Colt Python

[alpha2]

Nice holster! I wish I could do that artistic carving stuff, but it just ain't in me. Believe me, I've tried. Didn't get that gene. 

I prefer the type of holster shown in my avatar picture for wheelguns, but I've got a Galco pancake that is excellent for my 686+ Smith. 

The Galco was before I got into leatherworking. So, here's the one I HAD to make to replace the pancake Galco...

 

[alpha2]

6 hours ago, HandyDave said:

Thanks everyone for the kind words. As most of you holster makers know we do alot of tonal pieces blacks and browns. Cause most times there meant to be more low key. So its alot of fun when these fun custom pieces come along and get to work outside the normal box a little bit. This has been a blast to build and ive enjoyed every moment. Front and back are 7/8 oz vegtan dyed with a thinned down medium brown. Fully lined with 3/4 oz vegtan lightly oiled but left natural. Hand sewn in a dark brown then hand painted the python carving after wet molding dryed. Heres all finished except final topcoat and polish.

Did you do addl. tooling on the dark areas on the snakeskin, or just paint the contrasting colors on?

[HandyDave]

3 hours ago, alpha2 said:

Did you do addl. tooling on the dark areas on the snakeskin, or just paint the contrasting colors on?

The random pattern was painted on free hand over the light tan/beige base color of the snake. I was going for a kinda desert python/ pibald mash. 

[HandyDave]

9 hours ago, chuck123wapati said:

beautiful work it is fun to get to do something a bit different. if i didn't already have two holsters for my Anaconda......lol

Thank you. The customer asked for a snake design on a pancake style holster then pretty much let me do it how i seen it in my mind. Once i sent him pics of my renderings and templates he was pumped up and couldnt wait for me to get started. 

[Bert03241]

I'll just repeat my first post WOW its just freakin awesome

[Brokenolmarine]

20 hours ago, alpha2 said:

BrokenolMarine is a specialty? I did not know that. I'll have to ask my broken old Marine Gunny brother about that. I'll bet he knows!

BTW, my ex...decided that I didn't need to keep flying. Well, I sure didn't need something, but she was wrong that it was the flying!

 

[Brokenolmarine]

I spent most of my career as an aviation electronics tech, working on just about anything that had a wire running to it.  The military figured out it was way cheaper to retain those with experience in technical jobs, than to train new people with no experience and wait for them to gain it.  Hence, reenlistment bonuses.  Some were higher than others based on additional certifications.

 

For example, an airframes tech might receive $xx to reenlist.  The same tech with (NDI) non-destructive inspection certification might get double, add upper level welding, triple.  I don't know about now, but in my day, NDI techs could write their own contracts in the civilian aviation community, so they were hard to retain once they gained experience.

[alpha2]

On 11/20/2022 at 12:47 PM, Brokenolmarine said:

I spent most of my career as an aviation electronics tech, working on just about anything that had a wire running to it.  The military figured out it was way cheaper to retain those with experience in technical jobs, than to train new people with no experience and wait for them to gain it.  Hence, reenlistment bonuses.  Some were higher than others based on additional certifications.

 

For example, an airframes tech might receive $xx to reenlist.  The same tech with (NDI) non-destructive inspection certification might get double, add upper level welding, triple.  I don't know about now, but in my day, NDI techs could write their own contracts in the civilian aviation community, so they were hard to retain once they gained experience.

Sorry, I haven't been on for a while. My Gunny brother wanted to stay in, and would have if they would've let him. He was a weighmaster on Herky-pigs and others, specializing in what I would describe as "touch and go deliveries", getting loads yanked out of the back of cargo planes at "zero altitude", mostly C-130's. To the extent that he was chosen to train the Air Force in the process. He had an injury to his knee that prevented him from passing the physical related to 100 yd dash, or some such thing. He asked me, "how far do think I'm required to "dash" in a C-130?". I know he still regrets not finishing out his career. 

Not related to that, but I designed and installed the avionics suite in my IFR rated homebuilt aircraft, including building the marker beacon receiver and digital engine instrument stuff. I did have experience, long before, building a Heathkit oscilloscope for my Ham station. A faulty diode made that more difficult than it needed to be. (Mostly because I "assumed" it was a nightmare of a solder job on a multi-level rotary switch, it wasn't). Have you ever assumed the bug was something it wasn't? I didn't think so, nobody does. I do know that NONE of that would cut it for an avionics technician rate! I'm "not that guy". At the USCG AirStation San Francisco, the AT's were called "tweets", and there was badge the next to be discharged AT would wear that said, "Next Tweet Out The Gate". They also had to wear a ballchain that would have a ball cut off each day. When the "short timer" had two days remaining, they earned the nickname, "two digit midget". Radioman was the best I could do in the Coast Guard. 

[Burkhardt]

He had an injury to his knee that prevented him from passing the physical related to 100 yd dash, or some such thing. He asked me, "how far do think I'm required to "dash" in a C-130?". I know he still regrets not finishing out his career.

But they'll make it a priority to help with transgender surgeries, not help get their active duty help to continue to serve.

[Brokenolmarine]

A2,

My son did four years in the Coast Guard, served on a Cutter out of Little Creek, The Albocore.  It has since been decommissioned and sold to a foreign power. (Forgive me, anesthesia from 29 surgeries... My memory isn't what it once was... ).

He was on terminal leave and headed for a job in Texas to work River Patrol for Homeland Security when he and his family were T-boned by a drunk in a dually pickup doing 70+ mph that ran a red light.  My son was waiting to make a left turn.  The first deputy on scene called him in as a fatality.  They airlifted him when he gasped for breath.  He was in a coma for several weeks.  Took years for him to recover.

I hated troubleshooting that kind of problem, the worst was troubleshooting, identifying the issue as a bad component.  The new one comes in, you install it, and... No Joy.  Retroubleshoot... Same answer.  Bad part from supply.