New pancake hot off the stove for my Colt SA

Hi Lashlaroe,
Here are some tips to help on your carving.
I do the predrawing on some regular bond paper, and use my scanner to work up the sketches to add details but save it as I go along. That way I can make changes, cut and paste with the copies.

Then I wet the leather with spray. Only get it wet enough so that it is darker, and then it start to dry, but before it turns light again. When the leather is still slightly dark, i put the drawing over the carving area and trace the major cut lines. The pen or pencil indents the moist leather enough so that you have the clear cut patter. No need to add all the little details, as you work those in at the end. Just the major outlines and needed reference points.

Once the imbedded lines are in the leather, it's just a matter of using the swivel leather knife to cut the leather. I use a 1/4 inch slant knife and cut fairly deep, depending on the thickness of the leather I am working.
Cut all of your original tracing lines and now you have a pretty good start.

Next I choose either to stamp the back ground and use the beveling tool to contour. Keep track of what is in front and what goes behind when using the beveling tool. With all of the cut lines, it is easy to forget the relationships of the front and behinds. I found that it is not necessary to bevel to lower the background with the beveling tool before stamping the background texture. You can do both at the same time. I use a small triangle ahape background texture tool for most of it. Remember that the stamping of the background ends up with the dark contrast needed for the carving to stand out. I have a few other background tools as the antique swirls in the bearcat holster. Once most of the background is stamped and lowered, it is a matter of contouring and beveling and using some of the embossing tools for depth. I go back and do the stem cuts on the flowers, hair lines on the animals, whiskers, etc. with the swivel knife for the end details.

When the leather is perfect for carving, it will be fairly light, but as you carve, the beveling will cause the leather to darker from the burnishing and the stamping and any tool work will darken the leather.

I still have a lot to learn about the finishing. Still no happy with some of my results, and the carving can disappear with a black finish, or at least only be a subtle part of the piece. Just depends how much you want the carving to stand out. Myself, I don't like the leather too light, and prefer the carving to be something that people notice as a after thought detail, rather than the main thing. The whole look of the holster is more important to me than the actual carving detail.

GOOD LUCK,
DON'T HESITATE TO ASK ME MORE, AS I AM MORE THAN WILLING TO SHARE ANYTHING I CAN.

Here is a good color rendition of the two holsters.
My buddy is going to give his fiance the finished bearcat holster i made for her lending me her gun for over a month. I just dang felt so guilty for keeping it so long, i had to do something for her. He wrapped it up and put in under the tree (from me and the wife). It is just like the cross draw in this photo, but is made for strong side foward cant and does not have the studs and is slightly smaller, but still the "slim pancake" design.

(Billy Jack Leather is the name I am using for now for my leather work)

HVR

22 Fancy rig.jpg
 
curious if you want to talk finishing...

I've been doing some expirementing there... often I find the dyes are too dark, or too intense... I did up some tooled key fobs for a bunch of family members, for Christmas, with a bunch of my scraps... & took some of the regular Feibing dye, & diluted it down with rubbing alcohol... I found that I could thin some of the dyes down quite a bit & still get plenty of color...

also seems the alcohol doesn't do anything to hurt the tooling, & if anything, the faster drying might have helped the tooling stand out more...

the dyes I thinned out to expirement with were light brown, light blue, & red... I actually with the flesh color of vegi tanned leather, got a nice "dusty rose" color with the highly thinned red dye, & the floral patterns I tooled on those stands out quite well...

don't know if I'd go as far as to recommend alcohol for forming the leather, but if the gun was adiquately protected, it might do a fine job of molding, while leaving to tooling proud ???

thoughts ???
 
Well I, for one, happen to like whatever you used to dye those holsters in your pictures. It's just about right in my book. It looks fairly close to the aged leather items I own.

I thank you for the extra info on carving and your general willingness to help others do this. Rest assured I'll ultimately have more questions sometime after Christmas when I have everything to get started.

I still think you should enter that sepia picture in the December photo contest. ;)
 
Hi,
I was previously using the Fiebings alcohol based dyes and found them excellent for coverage, color and penetration, but due to California's strict environmental laws, alcohol bases dyes are no longer available, and Tandys is now only selling water based dyes here.

I used Tandy's Eco flo hi lite colorant, coffee brown for the first coat to darken mainly the background impressions, but that gave too much a greenish tint, so I then put another top coat of Tandy Antique Leather Stain, dark brown which when used seperately comes out pretty orange and does not really high light the carving details. This comes out to pretty close to the color in the color photo.

While the Hi Lite can be wiped with water to lighten the proud portions, it tends to flatten out the depth. Just wiping on the hi lite leaves unpredictable aging coloration that is to me more antique.
There are some agents that can be mixed to gel the product further allowing more time to wipe off the hi lites for more contrast, but at 8.00 per bottle, it takes a while to experiment. Last time I spent over 200.00 in product an leather already!

The water based product are tricky, because they dry, but are still susceptible to water marks if exposed to moisture, so after these water based dyes are rubbed out for sheen, I use a top coat product that is lacquer based to seal the finished project. This gives a final rubbed gloss coat that gives aged patina to the project. I also burnish the edges with newspaper and a wood dowel. I forget where I learned this, but the black ink in the newpaper always helps to burnish and gloss the project, so by rubbing it you get this nice aged sheen.
 
Oh, and one more thing about the Fiebings alcohol based dyes.....


They are fantastic for stock refinishing. I have done black powder rifle stocks using this product and other wood working project and the alcohol based dye penetrates the wood better than any other stain product I have ever found.

Curly maple is so hard, that it is virtually impossible to get oil base stains to penetrate deep enough for a dark color. The Fiebings colors deep and aged.
By wrapping a regular maple stock with cord and using a butane torch to scorch the stock, I was able to get a curly maple effect with the fiebings stain.
 
Is the laquer-based top coat product something you get at Tandy too? Or is it something available elsewhere?

I just spent 3 hours making a round trip to Tandy (closest one) and spent way more than I expected to while there. Wow, nothing inexpensive in that store! :eek:

So now I have what I need to get started as soon as the gun and most other tools arrive. However, I didn't think to get a top coat product and am wondering if a thinned woodworking product could be used instead. I have lots of things for woodworking.
 
Al Stohlman will spin in his grave,,,

But I am no fan of lacquer for a top coat.

Ask any saddle-maker in the world what they use,,,
Most will say 100% pure neatsfoot oil (not the compound),,,
For my leather I will use almost any of the carnuba wax products,,,
But I will not use anything that seals the outer layer of leather against oil penetration.

Tons of people in this forum know more about guns than I do,,,
Leather and leather work is the thing I am well versed in.

I've been working leather since before I was a teenager,,,
All through junior high and high school I worked part-time for a saddlemaker.

I managed a Tandy Leather store in Riverside, California back in the mid 90's.

I am an alumni of Dusty Johnson's Pleasant Valley School of Saddle-making.

I have an Associates Degree in Shoe, Boot & Saddle from Oklahoma State University at Okmulgee,,,
I did the extra work and earned the Certification in Saddlemaking over and above the associates degree program itself.

I know leather,,,

Never in all my years have I seen or heard of,,,
Any professional saddle-maker using Neat-Lac on leather.

Eventually that stuff will harden and crack.

Go to the Al Stohlman Museum at the Tandy Factory in Fort Worth,,,
Look at some of the original pieces you see in his books,,,
Cracked lacquer is evident in a lot of those pieces.

Use Carnuba Cream,,,
Or Fiebings Atom Wax Leather Balm,,,
or go fully traditional and just oil and buff the leather.

But please please please reconsider using lacquer on your leatherwork.

I apologize if this sounds like a rant or a personal attack,,,
I just hate to see quality leatherwork like yours,,,
Covered in a finish that will deteriorate.

Aarond
 
aarondhgraham

Use Carnuba Cream,,,
Or Fiebings Atom Wax Leather Balm,,,
or go fully traditional and just oil and buff the leather.

But please please please reconsider using lacquer on your leatherwork.

I apologize if this sounds like a rant or a personal attack,,,
I just hate to see quality leatherwork like yours,,,
Covered in a finish that will deteriorate.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. No insults taken, and like I stated, I need help on the finishing aspects.
I gathered from other posts that using neatsfoot on holsters is a bad idea because it softens the leather, and holsters are supposed to retain their rigidity to hold the gun properly. I did use neatsfoot on the flap holster for my colt and noticed that although it had a softer more leather like quality, it became dull on the exterior rather than the polished lacquer luster.

Neat lac is the Tandy product I used. I do use neats foot on all my saddles and head stalls and other horse tack.

I am assuming that the lac dries the leather out and prevents natural moisture by its top coat?
Will try some wax product at your suggestion.
Thanks for any input....it IS appreciated given your expertise.
Please feel free to add or comment on any of my other comments without feeling like you are contradicting or insulting me. I have only learned the craft by mistakes and that is not always the best teacher.
No expert, I am just trying to help others get started on their way given the limited way I have found.

Would actually really like to hear some experts tips on the process.
My skills are wood working and I have a degree in Art, which is the background to all the crafts that I do. I am a well known professional grip maker by trade, not a leather worker.
HVR
 
Well thanks to both of you, I now have a better understanding of what I'm going to do with mine. This has been a great thread!

Two thumbs up!
 
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