MarshalWill

A friend gave me one that a friend of his made. It's interesting because the jaws rotate to any angle. The drawback is that the head is actuated by a 1/4" steel cable and there's no stretch to it. I put a spring in the cable and it works better but needs a stiffer spring. It's very useful to have the roatating jaws. Notice the peg on the back of the jaws that goes through a hole in the head and into holes in the seat. He also put a holder on the right jaw to hold a cake of beeswax. This thing is well thought out. Maybe it'll give you some ideas.

I did a stint building machinery. More often than not, there was loud music playing on both sides of the shop, never the same type and I worked in the middle. Usually Mexican folk music battling it out with hard rock. Both sides turning the music up so loud they didn't have to listen to the other. I got tired of being surrounded with noise. Now I enjoy quiet while I work. I suppose some good music would go well but I just don't think of it. I like having iced tea on hand. Maybe I'll try some music one of these days.

I've been making my own stamps since I first went to work for a saddlemaker back in the 70's because that's what he did. I made my own leather knives, again as he did because the shape wasn't available commercially. If I can buy a stamp, I will. When what I want isn't available or if the lead time is too long, I will make my own. Some of them look fairly nice. Others are less than beautiful but the tip is what matters. Most have been made from old bolts because that's what was on hand when I needed to make one. I don't have many stainless ones but the steel doesn't make dark impressions when used. Just to be sure, I stamp a scrap a few times to clean the head before using it on a project. I've only had one tip corrode. That one got dipped in Birchwood Casey Super Blue to seal it after cleaning. I'm thinking of dipping all of my hand made ones to prevent that from happening in the future. Here's a pic of one of the more, shall we say, functional ones. As you can see, I didn't have to texture the barrel for ease of handling.

Howdy, Panhead. I see you made it over here, too. Welcome from one newbie to another.

I've used Chuck's method of making vinegaroon for a couple years, now. I clean the steel wool with lighter fluid then shake out most of it and burn off the excess. When it's cool enough to touch I put it in the vinegar. One of those big 0000 pads in a quart of vinegar works great. I never strain it or anything. I suppose I should but it never occurred to me. I can get a beautiful rich black in a couple of days with a new batch. Here's a picture of a holster done with it. Oops. Wrong pic. Here's the right one.

Those both look good. I like the basketweave pouch with the sides left plain. Nice work.

Some tools just make sense, don't they? I use mine a lot. It adds a nice touch to edges of things. To follow an edge, I tip mine slightly toward the beveled side and run it along firmly. On a second pass, it will usually work fine stood straight up.

Packing Iron is a great reference. I've made a lot of holsters using the pictures in it as an inspiration. It's also a good study for how leather was done in the 1800's. I also have a couple SAA's that are good for more excuses, ah, inspiration to make leather stuff. Here's another pic for a little later in the century, inspired by the cover on PI. The pistols are really great. They are the New Model Armies (aka 1858 Remingtons) with R&D cylinders. With the right loads, they're tack nailers. Great feel and balance, too. A little filing and such and they really look like the real item. Best of all, they're a good excuse to make leather for the 1860-1880 period.

You're right about the first tool being a beader. It looks like one for tooling a single bead. I suspect that would be for doing a bead that doesn't follow a knife cut or edge since both sides seem to be the same height. Here are photos of a couple of mine. The other picture shows the bead put on the edge of a design. That bead was done with the smaller of the two in the second photo.

Thanks, Tom. I more or less copied those from originals I found photos of in Packing Iron. They're close but not replicas. The left one is reversed from a right strong side. I had to make the two stamps to make that fern pattern and another one for the running chevron pattern on the other one. The dyes were made from pecan hulls (the left one) and English walnut hulls (the right one). Thanks to Chuck Burrows for the recipe for natural dyes. Here's another one along the same vein done with Chuck's recipe for vinegaroon black.

Thanks, Drac. Here's a pic of a pair of holsters I made recently for my own CAS rig. The basic pattern is the same and they feel exactly the same but I wanted them to look like they came from different places and someone tried to match them as best possible. I wear them on crossed belts, one on a plain leather belt and the other on a canvas cartridge belt.

Thanks, Tom. I'll start looking around. Thanks for the warm welcome.

Howdy. I'm new to this forum. I haven't had a chance to look around much but will do so. I just found my way to this forum by the recommendation of one of the members here who I respect on another forum. I've been doing mostly western and historical stuff but am interested in all things leather. I'll look in now and then and see how it goes. MW