Farting around with leather.

[battlemunky]

Nice job!

[GeneH]

Looks good! Is that a tapered welt?

[hawgrider]

2 hours ago, GeneH said:

Looks good! Is that a tapered welt?

No but its a little skinny which contributed to some of my holes for stitching being a little to close to the edge on the back side.

 

Thanks all for the comments! Not sure what I'm doing next maybe a sheath for an old Bowie Knife Ive had for a few decades?

[hawgrider]

One of my Bowie Knives has been needing a new sheath for a few decades the original has been dry rotted.

It's going to be close in design to the original sorta.

 I have 2 Bowie's this one I've never used because of the rotted sheath 

Got it glued up sewn up, stained, snapped and riveted. 
Had an issue with the snap cap but its about 30 years old. My dads snap anvil may be crap too? Still have to sand the edges and burnish then finish top coat. 

[hawgrider]

Have been making a gun belt rig with this sorta crappy 5 oz piece of double shoulder I picked up for cheap. Going to glue up 2 pieces to make a 10 oz thick belt.

And... I think I'm going to cheat a bit and re-purpose some of an old to small belt.

Making some ammo loops for .38/.357 I decided to go with 2 sections of 9 which will give me 3 reloads for my Blackhawk.
I'll mount them something like this leaving the small of my back open with no ammo poking on my lower spine while sitting.

Got the glue up done and made the parts I need for the ammo loops.

Waiting on some Tiger thread to come in the mail.

Finally got my Tiger thread in the snail mail today this stuff looks like exactly what I needed. Its braided and waxed polyester. The diameter is 0.80 which should be perfect to fill the holes from my diamond hole chisels. 

This stuff is hard to come by no local sales at all.

Got my ammo loops built a few days ago.

Glued up and rivets in. A little stain touch up and some another coat of leather balm with atom wax for the top coat finish and they are ready to mount to the belt.

My woman scored me a new 1 1/4"  thick work surface last night. Price was right as in you pick up... sweet! 

Obviously from somebody's kitchen counter top venture.

Made some progress over the weekend. Got it stained and 2 coats of leather balm with atom wax topcoat. Still need to mount the ammo loops, burnish the edges of the belt and trim the belt at the strap end.

Might try to darken the holster to see if I can get a better match.

Close ?

 Trying to end up spaced evenly with the buckle centered. Once I figure out if they are in the right position I'll try to center them in the width of the belt.

Pretty much done for now on the belt. Mounted the ammo loops and made a keeper for the belt strap and the overlap section.

All in all I'm pretty happy with it for a first time venture.

The goods-
 It fits my fat ass, its sturdy, the color is pretty good, the match of colors is not to bad, the ammo loops are snug and I landed them on the belt pretty darn close to where they needed to be.

The bads- 
because the belt is 2 glued pieces thick my edges didn't stain and burnish as well as I'd liked. So at some point I'll order some edge paint from Tandy to fix that.

Either the stain or the leather balm atom wax changes color and leaves a weathered cracked look when the belt is bent or flexed which I'm ok with but I didn't expect it to do the when the leather is bent or flexed. I'm betting it's the stain which is Pro dye. Maybe an oil stain would have been better? 

[Dwight]

Not to be hard nosed, . . . but it looks like you really got cheap on the welts for those knife sheaths, . . . or you didn't put any in.

A welt for a knife sheath is kinda like a steering wheel for a car.  Might get along without it for a while, . . . but in the end you'll sure wish you had it.

Thin welts allow the knife to cut to one side of them, . . . eventually cutting the threads, . . . a thicker welt, . . . especially the top 1/3 or so, . . . nearest the finger guard, . . . is mandatory if you want to not cut up your leather work.

AND, . . . nix on the rivets, . . . it is always the hallmark of a  cheap sheath, . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

[dikman]

I agree about the rivets, I've always thought they make a sheath look "cheap", much nicer without them (imo).

For a first effort I reckon the gunbelt looks pretty good! Could the cracking in the leather be due to the type of leather used? One way of looking at it, you've already achieved a worn, used look right from the start.

[hawgrider]

14 hours ago, Dwight said:

Not to be hard nosed, . . . but it looks like you really got cheap on the welts for those knife sheaths, . . . or you didn't put any in.

A welt for a knife sheath is kinda like a steering wheel for a car.  Might get along without it for a while, . . . but in the end you'll sure wish you had it.

Thin welts allow the knife to cut to one side of them, . . . eventually cutting the threads, . . . a thicker welt, . . . especially the top 1/3 or so, . . . nearest the finger guard, . . . is mandatory if you want to not cut up your leather work.

AND, . . . nix on the rivets, . . . it is always the hallmark of a  cheap sheath, . . . 

May God bless,

Dwight

Hard nose all you want. As I said to you on another forum the rivets were used to stay close to the original sheath which is what I wanted.  And every sheath I did has a welt on the edge side of the knife some thicker than others. The original bowie sheath did not have any welt . The sheath I made for the bowie does have a welt only on the edge side.

I was very happy with how the bowie sheath turned out. Its look and function is exactly what "I wanted"  to each his own you don't have to like it  I made it for me.

Thanks for your critique.

Now why did the stain and leather balm on the gun belt show wrinkles and a cracking  look when the belt is flexed? Is the the pro dye or is it the leather balm with atom wax?

Would a oil stain have been better for this project?

Edited April 26, 2019 by hawgrider

[hawgrider]

13 hours ago, dikman said:

I agree about the rivets, I've always thought they make a sheath look "cheap", much nicer without them (imo).

For a first effort I reckon the gunbelt looks pretty good! Could the cracking in the leather be due to the type of leather used? One way of looking at it, you've already achieved a worn, used look right from the start.

The leather was a discount piece of double shoulder veg tan from Tandy. I suppose it may be the the piece of leather. It was not very pretty it had lots of bug bites in it.

[Dwight]

1 hour ago, hawgrider said:

Now why did the stain and leather balm on the gun belt show wrinkles and a cracking  look when the belt is flexed? Is the the pro dye or is it the leather balm with atom wax?

Would a oil stain have been better for this project?

Don't know as I've ever ran into that except an occasional light wrinkling effect on the inside layer of some double layer belts I've made.  Just every now and then after the thing is done, I see some slight wrinkles but nothing that is harmful, . . . and it is not on the outside where they can be seen.

The worst one was one I attributed to an extra heavy application of Resolene, . . . and it was one of the thicker belts I've made.

But FYI I also do use all Feibings oil stains, . . . got a bottle of black water base I need to take out to the trash some day.

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited April 26, 2019 by Dwight

[hawgrider]

2 hours ago, Dwight said:

Don't know as I've ever ran into that except an occasional light wrinkling effect on the inside layer of some double layer belts I've made.  Just every now and then after the thing is done, I see some slight wrinkles but nothing that is harmful, . . . and it is not on the outside where they can be seen.

The worst one was one I attributed to an extra heavy application of Resolene, . . . and it was one of the thicker belts I've made.

But FYI I also do use all Feibings oil stains, . . . got a bottle of black water base I need to take out to the trash some day.

May God bless,

Dwight

Gotta be the dye then.

So I will fetch me some Fiebings oil dye for future use then. Thanks Dwight appreciate the critique and advise.

Edited April 26, 2019 by hawgrider

[Josh Ashman]

Regarding the cracking, it seems like lesser grades of leather (read Tandy bargain bin) is often more susceptible to this than better grades (read Hermann Oak or Wickett and Craig). Some neatsfoot oil may help. In my experience, both the Fiebings pro oil dye and regular Fiebings alcohol based dye dry out leather and require NF oil after dyeing. The regular, alcohol based, dyes just require more oil. 

Regarding rivets on knife sheaths, it's your sheath and you made it the way you like. This is just the way it should be and I don't presume to tell you what you like or don't like. However, if you look at your old bowie sheath you'll notice the leather has a tear in it at the top corner of the sheath, right there by that rivet. Look around at old knife sheaths and if they have rivets they very often have tears at them. 

Just one man's $0.02, worth exactly what it cost you. 

Have a good day and nice job on your various projects.

Josh

 

[Dwight]

Yep, . . . Josh hit this one, . . . I should have mentioned about the oiling that goes with Feibings dyes.

I had a bunch of aggravation with their saddle tan, . . . until I got in the habit of oiling before I dyed the leather.  I take a cheap bristle brush and lay on a light coat on the flesh side of what ever I'm getting ready to dye, . . . give it 24 to 36 hours in a warm room to dissipate out into the leather uniformly, . . . then give her the old dip dye treatment.  

My saddle tan problems went away when I started that, . . . so now it is just about universal as doing it that way.  I think it was Katsass who mentioned it one time, . . . and I tried it.

May God bless,

Dwight

[hawgrider]

Keep in mind the leather is not cracking. Only the finish is giving the appearance of cracking. I still believe its a finish issue. Either from the dye or the leather balm.

I've used the same dye with other projects but with Resolene for the top coat and had no issues what so ever. This is the first time I've used leather balm with atom wax and then this issue shows up... Draw your own conclusions. Looks like I need some more experimentation with this leather balm.

 

 

[dikman]

My mistake, I thought it was the leather that was developing cracks. In that case I'd say it's the treatment your putting on top? Try dyeing a bit of scrap and just coating with neatsfoot oil to see what happens.

[dougfergy]

In response to the stitching alignment problem mentioned earlier in this thread...

I watched a video on someone punching their holes with a pricking fork and they would make the line to place the fork in then look down the line (think looking down the railroad tracks) and making sure the fork was standing straight up each time so that your holes are consistent on the bottom.  I'm still trying to get my holes consistent on the bottom myself so I'm no expert by any means.  I've started lining up my fork shaft with a vertical line on the wall behind my work table to try and make sure my fork is as straight up as possible along with the train track idea.

For thick projects, someone suggested going a layer at a time with your fork using the marks from the previous layer's hole punching to line up and do the next layer.  It all does take time, that's for sure.

As far as the finish cracking, it definitely sounds like the coating.  Although, I just had a piece of clearance sale leather from Tandy that when I water formed and let it dry, it had some very razor like slits in the surface that I didn't notice before.  I hadn't dyed or oiled it yet when it was formed.

Edited July 24, 2019 by dougfergy

[noobleather]

Nice work,looks good. 

Edited July 26, 2019 by noobleather