Edge on holster opening

[chiefjason]

54 minutes ago, Davm said:

when you fold it over, the edge is smooth to smooth, so I'll roughen it up. 

 

Why are you folding it at all?  That's the stress that's delaminating your holster I bet.  Edge, sand, burnish, dye, burnish again, then wax to fill in any small voids.  You can make the raw edge look nice.  No need to fold the leather and use the grain as the edge.  

Or if you are dead set on doing that then skive it very thin.  Do not glue the 2 pieces.  Cut that side longer and fold the single skived piece of leather over.  Still not the best plan IMO, but better than trying to fold over 2 glued pieces of leather.  

[tsunkasapa]

2 hours ago, chiefjason said:

 

Why are you folding it at all?  That's the stress that's delaminating your holster I bet.  Edge, sand, burnish, dye, burnish again, then wax to fill in any small voids.  You can make the raw edge look nice.  No need to fold the leather and use the grain as the edge.  

Or if you are dead set on doing that then skive it very thin.  Do not glue the 2 pieces.  Cut that side longer and fold the single skived piece of leather over.  Still not the best plan IMO, but better than trying to fold over 2 glued pieces of leather.  

I think you misinterpreted what he said. It is a lined holster. It has to be "folded", and since it is lined it is grain to grain.

[chiefjason]

13 hours ago, tsunkasapa said:

I think you misinterpreted what he said. It is a lined holster. It has to be "folded", and since it is lined it is grain to grain.

 

I've never folded an edge on a lined holster.  Just treated the edge like the rest of the edges on the holster.  And a lined holster is glued flesh to flesh so the grain side is showing on both sides of the laminated piece.  If he's trying to glue grain to grain he is folding the edge over on itself to do that.  It sounds like he's trying to roll the edge over for some reason.  Maybe something is getting lost in the conversation.  But if he's rolling over the edge and trying to glue it back down, there will likely be issues unless there is a lot of prep work done in that area.  And even then I think it's a bad idea, or at least overcomplicating the holster.  

[fredk]

You are still misinterpreting his 'folding';  His folding is bringing the front side of the holster over to the back side - the normal way you do to make a holster

[OldNSlowMarine]

Can you post pictures so everyone that is trying to help will have a better understanding of your process? 

[tsunkasapa]

Folded like a TACO! At which time a lined holster is glued grain to grain.

Edited June 15, 2021 by tsunkasapa

[Davm]

Yeah, sorry for confusion. When I said folded, I meant bending over the pattern to form the pouch.

[Josh Ashman]

I think I'm following what is being asked and the process but I have no idea why the edges being glued with Barge are coming apart. 

It sounds like you're making "western" type holsters where you have 1 piece of leather folded over on itself with a main seam. You are also using a liner so at your main seam you have 4 layers of leather. I'm going to assume that the total thickness of your leather(outer and liner) is 12 oz. or less before you fold it over to make the pouch of the holster. I do this a lot and use Barge to hold it all together without issue.

My process sounds a lot like yours, any grain to grain side gluing gets the glued area roughened up. I apply the glue to both sides and let it sit for a few minutes. then I press the glued edges together. Here I get a lot simpler than what you are describing. Once the glued surfaces are pressed together by hand I tap them down on my tooling block with a smooth face hammer. I "tap" hard enough to make my wife mad if she's in the house but not so hard as to leave a noticeable impression on the finished surface. At this point pulling the seam apart tends to separate the leather rather than the glued seam. From there I sand, stitch gouge and sew. When I hand sew I use an awl to make the holes but instead of stabbing them horizontally when I have the item clamped in my stitching horse I stab them straight down with the item on one of those hard rubber pads over the top of a cutting board. Going straight down helps me to keep the back looking tidy and uniform. When hand sewing I have to wear light leather gloves with the just the tips of the fingers cut off. Otherwise I cut my pinky fingers to ribbons as I pull the thread tight until my hand slips on it, which makes the cuts. I saddle stich with 2 needles, right needle goes through to the left, then left to the right, then with the needles between thumbs and index fingers my hands go around the thread and I pull the stitch tight until the thread slips where it runs through the bottom of my hands, AKA the pinky finger cutting operation. If machine stitching I'll just go to the machine after gouging. No clamps, boards or 24 dry times unless it just happens that I leave something that long between gluing and sewing. And, I've never had a problem with a glued and sewn seam coming apart after the fact. Maybe try more glue?

[OldNSlowMarine]

8 hours ago, Josh Ashman said:

I think I'm following what is being asked and the process but I have no idea why the edges being glued with Barge are coming apart. 

It sounds like you're making "western" type holsters where you have 1 piece of leather folded over on itself with a main seam. You are also using a liner so at your main seam you have 4 layers of leather. I'm going to assume that the total thickness of your leather(outer and liner) is 12 oz. or less before you fold it over to make the pouch of the holster. I do this a lot and use Barge to hold it all together without issue.

My process sounds a lot like yours, any grain to grain side gluing gets the glued area roughened up. I apply the glue to both sides and let it sit for a few minutes. then I press the glued edges together. Here I get a lot simpler than what you are describing. Once the glued surfaces are pressed together by hand I tap them down on my tooling block with a smooth face hammer. I "tap" hard enough to make my wife mad if she's in the house but not so hard as to leave a noticeable impression on the finished surface. At this point pulling the seam apart tends to separate the leather rather than the glued seam. From there I sand, stitch gouge and sew. When I hand sew I use an awl to make the holes but instead of stabbing them horizontally when I have the item clamped in my stitching horse I stab them straight down with the item on one of those hard rubber pads over the top of a cutting board. Going straight down helps me to keep the back looking tidy and uniform. When hand sewing I have to wear light leather gloves with the just the tips of the fingers cut off. Otherwise I cut my pinky fingers to ribbons as I pull the thread tight until my hand slips on it, which makes the cuts. I saddle stich with 2 needles, right needle goes through to the left, then left to the right, then with the needles between thumbs and index fingers my hands go around the thread and I pull the stitch tight until the thread slips where it runs through the bottom of my hands, AKA the pinky finger cutting operation. If machine stitching I'll just go to the machine after gouging. No clamps, boards or 24 dry times unless it just happens that I leave something that long between gluing and sewing. And, I've never had a problem with a glued and sewn seam coming apart after the fact. Maybe try more glue?

Brother, that's a lot of good feedback. I'm done until a picture is posted though lol

[Josh Ashman]

14 hours ago, OldNSlowMarine said:

Brother, that's a lot of good feedback. I'm done until a picture is posted though lol

RAH!