3 hour challenge

[DoubleKCustomLeathercraft]

I dunno who else does this, but every so often I get a wild hair and have to do a timed challenge. I call it the 3 hour challenge or the afternoon build. Pick a project thar would normally take 6-8 hours too do, and try to make it in half the time. So far this is my third challenge in the last year. I made a holster for my chest harness, fully tooled and assembled in 3. A carved pancake 1911 holster, lined and stitched but didn't get it dyed in that time window. Did that later to finish it. I'll continue to challenge myself. It helps me develop my time management skills and gives me an idea of what I can accomplish under stress. 

I need a new belt like I need another hole in the head. But this time I decided to do a gunslinger stitch challenge. Unfortunately I grabbed the wrong template and didn't realize it until I got the stitch lines laid out, but hey... gotta go with the flow. Iquestioned some life choices after i punches all my stitching holes hahaha.

In the three hours, I was able to get this belt blank cut, skived for the buckle, gunslinger stitch pattern (all hand stitched), reinforced with a stiffener (gun belts), lined with water Buffalo, all holes and slots punched, snaps set, and half the perimeter stitched. So I wasn't able to compete it in the time slot, but I'm still happy where I ended up. The gunslinger stitch is nowhere near as nice as I would normally do. Like I said, wrong template for the width and it moved on me when I was grooving the stitch line. There's about 45 feet of thread on this belt. That's a lot of hand stitching to do in a short time. My fingers hurt lol

I finished stitching this morning, sanded the edges and gave it a few coats of neatsfoot oil. I'm leaving it natural, only oiled, and no burnished edges. It'll be my daily work belt and I want the patina to really show quickly. The best way for that is to leave everything as natural as possible and just wear it. 

 

Hermann oak holster side, matte black buckle, black 4p line 24 snaps, and water Buffalo lining

[fredk]

Boys-o, that some job in 3 hours

I have several item on the go and I should do a '3 hour' on them cos these jobs wont take near that time

[DoubleKCustomLeathercraft]

6 hours ago, fredk said:

Boys-o, that some job in 3 hours

I have several item on the go and I should do a '3 hour' on them cos these jobs wont take near that time

I love this craft. And I like to be challenged. I have a couple customers that give me all kinds of different, outside my expertise challenges. But sometimes I need to challenge myself on something I'm familiar with. Belts, sheaths and holsters mainly, with the idea that I will take on just about anything except saddles, clothing, armor or footwear. I don't have a large enough shop to do those and footwear require tools I don't own or use.

It has taught me what I need to work on under pressure. In this challenge it was layout mainly... a bit sloppy compared to when I take my time on an order. My stitching should be neater to. And I did mis glue the lining about 1-1.5mm off mark missing the edge on about an inch of the buckle end. Can't tell really, but we all know when we messed up 😉