Starting Advice

[Sleez]

ToddB68,

thank you as well, i will look into all of that!!

[ToddB 68]

Sleez and any others interested in Making Your Own Stitching Pony,

The You Tube video I was referring to at the bottom of my previous post can be seen by entering the

following caption into your search engine window (omit quotation marks) and activate your search button.

" How to Make a Leatherworkers Clamp or Stitching Pony, by Harry Rogers "

Then click-on this same caption at the top of the links page.

BTW, I would have included a hyperlinked address, but the hyperlinker and several other things on this website don't work for me, although I have no problems at any other websites.

Good Luck ! (making your own.)

ToddB68

[camano ridge]

Here is a link to the stitching pony video ToddB68 was refering to.

[St8LineGunsmith]

heres a diagram and a pic of my stitching mule

it is pretty simple to build. I used a forsner bit with a drill press and a wood chisel to slot the 2x.6's

heres a pic of the one I have now and it is the best one I have used IMO

here is the original design

[St8LineGunsmith]

not that good of a detail pic i know but this piece of 2"x6" with a 1/2" plywood base pretty much holds my whole set of leatherworking hand tools with room for more stamps and room to modify if needed (Add More Holes= modify). probably cost a total of 5 bucks if I were to purchase the materials and screws

Heres a pic of my little work area dedicated to strictly leatherworking.

you might get some ideas of how you want to set up your work space with these pics.

[danboy295]

St8line,

I really like the leather strap holder for your hand tools. That is a great set up, I'm going to borrow the idea for me workspace.

[St8LineGunsmith]

Works rather well, everything is right there in one neat place easy to locate the tool I need

[JLSleather]

A couple of things :

Since you specifically mention making holsters, then you'll want to keep the leather thickness at least 7 ounce (some of the boys use TWO layers of 4/5, for a total of about 9 ounce thick).

For very simple designs, not a lot of tools needed. Seriously, to make a simple holster, you could do that in a simple basketweave with...

Piece of 8/9 ounce leather (about 2 sq ft for a good size one, less for smaller rigs)

Knife to cut out (your exacto kit probably has what you need)

Swivel knife, smooth beveler, basket stamp, cam or border tool (for basketweave design tooling),

Some type of dye (Fiebing's spirit dyes are a long favorite of many folks),

thread, stitchin needles, and something to make holes (I like an awl, but look around the forums),

Folder, modeling tool,

Hole punch (for belt slots, etc) for holsters, you might consider an oblong (#5) and a regular wood chisel. Together with your xacto, this would let you punch belt holes, too, if you were to decide on the belt to match.

Plus, wait - no plus - that really is all you need.

Beyond that, because I've made most of the mistakes that can be made, here's my 'add-on'.

Spend $5 at a hobby store, if you don't already have transparent triangles. You know, the 30/60 , 45/90 little things likely in the drawing or drafting section. Great for making borders (straight), and many other uses you'll see once you have it within reach.

If you're going to lace, spend the couple bucks and get threaded lacing needles called Perma-Lok. Without being long-winded about it, those "prong" needles are crap.

Get a caliper, if you dont' have one yet. Doesn't need to say Sharpe or Starrett, just $10-15 at the hardware store (or auto parts store prolly got one too). Measure thickness of leather, distance to edge, size of holes, etc. I "ounce" thickness = .0156" (or about .4 mm)

Do not pay someone for "scrap". This is one of the biggest insults I've seen from leather suppliers (and there are many). I recommend going with a USEABLE piece of leather.

[Sleez]

thanks again, everyone, some great suggestions and wonderful leadership here, you rock!