Tequila

I don’t have as much patience as you, so a tip of the hat to you for that long tedious work, and your right the outcome was worth the effort. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and technique with everyone.

@AndrewWR beautiful looking case, I like the handle detail. Got a question how did you get the edge to lay flat on the curves, when I try to do it the edge material puckers.

I’d like to know about the software too.

Man I hope so, I checked 3 times, but I ain’t got that kinda luck

Nice work. Any reason for the shape?

Thanks, and I’m trying, the hard part (zipper) is yet to come.

I pretty sure this isn’t the right forum to post this update, but since I started this thread I thought I’d post some updates on this gun case here. This is probably a very easy project for most of you, however for me it’s the biggest thing I’ve made with a lot of firsts. It started out with what type of leather to use, I had decided not do any tooling or stamping since it was for me and it was going to be a working case. So I decided to go with a chrome tan, the gun is 54 inches long, which (as you know) meant that I had to buy a side just to get the length I needed. With the decision to use chrome tan opened up a lot of choices of species and color. After going nuts looking at all the choices I decided to call Maker’s Leather Supply. After explaining the project they transferred me to the owner Aaron and he suggested a 4-5 ounce crazy horse pull up. If you’ve never dealt with Maker’s you owe it to yourself to give them a look, I received my order in 2 days. When I explained to Aaron all the firsts that the case presented me he said if I had any questions or needed any suggestions to call him and he’d help me out, now that’s customer service I appreciate. The project came to a stop when I had to go to another supplier for thread (Maker’s was out of stock), that order took over a week to get, I’ll keep that in mind for next time. The lining posed another set of questions of what to use. If you’ve ever put a hot gun in a case with a synthetic liner you know that it can ruin your day, so I knew it had to be a natural material. I started thinking wool, but I didn’t want a sheepskin, unfortunately I couldn’t find a wool fabric, so I went with 100% cotton. I used @chuck123wapati ‘s suggestion and used batting for cushioning. Having never used batting I wasn’t sure how thick it should be, what I bought was too thin which meant I had to glue 2 pieces together. As of today I made a pattern, cut the leather to the pattern, made 2 rolled handles (a first), sewed them on, cut and glued the batting, cut and sewed the fabric. I still have to cut strips of leather to go around the top seem and opening, assemble and sew the zipper, and finally sew the the everything up. Here’s what it looks like so far:

Down this way, (southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi) we’ve got plenty if you want some more . In the New Orleans area they have nutria hunters that get paid for every tail they turn in.

From one redneck to another, how about some nutria teeth?

I think it’s pretty easy to explain, and you kind of answered your own question, it’s top color. The holes are showing the leather including the layers below the top color. You can re-dye the holes with a brush or the entire piece if you haven’t put a top coat/finish on it.

@Key I’m surprised no one mentioned something that I always do before hand stitching, using a stitch groover. The groover creates a small groove where you’re going to stitch, that allows the thread to “lay in” the leather, it also gives you a line to follow whether you use pricking irons or chisels. Of course you can always just use a wheel to mark your holes and then use an awl. I’d practice (a lot), as @zuludog said, everything looks easy when done by someone with years of experience. To make a good saddle stitch you need to be consistent and repeatable, over and over again.

@TomE that’s a nice set up!

Stunning work, I’m sure it will raise a pretty penny at auction. I do have one little question, after you carved the bird did you bevel the lines or just added paint?