New projects just finished...

[Peterk]

Hello all,

Here are a few new ones I just finished:

Sig P225

1911 Belt slide to fit government, commander, and officer sizes

First knife sheath for a Gerber knife - This will be my gift to a professor of mine for his 50th anniversary of teaching.

Thanks.

[rdb]

They all look damn good to me. Color is good. Stitches look clean. Shapes and cants look good .

I'm not sure I like the closed barrel end, unless I'm missing seeing an opening. It looks like one piece of leather folded over to make the holster, if so...kudos in making a pattern to work like that.

[Peterk]

They all look damn good to me. Color is good. Stitches look clean. Shapes and cants look good .

I'm not sure I like the closed barrel end, unless I'm missing seeing an opening. It looks like one piece of leather folded over to make the holster, if so...kudos in making a pattern to work like that.

Hi rdb,

I believe you are talking about the Sig holster? There is definitely an opening on the bottom of that holster, since I don't like closed holsters either for functional purposes. What I did was when I drew up the pattern, I left a bit more material on the bottom and just folded it in when molding. The knife sheath also has a drain hole on the bottom; I cut the gusset just short to leave a bit of room.

[WaG35]

Those are beautiful PeterK. Very nice.

[MADMAX22]

Very nice looking. Interesting take on inlay for the knife sheath,

by the way which color did you use to dye the first holster. I really like that finish.

[Randyc]

Peterk

Nice job on those holsters and sheath. I really like that shade of brown. How did you do it?

Randy

[Peterk]

the Sig and 1911 holsters were dyed with a 50/50 mix of light mahogany and bison brown (Eco-Flo) on the first airbrush coat, just bison brown on the second coat, one light coat of neatsfoot oil, then finished with a coat of Satin Sheen. The edges were edge koted and waxed.

the sheath was done with two coats of bison brown, one coat of neatsfoot oil, then finished with satin sheen. For some reason when airbrushing bison brown on leather, it always comes out with a slight sheen and look more like metallic bronze. I usually wipe the holsters with a microfiber cloth right after airbrushing to take out that metallic look, but this time I left it on. The neatsfoot will take some of the sheen off and it actually turned out pretty good I think.

Thanks all.

[badger]

Oh, I'm a fan

I really like the colour and the stiching.

Very cool.

Karl

[GregGaub]

The finish is what caught my eye as well. It's simply gorgeous!

That's an interesting finishing technique you got there. I've been thinking about trying an airbrushed finish, but a compressor would be a hard sell with the bank (wife ;-) and I hear airbrushing with cans of air is an exercise in frustration. I especially want to use an airbrush for finishes. It's really frustrating to add a finish, with the lightest of touches, and still have some dye come up. If I'm not watching like a hawk, it ends up somewhere else on the item.

[Peterk]

The finish is what caught my eye as well. It's simply gorgeous!

That's an interesting finishing technique you got there. I've been thinking about trying an airbrushed finish, but a compressor would be a hard sell with the bank (wife ;-) and I hear airbrushing with cans of air is an exercise in frustration. I especially want to use an airbrush for finishes. It's really frustrating to add a finish, with the lightest of touches, and still have some dye come up. If I'm not watching like a hawk, it ends up somewhere else on the item.

I've been involved in plastic modeling and firearms refinishing for some time now so applying finishes via airbrush onto anything seemed like the natural, and right process to do. I actually tried wool dauber and foam paint brush on test pieces to see how the finish would come out but all that did was reinforce the airbrush choice. If I want a bit of antigued/worn look to the holsters I will use the foam brush to apply, or apply via airbrush and drag the foam brush across the surface while it is drying.

The water-based dyes, thinned just a tiny bit with water (or not), would require no more than 25psi of pressure to apply evenly, so a simple tankless compressor could be had for not too much money, like this one: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=92403

Do not waste your time with canned air like the paasche basic kits, or the preval sprayer. You will spend more money on canned air than a compressor.

Edited December 23, 2008 by Peterk