Cross draw holster & cartridge belt

[Josh Ashman]

10/11 HO craftsman for everything but the bullet loops (4/5) and keepers (7/8). Fiebings dye, healthy amounts of NF oil, some Aussie Wax and a little glycerin saddle soap to shine it up a little. 

Thanks for looking and have a good day folks! 

Josh

 

[Josh Ashman]

Just for fun, a few progress pics;

Parts built;

Dyed;

Edges finished, and holster assembled;

All assembled, oiled and freshly greased;

[Samalan]

Wow thats a beautiful rig nice stitching work also thanks for showing .

[wizard of tragacanth]

Nice clean work, Josh. Great pics too!

nick

[chuck123wapati]

great work indeed

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks guys! I appreciate the kind words. 

Best, 

Josh

[67flh]

That is very nice! I am working on my first belt now and you set the bar really high!

 

[dikman]

Nice work as always, Josh, but it looks awfully plain - for you!

[RemingtonSteel]

59 minutes ago, dikman said:

Nice work as always, Josh, but it looks awfully plain - for you!

Yeah what dikman said. 

I have to say though, I really like the look.  It's very clean looking with only the border creases and terminating seed stamp. The color and finish fits if perfectly. Looks like it came right out of Packing Iron, and reminds me of something that The Duke would have worn. I also like the long 7 hole tongue billet, makes for extra adjustment as one grows or shrinks. Once again my hat is off to you.

Off topic: Josh, do you ever line your belts or holsters?

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks again guys! The guy wanted plain, so I made it plain! Its funny, but I swear it almost seems harder to pull off plain and clean than tooled up fancy. There is certainly more time investment in tooled, but there is also more to pull your eye away from the little mistakes that always come up. 

Remington, I do sometimes line both belts and holsters although not that often. Back before I had a sewing machine I purposefully avoided lined belts as they were so time consuming to stitch up. But, now that I have a machine I don't rally try top avoid them that I'm aware of. On my own stuff and the items I make for gifts I rarely, maybe even never, line cartridge belts, I'm not sure why. I do however always line belts for concealed carry use. 

Have a great day folks! 

Josh

[Professor]

A beautiful job.

[Forester]

Josh I really like your work, tooled or non tooled. What colour Fiebings dye did you use? 

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Professor & Forester!

As for the color of the Fiebings, I may cause concern for some by admitting that its really a mix of various things and years of adding what I had on hand. I had an empty Folgers coffee can that started as a 50/50 mix of plain old iso alcohol and Fiebings pro oil, probably in dark brown, but to be honest I don't 100% recall, it could have been light brown too. After it was nearly empty I dumped it and all the other half empty "brownish" dye containers I had on hand into an empty gallon ice cream pail. Then I dumped all the half empty bottles of iso alcohol I had sitting around into that. I know there was some walnut and some medium brown, there were several other bottles as well. I have a separate tub that has a similar mixture of British Tan in it, so I don't think there is any of that in my "brown" tub. Anyway, I'm about to the bottom of my "brown" ice cream pail of dye mix now and plan on a fresh start soon. sorry I can't give a "repeatable" mix. If I could I certainly would!

All the best,

Josh

[Double Daddy]

42 minutes ago, Josh Ashman said:

 

As for the color of the Fiebings, I may cause concern for some by admitting that its really a mix of various things and years of adding what I had on hand. 

 

No concern at all, Josh...sometimes in this craft, chaos and a little "this 'n that" works to our benefit...as in the case of your dyeing method here. Superb work as always, sir! Thanks for the 'behind the scenes" pics, as well...I saw this sharp lookin' simple rig when you posted it on FB earlier and was wondering if there might be a little more shown to us over here...most appreciated!

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Chris! I'm afraid "chaos" is entirely too descriptive of my dying process and sadly, my work area lately! Someday I'll clean up my mess. Not this day, but someday  

All the best!

Josh

[thefallguy]

Good job! I like the clean look of a simple and well made holster/gun belt. What kind of creaser did you use on those? The double lines look really nice.

 

[Vikefan]

Josh Ashman,

What kind of sewing machine do you use?  I'm looking at the Cowboy 3200 or maybe the Techsew 2750 (plain).

Great work! Very Clean.

Vikefan

[Josh Ashman]

15 hours ago, thefallguy said:

Good job! I like the clean look of a simple and well made holster/gun belt. What kind of creaser did you use on those? The double lines look really nice.

 

Thanks FallGuy! I just use a Tandy wing divider. I've had it a little over 10 years, so it's certainly "older" but no so old as to be a different quality than the ones they sell today. At least I doubt it is any different. I've bought Osborne creasers and what Weaver says is a nice beader as well as a fancier Horse Shoe Brand divider but I don't seem to use any of them as well as the simple Tandy dividers. I set them to whatever width I want for the 1st crease and run one side along the edge of the leather, then adjust and do it again. I make the creases while the leather is still fairly wet from casing. Wetter than you would have it for stamping but not by much. 

Best, Josh

[Josh Ashman]

11 hours ago, Vikefan said:

Josh Ashman,

What kind of sewing machine do you use?  I'm looking at the Cowboy 3200 or maybe the Techsew 2750 (plain).

Great work! Very Clean.

Vikefan

Thanks Vikefan! I use a Cobra Class 4 I picked up from Springfield Leather. I don't have a single bad thing to say about it. At the same rime I will admit that it's the only leather sewing machine I've ever used, so there may be better ones out there and I just don't know what I'm missing. 

Best, Josh

[particle]

That's a great looking rig, Josh! Love the color.

[Josh Ashman]

Thanks Eric! I appreciate that! 

All the best!

Josh

[sheathmaker]

10 hours ago, Josh Ashman said:

Thanks Vikefan! I use a Cobra Class 4 I picked up from Springfield Leather. I don't have a single bad thing to say about it. At the same rime I will admit that it's the only leather sewing machine I've ever used, so there may be better ones out there and I just don't know what I'm missing. 

Best, Josh

Nope!  None better than the Cobra, some nearly as good, but none better!  by the way your work is great!

Paul

 

[Josh Ashman]

On 1/17/2020 at 7:35 PM, sheathmaker said:

Nope!  None better than the Cobra, some nearly as good, but none better!  by the way your work is great!

Paul

 

Thanks Paul! I appreciate that and I have to agree that the Cobra sure has been great for me! 

All the best, Josh

[sbrownn]

24 minutes ago, Josh Ashman said:

Thanks Paul! I appreciate that and I have to agree that the Cobra sure has been great for me! 

All the best, Josh

Can you post a picture of what the backside stitch looks like?  I am thinking of buying a 441 clone but am concerned about what the backside looks like.  Seems like results are all  over the place depending on the leather type and the set up.  Right now I'm using a Campbell-Randall to stitch in pre-pricked holes and it looks okay but I need a machine with a long cylinder arm for a project I'm doing.

[Josh Ashman]

2 hours ago, sbrownn said:

Can you post a picture of what the backside stitch looks like?  I am thinking of buying a 441 clone but am concerned about what the backside looks like.  Seems like results are all  over the place depending on the leather type and the set up.  Right now I'm using a Campbell-Randall to stitch in pre-pricked holes and it looks okay but I need a machine with a long cylinder arm for a project I'm doing.

This rig was shipped out last week so no backside pics for it. I do happen to have this picture that shows the backside of an IWB holster I made a while ago. No particular reason I picked it other than it was on my computer and it shows the backside stitching. In my opinion my Cobra does a fine job on the backside unless you go over about 5/8" thick and then it gets a little wonky. Not real bad, but enough that You want to be careful and not be too surprised if it throws a stitch out of line. At around 3/4" thick my machine will also occasionally skip pocking up the bobbin thread. these issues may be caused by my machine being a little out of adjustment. I've had it for a good long while, I think 4 or 5 years and have never done anything but sew on it and oil it each time I refill the bobbin. 

All the best, Josh