DieselTech

Bamboo is another option as well. Extremely light, yet strong & flexible to some extent.

Great work! I love it. Being a hobby knife maker that is just beautiful work.

Thanks for the link. That's good info to have/learn. I watched that vid before stropping my splitter blade. Thanks.

Here is my very first cut after stropping the blade. 6mm thick saddle skirting down to 4mm thick. It cut it like butter after getting the blade adjusted over the roller. It will take a piece of leather 6" wide. But I think 5" would be the widest piece of leather you would want to cut/pull thru it. It does work nice or seems to anyhow at this point. Lol it does take forever to get thou. I'm pretty sure this is the same splitter, that buckle guy, tandypro, weaver heritage sells. But I paid less than half of their prices.

Yes I looked the blade over after removing, it doesn't need sharpened by any means, but just touched up. I ended up using my 10" strop on it with some micro green polishing compound/jewelers rouge. About 20 strops total & it is hair splitting sharp now! I'll try it out after a bit. I bought the Yaedik brand splitter. They offer 2, the white colored machine has a aluminum base & less adjustments. I bought the splitter with the black base & it is all cast iron & has more adjustments.

Guys & gals I purchased a manual leather splitter from amazon. It's a heavy built beast! I would like to touch the blade up before using it. What is the best way to touch this blade up? 6" fine oil stone? 600grit Sand paper on a piece of polished granite? Strop? It's a nice built piece of machinery, but it did take forever to get. It took over a month to receive from the slow boat from china. Any & all help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Looks great! Nice work on the setup & fabrication.

Luckily I got small hands. But yes it will need more hand room for about anybody else. It will work for me, I look at this as a good learning experience. The next holster will be better hopefully.

I'll probably make another pancake holster for this shield. But I'll change my pattern up to accommodate for more room around the grip area of the pistol. Thanks.

Guys & gals I got it a bit closer to finished. I still need to burnish the edges. Dang it! It ain't perfect, but I am happy with my very 1st results. What a learning curve. Hopefully the next 1 will be better.

Welcome to the group! Bunch of good people here.

Nice work. They look great.

Thanks. I was wondering if that is what you did. The butterfly/flower lambskin looks like a Tandy print. It Will be a nice purse when all finished.

Looks good. Nice work you do there. I Like the butterfly/flower print you used.

Great looking piece. I like it. It looks nice. Awesome work.

Thanks a bunch. I'll do a search & check it out.

Thanks. Luckily there is some professionals here wanting to help me along & teach me a few pointers. I'll try & finish it over the weekend. Bunch of great people here.

Beautiful work on those. Very classy. Nice work.

They look great! Nice work on the arrow head basket weave tool work. Beautiful.

@bladegrinder when you talk about your vacuum setup. What mil thickness of bag you use. I'm looking at a 30mil thick forming bag made out of some poly something. Lol i cant remember now what it was called. Would you be willing to elaborate a bit on your vacuum setup? Thanks.

Thank bladegrinder for all the tips & info. Yeah since I used too thick of leather, I had to glue it to wet form it. I usually dye each separate piece of the holster, then rough glue area up & glue then stitch. But since I was wet forming it up I wasnt sure if I should dye it. Lol I was out of my wheel house a bit on this one. Then if I add a front reinforcement panel it's another step involved. But will be a better looking overall. Yeah I got some things to learn & in what steps I need to take them. Thanks again.

Thanks Hags I appreciate the vote of confidence. This is my 1st pancake style holster, for a auto. I've made quite a few revolver holsters & a couple mark ii holsters. Yeah I could not make my mind up which steps to do first. I will dip dye this in fiebings pro dye light brown. Yeah I think thinner leather next time & use the reinforcement piece on the front for the next holster. Thanks.

Thanks I appreciate your time & info there. When you talked about gun thickness & leather weight for pattern size/ allowance is what I was trying to figure out. Thanks that helps out a bunch when trying to get a good starting point. That holster there I made the top/outer layer a 1⅜ wider than the bottom of the holster. It was almost not enough for the thickness of leather I used.

Now we got a multi-carry holster! I knocked another slot in there with my trace punch & gave the pistol a 15 degree cant on your hip. So now it can be configured/carried 2ways now. I even got some stitch lines & holes punched to saddle stitch it. Lol my diamond punches were just barely long enough.

Lol! I did not want to start cutting up a new side of leather, in case my design did not work out. Lmao I used thick enough leather to use the holster as a hip support. Thanks for that drawing. Can I ask when it says 1/2" width frame + leather. Does that mean i should leave a 1/2" width from the gun to the stitch line? Yes i did put the belt slots up a bit high to the top, but I was just trying to do a straight carry/draw type pancake holster. Yes that is the shield I was talking about. I'm still going to get some of your patterns from you yet off of your site. Thanks again for all the help & info.