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Beautiful little pew pew remington 44 mag with a Burris 2x7x hand gun scope I happened to have a lg frame pistol pattern. All that was required was cut the pattern in half and add the leather for the scope add straps add a 6 oz veg tan linerI m

anyone have experience with veg tan leather discoloration from exposure to moving air while drying? I’ve been working with a very pale veg tanned leather, wet-stretching it around stool cushions. I have a sort of “drying box” with a fan that I put the cushions in to dry to protect them from dust and such in my work space. I’ve noticed that when placed too close to the fan or a small gap inside the box, the leather can develop a dark discoloration as though a wind burn. Anyone know why this happens or how to better prevent it? Thanks!

Hello wonderful community! I'm pretty new here and usually browse around as a guest. However I've got a situation on my hands that I can't seem to find a solution to. I'm currently making an Alien Facehugger mask that required some wet formed pieces. There are around 50-60 pieces to this particular mask. I had just finished beveling and sanding all these pieces(it took an ETERNITY). It was finally time to get to wetmolding and alllll was fine and dandy until a dark pattern started to appear.. on the single most important piece of the entire damn project... Just the one. I've found other posts where metal shavings have come into contact with wet projects and caused dark spots or others found mold on their leather. I can say with certainty that this isn't that. I've tried removing this discoloration with alcohol (which seemed to make it worse) and I've tried using odorless mineral spirits. All 50+ pieces were cleaned with minerals spirits prior to this because I was an idiot and used masking tape to hold down my patterns and try to reduce as much leather scrap waste as possible. I quickly found out that the tape leaves behind a residue that could only be removed with the mineral spirits at hand. That being said, I basically deglazed every piece so there shouldn't be any trace or and weird substance on the leather, right??? What caused this? Why did this happen to the ONE piece if they were all cut from the same hide? Thank you so much to anyone who took the time to read this and is willing to help out a fellow maker.

Hi, I wanted to make a mask from some alligator/crocodile hide and I was hoping to wet form it around a form. Is this possible has anyone tried wet forming it? Thank you

Glue is not my friend! It's messy and too easy to ruin a piece with a rouge drip. It stinks and when I use spray adhesives outside, a wind usually comes up and blows the tacky surfaces into each other. If all goes well I often don't get the lining square with the leather and i have to glue in little patches. Sometime I line with fabric and the glue saturates the fabric is some areas ruining it. I have also tried water soluble cements, wood glues..all a huge PIA. I ran across HeatnBond at the Walmart sewing section yesterday. I tested it out with a hand Iron and it appears to be amazing! After cooling I was unable to separate either the fabric or the suede from the flesh side of some 5-6 oz vegtan. To that end, I ordered a 15" square heat press. If this all works out, this product could cut my production time down by 30%, cheaper than using glues, and potentially no ruined pieces. Has anyone used this stuff with a press? Short term tests indicate the stuff works great and withstands flexing, is inexpensive and the temperatures required don't damage leathers and fabrics. In fact, it appears to be easier to use a fabric lining then to dye the exposed flesh side of unlined products. (I use drum dyed leather from Wickett-Craig. I supply for resale to companies who have my products in their catalogs, so color consistency is critical) Thanks for your input, Bob

I just got a snake skin from Tandy on their web specials and am planning to do a holster for a friend. These skins are pretty soft and seem absorbent. I was wondering if there is a process for wet forming leather gear that uses non or less absorbent exotics, on things like holsters. Does the veg tan simply absorb enough to still tool and bone the items, or is there some step I'm not thinking of?

Hey folks! I have an interesting question. A good friend and coworker of mine has asked if it is possible to wrap a Moose Skull in leather so it can be mounted on a wood plaque and hung on a wall. Yeah, a Moose Skull. I'm thinking of a thin veg tanned hide to wet form on it, but beyond that I'm at a loss. I've seen some folks talked about wet forming to a Skull using a vacuum. Anyone ever done something like this before. The Skull is about 4' wide at its widest point.. Thanks all! Rich

I really like friction/tension hold sheaths and I am working on one right now (a horizontal draw) when a question popped in my head: can I dye the leather first (I like oil dyes) while the pieces are apart, then wet form the sheath around the knife after that? For the knife sheath I'm working on now I wet formed it first then dyed it but I was just curious if I could go the other way around. A second question issue came up with this project, it is a small knife with a finger guard. I have the sheath going up like a quarter of the handle and as I was wet forming the sheath the leather dried and the opening shrank a little. I could pull it out just fine but when I would go to put it back in I was mashing the leather. I cut a hole along the top a little to make it so I could put the knife back in without mashing the leather. The question is: when I am wet forming a sheath how do I accommodate the finger guard but still maintain the tension/friction necessary to hold in the blade? Third question: how large do I need to make the welt? The welt I have on this one is about 1/4 inch but the blade moves around a lot in the sheath. Do I need to cut the welt in the shape of the blade? Thank you!

Now thay I finally got all my tools together, I decided that I would try to make a belt sheath for my knew knife. Kinda intimidating for only ever making a key fob. But I think it actually turned out awesome! Because I am a girl who as been blessed with a rather large prominent behind..I have found that vertical hanging belt sheaths tend to dig into my butt just below my lower back. Especially while sitting on my horse. So I decided if I slanted the knife to a more horizontal angle I could avoid this problem. Couldn't really find an example of what I was envisioning so I just winged it and made up my own. So all in all im pretty proud that I had come up with a custom pattern, wet formed, and hand sewn all for the first time ever. And that the finished product came out way better than I ever expected! Haha.

Now thay I finally got all my tools together, I decided that I would try to make a belt sheath for my knew knife. Kinda intimidating for only ever making a key fob. But I think it actually turned out awesome! Because I am a girl who as been blessed with a rather large prominent behind..I have found that vertical hanging belt sheaths tend to dig into my butt just below my lower back. Especially while sitting on my horse. So I decided if I slanted the knife to a more horizontal angle I could avoid this problem. Couldn't really find an example of what I was envisioning so I just winged it and made up my own. So all in all im pretty proud that I had come up with a custom pattern, wet formed, and hand sewn all for the first time ever. And that the finished product came out way better than I ever expected! Haha.