on a bit of 5oz and.. well.. one thing lead to another.

true, thought it was not conceived for actual SCA use or anything like that, purely costume. Thank you! I might work something up just cause! That said, the "project" has grown with more and more stuff being added from the original setup to include a re-worked sword frog, a drinking horn holster/holder, costrel for water or whatever.. a hood, a matched set of short sword sheaths, and some other stuff. then stuff for my friends. One wanted a custom costrel to match her hat I made previously.. That's what I love about this craft, you keep learning, new techniques and processes and you get to the point when some projects are finished where you look at it like "wow.. i made that from a flat piece of leather"

yes, but letting it dry with a...non period correct metal wine stopper... Bonney Lake, over the next few weeks. Not TOO far a drive from Ellensburg. unless a fire closes the passes....

Getting some final items made up before the upcoming renaissance faire, decided a plastic water bottle was going to throw the whole costume off, decided I'd go ahead and make a Costrel / water/wine skin.. whatever it'll end up being called, it'll hold a lot of whatever goes in it... An upside to the unusually warm weather we are having here in the PNW is the outdoor curing after wet molding items!

I had a few concerns too, so I did a "test" rig without any of the finish work. Doing the testing on that, wearing the holster strong side at more of "duty" carry position and with a properly supportive belt.. there wasn't much flex at all, with the curve at the waist right there it locks it pretty tight. Drawing the mag with off hand works almost no different than than spare mags on the same side as the weapon (common with some agencies). My concern for the design really was the lack of angle on the draw for the weapon and the magazine. but they wanted straight draw and as compact a design as possible.. If I were building it for me, I'd include a 10degree forward cant on both. Thanks PB, some day I may progress to a sewing machine (for speed) but I enjoy the hand sewing element. Kick on some music, hot cup of coffee and sew away. Cathartic.

I'm not sure if there is any right or wrong way per se, but, I've found that if I use it where the middle of the blade touches my granite, then I can apply pressure to get an even bite / skive as you draw along the edge. That said, I also buried my super skiver right into my thumb when it bound up on me and I wasn't paying adequate attention. Sometimes when it bites, it bites a lot, then not at all. (watch your finger placement!!) I've since switched to using the Tandy "Safety Skiver" and honestly have had much better results, much more consistent skives. I also have a few of the Japanese skiving knives, they work great on thinner stuff but skiving belts i get a bit antsy...

Agree 100%. When I'm making a project, I'll sometimes wet the leather (very light case) to see where some of that might come up so I can incorporate it. Custom / one off / unique items are that much better when they have their own character. The same goes with applying colors / dye. (other than paint) when you apply dye to different leather, you'll get different results, even on the same piece, it's just how they absorb. I say embrace it. For what it's worth, I apply neatsfoot first, then dye. It seems to use less dye as well or maybe just goes on more evenly than otherwise.. I also use round pads for applying dye where I can (the kind you use for waxing your car), they apply a very even coat whether it's Feibings or Ecoflo. If you REALLY have to have super consistent color.. you can buy pre-dyed / finished leather panels for the project. More $$$ per piece, but it'll be the same color throughout.

Recent project / order. Custom setup for Glock 48 with integrated spare mag pouch. Fully lined in chrome free suede. Thin blue line motif received thin blue thread as well. The final product was edge coated so no raw edges were visible, but I apparently did not save that photo...

Thanks for the feedback! This project just seems to grow and continue to growing. Working on matching drawstring bags, dagger frogs and plan on doing some kind of hooded leather cape (haven't decided on exact design). The plan currently is to have a full set including possibly a wool cloak and leather boots ready by the next Renaissance Faire. But like everything in this craft, the more you do, the more you realize you can do, the more you want to do, and around you go.

my two cents... First cent - nice looking piece. Seriously.. just... Nice. Second cent - *(if you have to be a perfectionist.. ) to me it looks like the cutout puts the pressure right at the ejection port. It appears to actually mold slightly inwards right at the ejection port. I can see the cutout is for sight clearance but the sight doesn't seem to need that much. My suggestion would be to reduce the depth of the cutout (as I hastily drew). Perhaps the forming around the full width of the slide vs. the profile of the ejection port will allow for secure retention as well as natural clearance for the front portion of the ejection port... assuming that, then perhaps the stitch grooving, hammering,etc. will have more of the effect you are shooting for.

Thanks!

The "Sporran" belt pouch.

So I decided after going to the Renaissance fair a few weeks ago and seeing hat was on display by the vendors, I wanted to put an armor set together for the next go around. Talk about stepping squarely outside my experience zone. I had no idea how much time this project was going to consume. (I think I'm somewhere around 50-60hrs in at this point) Annnywho, I launched into the project straight away following the fair and I have the feeling I'll continually be adding to / tweaking / re-building bits all the way up to the next fair (or other excuse to wear the armor) As for the build, I didn't have much of a starting point other than some hand sketches, youtube, some google searches and looking at some of the posts here for inspiration and some manner of direction ( I guess that was a pretty decent starting point retrospectively). The patterns I worked out on the fly with construction paper and cardboard after measuring all my bits. I guess one benefit of all the stuff being "shipped direct" these days is all the extra cardboard laying around.. Originally I envisioned this as a "simple" (ish) pattern which articulated segments. (I had no idea at the start how much of a pain this would be). The build is a mix of 12-14oz skirting and 8-10oz veg. The strapping is all 8oz veg. The tooling patterns were not really planned initially, I just sort of looked at the pieces in progress and decide they needed "something more". After I tooled the edges I again thought "eh, more!" so I went for the gold metallic paint and touched up some of the tooling to give it some "pop". Not pictured here (due to size limits) are the Sporran inspired belt pouch I made to match the gear and the tassets. (I'll upload additional photos or links for those.) I plan on adding some "period correct" garments and footwear to the outfit to finish it out, probably including a leather flask at some point. I have to say, I can fully appreciate the massive price tags on full sets of leather armor at the fair. Knowing what I know now, I think their display prices are woefully underpaying their artisans... Either way, I had a lot of fun building this set, and I very much look forward to the next fair. **(Full Disclaimer - My shop space is also being used as small person play space - it's freaking wreck down here.. )

I lay my longer pieces on the edge of my bench, put my 4ft drywall straight edge on them and clamp that to the bench. I can burnish away without the strap / belt flexing. I've also just clamped the belt to the straight edge, that works too.

I was home sick for a few days and running through the posts I saw a thread on a first time western gun belt and that got me thinking about making something. After messing around drawing out a few different designs I came up with my idea on a twist on the age old design. For the belt itself I laminated 6oz and 8oz veg , fully stitched and then laid out a pattern of mounting holes every 1.5". (they are 2" apart) I punched them large enough to receive chicago screws. For the holster I decided I wanted a stiffened rig, so I cut 0.6mm kydex and sandwiched that inside the back piece of the holster as well as the reinforcement piece on the front *(behind the snap right up to the stitch line). The holster itself is fully lined and constructed out of everything from 3oz all the way up to 7oz. I included a leg strap tie down just cause, but really with the kydex and all that leather, it's plenty stiff enough to draw, and with the screw mounts it can't slide around. I wanted to give a nod to the hammer loop but with the gun I chose (HKvp9) being a semi-auto, I figured I could go with a braided leather strap tied off to a piece of veg with the snap on it. (on the holster it's passed through a punched hole and then knotted to prevent passing back through. So it can be unsnapped and passed back for a quick draw, even if it ain't exactly straight out of Tombstone. The other pouches are all made on a common sized "back plate" to line up to the holes in the belt. The knife sheath I had already made so I simply adapted that with a remnant from a belt I'd cut, dyed etc. to match the rig. Lesson's learned on the placement of the belt buckle and strap in relation to the ends of the main belt. I also reminded myself why I REALLY want to step up to a sewing machine one of these days... I don't think this thing is would ever be a marketable design, but I had fun making it and learning some new lessons on design.

Had a request to come up with a cross draw, horizontal knife sheath for a coworker.

Yes, 5 hrs was kinda close, but we've also been over a month without rain, so the drying wasn't too much of an issue surprisingly. I agree on the trigger area, I was trying to balance grip / space with gloves on vs. coverage. so I opted to run the top edge just over where the back of the trigger sits. On the next one I'd bring it up just a bit more, it didn't need all that space once the forming was done.

I use a press I picked up from holstersmith dot com a while back. - like this > On bigger items I just stack some weights on top of the metal plate instead of using the slots to avoid gripping one area tight and missing the front edge. I'll be upgrading to a pneumatic press at some point.

I make them out of 0.8mm kydex. two rivets and a line 24 snap. The kydex is 1.5" x .75", I center drill for the snap and each rivet hole is approximately 3/8" from end end. Then i scribe the round end, trim with sheers and finish with a dremmel. The process of setting the snap also bows the kydex slightly which helps to pull the snap into the corresponding hole I cut in the leather .

Backside showing the kydex thumbreak. I use a round punch to create a hole in the leather big enough to recess the female snap head so the snap doesn't ride the frame on draw, preventing very unwanted scratches. Stitch line around trigger guard much easier to see here.