The First Few Items Off A Rookie's Bench...

[Double Daddy]

Hello All! I've been prowling around, in the shadows, on these forums for nearly the past year, gathering knowledge here and about...what a great community of craftsfolk! And always very willing to help us upstarts and rookies as we begin our own journey in this trade. I am most appreciative of the moderators, powers-that-be and professionals at LeatherWorker.Net for maintaining and contributing to such a powerful online resource...many thanks!

Anyway...I've been studying and practicing and observing along the way and finally got a few things off my bench and ready for some critiquing by more seasoned eyes than mine. I purchased one of the new CB3200 machines (ol' Cowboy Bob @ Toledo Machine was MOST helpful!) but an unforeseen medical detour put me off track from using it for a while...all of these items are hand sewn. Hoping to get back at the machine in the next few weeks so it can earn its keep. Please let me know what you think.

First, is a Dark Brown IWB holster for a 5" 1911, stamped border & white thread, with a 1/8" Kydex clip and matching snap-on double magazine holder. Next, a wrap-around style knife sheath in Dark Brown for a Buck brand gut-hook blade hunting knife, stamped border & white thread. Finally, a cheap flea-market/pawn shop knife gets a decent looking sheath - I actually used scrap veg-tan leather from a safety harness, dyed black and stamped with a tri-weave to hide all of the scuffs and scratches.

Sorry if the pictures are out of sequence with the description...I'm still kinda new to this whole forum/post world thing!

Chris

EagleWoods Leather

[Dwight]

It's definitely pretty work, . . . something that sometimes needs a "while" to pick up on.

You may want to keep the 1911 holster and wear it seriously every day for a couple of months. By then you will see that it has loosened up considerably as your stitch line is seriously too far away from the frame of the weapon itself..

I also seriously suspect that the item you used to form the sight tunnel was overly large, . . . which again will allow a lot of slack into the holster's chamber.

The fact that it is an IWB will help it retain it's usefulness, . . . but if it were an OWB, . . . the weapon would be falling out of it fairly soon unless the owner was very careful with it, . . . which most folks just are not.

Other than that, . . . looks pretty good.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Double Daddy]

Thanks, Dwight! I noticed the stitch line "drift"...particularly forward of the trigger guard under the dust cover...I've made the necessary adjustments to my pattern to avoid this in the future. I used approx. a pencil sized wooden dowel as a spacer for the sight tunnel...the handgun in question (a stainless Springfield Mil-Spec GI) had a tall sight with sharp corners...I know that some wear is inevitable but I didn't want it to excessively chew up the inside of the holster if I could avoid it. Any suggestions?

Thanks again, sir, for your insight...and blessings to you as well!

Chris

[Haystacker]

Looks good!

[marine mp]

DoubleDaddy, congratulations on "coming-out" of the closet and participating in the conversation. Very nice work for a newbie and artfully done. I have to agree w/Dwight as the stitchline is way loose. You can correct it now by just putting another stitch line as close to the mold-line as possible. No harm-no foul!!!! With the sight tunnel, tape a 1/4" wood dowel just in back of the front sight and end it at where the holster mouth is. Too easy!!!! Carry on in the finest tradition. Semper-fi Mike

[WyomingSlick]

Now that is what I like to see ! ...... a craftsman who is using scrap leather to get his techniques down right....... before he actually uses them on a project.

Time after time we see it is obvious that the maker (newbie) just "winged it" and had little or no experiance using a tool before they put it to their project. And it definately shows !

[Double Daddy]

Thanks for all the input, guys! I'll keep pluggin' away at it...correcting as I go, thanks to folks like y'all!