Vinegarooned Magazine Holster

[RobDude30]

Here's a mag pouch I just finished. Made of cheapo 7/8 oz Tandy leather, hand stitched, vinegaroon for color, and Resolene for the finish. I feel pretty good about my edges on this one -- used a little wax for the first time during the burnishing process and think it helped get a much nicer finish. Practice, practice, practice! What do y'all think?

[KB8UVM]

Looks good and the color came out looking great.

[Haystacker]

Looks great. Very good job.

[RobDude30]

Thanks for the kind words!

[thekid77]

beautiful color and finish!!!

[mikesmith648]

Looks great............can never knock vinegroon!!!

[Dwight]

Rob, . . . I've never used vinegaroon, . . . what is the total process one has to do to get it right?

Thanks,

May God bless,

Dwight

[renegadelizard]

looks great...you a lefty?...i always have to double and triple check my patterns when doing lefties...my mind just refuses to grasp the concept...lol...

[chiefjason]

Dwight, if you can find some of Chuck Barrow's posts about it he explains everything very well. My search-fu is not working and I can't track them down at the moment. His posts were the most helpful to me. It's a bit tedious, but I still use it because it's such a complete dye.

[camano ridge]

Dwight, go to this site and thread: http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,11991.0.html it's about a 9 page thread it covers vinegaroon in depth as well as walnut stain and coffee dye. There is a lot of information from Chuck Burrows and Will Ghormley. I don't find vinegaroon all that tedious. Basically just disolve steel wool in vinegar. The big mistake is people don't let it stand long enough before using it. Let the steel wool disolve in the vinegar for about 4 weeks befor using. Some people strain it off befor using, I haven't. Test a strip of leather it should start to turn almost immediately. It may turn a blackish gray at first but once you put oil on it it darkens up nicely. THe big thing is after you have dipped the leather in the vinegaroon give it a few minutes to work then dip quickly in a baking soda bath to neutrilize the acid. Then rinse with water. You will get an even black and it chages the color of the leather through and through not just on the surface.

[Dwight]

Thanks, guys, for the vinegaroon info, . . . I can definitely see where that could make a dent in my production costs as a lot of the stuff going out my front door is black.

I briefly email / chatted with Will on vinegaroon a couple years ago, . . . but just haven't had the time to begin another new process. Just may do that this summer, . . . IF, . . . and that's a big IF, . . . I get my new shop. Looking to relocate the leather work.

May God bless,

Dwight

[chiefjason]

The tedious part for me was doing lots of backers for hybrid holsters. And the finishing process I was using. I've stopped using mop & glo as my final finish on my all leather stuff. And I've gone to pre dyed for hybrids.

I grooned 3 holsters today. I grooned them, then let them set a bit to turn good. Then let them soak in baking soda and water for a bit. Then heated them in the dryer for an hour. Let them cool off. Then oiled them once. I'll start sewing tomorrow.

The old way I would have heated them in a light box for several hours then let them dry 24 hours. Then two light coats of oil, let dry 24. Then start sewing. Then apply the finish. Dry 24. And a last coat of finish. I was having issues with the finish spiderwebbing if the leather did not dry well between steps. With the oil and beeswax finish that's not a concern and allows me to speed things up a bit. There is really no real time difference between dying and grooning now.

IMO, it's worth it though. The combination of cost savings and the complete black you get keeps me coming back to it.

[Zooker]

Very nice!