Reason to appreciate the group we have here...

[Windom Leather]

Thank you for the clarification. Ill bet that hurt gettin hit by one of those. Btw nice lookin job.

[nobearsyet]

Along these lines, I'm going to jump back quite a few years to when my Dad was first teaching me some of the stuff I know now. This was long before the internet was around to the masses. Me and Dad (as he insisted I go to every gun show, craft fair, etc. with him, much to an 8yo. boy's dismay) where at a gun show trying to hock some of his western holsters with very little success. Late on Sunday afternoon (the last day of the show) a guy walks up to my Dad and asks him why his "junk" is worth more than the stuff the guy down the way has on his table. My Dad looks at him and says, 1. my stuff is all made in America not the Taiwan stuff the guy down the way has, 2. I make mine by hand, I don't buy it out of a catalog like that guy, 3. I have to eat too, and there's so many hours in a day and I can only get so much done, so I can only make so many, but if you like I can give you a plain belt to put it on if you think my pricing is too high. (Dad never told him that everybody who bought a holster got a belt for free) Well, the guy bought my Dad's holster, and several more after that as they became real good friends, and one day (about 5 years later) when my Dad was getting along in years asked my Dad how he did it (as far as the methods and methodology of how he went about building the stuff he made) and my Dad was more than happy to tell him, even gave him a couple of lessons. My Dad passed that following spring, and I am going to say that now I have decided (after a 5 or so year hiatus from doing anything with leather to pursue other interests like blacksmithing, woodworking, etc.) to come back to leatherwork, albeit only as a hobby and side business at the moment, and being as I have decided that holsters have just become, well, boring a lot of the time and that I want to keep trying new things I am very glad I found my way over here as I have discovered that most of what Dad and the other people I have worked with taught me has kind of been forgotten, a lot of it anyways, and that the folks around here are more than glad to offer up the same sorts of assistance and advice provided to me upon request. And with very little ribbing and prodding. and Thank you all very much.

[Rayban]

Neat stroy No Bears....you must have all your Dad's tools?? The good stuff, right?

My kidz haven't shown any interest in doing the work, but they think the things I do are pretty cool.

[nobearsyet]

After the old man died my Mom needed money to d osome important stuff with, like eat, pay the rent, etc. so a lot of his old tools got sold, but I do have all of the ones that didn't like his round knife, strap cutter, etc. and my Dad always told me to buy the best tools you can afford now and you won't have to buy them again later.

[AZ09]

Yes Dave, I've only made a couple and the collector I made them for seemed to be quite satisfied with them.

The most time consuming part of it was packing the bird shot into it before stitching it closed.

But they are quite easy to make.

Rayban.

Nice work.. What did you fill the handle with? bird shot also. Is the bottom flat or rounded as the top.

Peace.

Tal~ "AZ09"

[Rayban]

Rayban.

Nice work.. What did you fill the handle with? bird shot also. Is the bottom flat or rounded as the top.

Peace.

Tal~ "AZ09"

The other side is rounded....identical to what you see....I filled it with #6 bird shot. I poured it in thru the opening at the top of the handle.......poked at it with a stick so it would pack in, then stitched the top line you see below the grommet, then grommet, then the upper most line of stitching.

Simple, you can make one in half an hour if you dye last.

RG

[RVM45]

Several things come to mind:

A Master Craftsman is confident of his work and has no qualms about sharing his experience.

Some half-@ Shabnasticator, on the other hand, is desperate to discourage potential competition by any means--fair or foul.

James Krenov--a famous Cabinnent Maker--had some remarkably deep thoughts about the nature of Skiil; Value; and Craftsmanship. He recounts the following Dialog:

"The man down the street wiil do it for $50."

And I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying: "If that is the type work that will satisfy you__Please go to the man down the street!"

You will encounter this situaion many times, if you open your own bussiness. Sometimes work will be slow; you'll be short on cash; and you'll be sorely tempted to knock out something quickly for "$50"__But you won't__for many reasons...

But mostly because you're not a "$50 Person".

I paraphrased. Can't quote something that I haven't read for several years exactly.

I take "$50 Person" to mean a Whore--though a very high-priced one...

Finally, its purely a matter of aesthetics, but does anyone know what pattern to cut the leather to get the olde tyme looking blackjack that is shapped roughly like a miniture punching bag; or slightly elongated light bulb ?

You see this pattern kosh in cartoons more than anywhere else--though they did make them.

I wrote a novella one time. One of the Warders threatened the clients with one fairly regularly--and the narrator said that it looked sadly in need of some Viagra...

(Which is another indirect way of describing the shape....)

.....RVM45

[Rayban]

"Finally, its purely a matter of aesthetics, but does anyone know what pattern to cut the leather to get the olde tyme looking blackjack that is shapped roughly like a miniture punching bag; or slightly elongated light bulb ?"

That sounds to me like a cunk of lead encased in leather.....if not, do what I did for the pattern shown above....I saw one I wanted to try to dupe, tried it, and it worked out.