MarshalWill

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