Leather Order, From Start To Finish, Part 4

***REMINDER: If you are interested in a custom leather project, feel free to contact me at lazyjdleatherworks  (at) gmail  (dot) com, and I will get back with you promptly to discuss your needs. 

I honestly didn't expect to find time to work on this project this evening. Yet somehow, after getting home from work, cooking dinner, and loading the dishwasher, I suddenly had a few hours with nothing to do.

It was all sewing tonight. When sewing leather, generally if you let a project sit overnight, the stitching holes close up a little, necessitating running the awl back through all the holes.

Then you get the proper amount of thread (approximately 4 times the distance you are sewing) and put a stitching needle on each end of the thread.

You start a needle in 2 holes next to each other

Pull them both through

Then thread one back through from the opposite side into the hole next to it.

Each end of the thread passes through each hole, meaning you have 2 layers of thread through each hole. This is a basic saddle stitch.

After the ends meet, you tie a knot to the inside, and if you are using nylon thread, you can melt the ends together for an indestructible knot.

When measure correctly, the belt loops should fit tightly on the belt. (The belt loop on the left hand holster has to be slightly looser, in order to pass over the bullet loops on the belt).

Then I worked on starting the bullet loops on the belt. The thread is a but unwieldy, starting at over 8 foot of thread.

But, after a while, I had to call it a night. I gotta work tomorrow. The loops I got to look nice, though.

Time tonight: 2 hours

Total time, not including emails and communication: 12 hours.

Keep checking back for updates!

Leather Order, From Start To Finish, Part 3

***REMINDER: If you are interested in a custom leather order, email me at lazyjdleatherworks  (at) gmail  (dot) com, and I will respond promptly. 

Today, I burnished the edges of all the leather, except edges that will be sewn together in the final product. Those edges should be burnished together, so that the appear seamless.  When you burnish edges, it takes a rough leather edge:

And polishes it smooth, almost like glass. It's hard to see in these pictures, but if shown in person, the difference is night and day.

Next I dyed all the leather, making sure to get a deep, even coat on everything, so that they all look the same once the project dries.

Finally, I applied Edge Kote to all the burnished edges, which seals them and makes a pretty final product.

Time spent today: 2.5 hours.

Total time on project, not counting emails and communication: 10 hours.

Leather Order, From Start To Finish, Part 2

***REMINDER: If you are interested in a custom leather project, feel free to contact me at lazyjdleatherworks (at) gmail  (dot) com, or reach me by my personal email or cell if you have them!


So this morning, my wife and I spent about an hour converting her old office space to a leatherworking space for me! No more kitchen table or back porch! I have a dedicated space where I can leave out projects that I'm currently working on. The new setup is pretty Boss.

So today, after getting my new space arranged, I basically did three things on the big order I'm working on:

I punched holes with a leather punch

I set eyelets in the stock wraps

And I laid out stitching guides, and used an awl to punch all the stitching holes.

The stitching work was by far the most involved part of this process. I hoped to get to dyeing today, but I just didn't have the time. Maybe tomorrow!

I learned something today: for future projects, I really gotta charge more for bullet loops. They aren't hard, per se, but they are tedious and time consuming. I think about $5 per loop will be my price, going forward.

Time today spent on project: 3 hours.

Total time, minus emails and communication: 7.5 hours

Leather Order, From Start To Finish, Part 1

***Edited to add: If you are interested in a custom leather project, feel free to contact me at lazyjdleatherworks (at) gmail (dot) com. I will respond promptly so that we can work out details.

Or contact me by my personal email or cell #, if you know them!

I recently received an order for multiple leather items, and I decided I will document the creation process from start to finish, so everyone can understand the process.

Without further ado:

First, we start with receiving the order, and communicating with the customer to determine exact needs, items wanted, colors, etc. We then work up a quote, and inform the customer of payment methods, shipping, etc. To date, we have 19 emails sent to and fro.

Then, we get out tools.

And pull out leathers. Different thicknesses are used in different applications.

Now, we make a list with some basic measurements of what is needed.

If you have a pattern, you get it out. If a customer is requesting something new (like this holster for a Ruger Security Six) then you need to create a pattern. After making a pattern on paper, I transfer it to card stock. One day, I'd like to get all my patterns rendered in thin metal, for long term durability.

Next, we begin laying out patterns and tracing them into the leather, and cutting them out.

We bevel all the edges, which will give the end product a cleaner look.

Then we lay out edge lines. This also contributes to a clean finished look.

This order includes 2 holsters, a gun belt with cartridge loops, a sling for a Marlin 1894, a stock wrap with billet loops for same, and a stock wrap with bullet loops for a Marlin 336. Not including email exchanges, I currently have 4.5 hours in this project. I likely won't have time to pick the project back up until Saturday, but I will continue to document the project as it moves forward.

Keep watching for updates!

.357 Deer Load

My pop gave me some hard cast, gas checked 180 grain flat-point bullets recently. They are a bullet originally designed for use in the .35 Remington round.

In the early days of the internet blogs, dad and a few internet buddies got Lee to re-create an old Lyman bullet in a 6 cavity mold, the TL358-180. Several bloggers did some figuring, and decided it would be good deer medicine loaded hot in a .357 cartridge for handgun hunting. They put in a collective order to Lee for enough of the molds to make it worthwhile for Lee to make them, and ordered a custom lot.

Dad worked up a recipe using this bullet over Lil' Gun powder. He played with it for a few years, and moved on to other pursuits.

But it was a heck of a load. Out of a rifle barrel (16 inches) the load Pop developed was pushing slightly over 1600 fps. That's close to a mild 170 grain bullet loading in 30-30, which has taken more than it's share of North American game animals.

Under 100 yards, Pop's load shot like a laser beam, and hit like a hammer.

Well, like I said, Pop gave me some bullets, and loading data. I made a batch of 50, and tried them out.

Out of a Marlin 1895, the bullets shoot into the front sight (a 6-moa dot) with boring regularity, and they hit the steel plate hard enough to foul it on it's chains, necessitating going downrange to unwind the target from it's stand.

From a Uberti El Patron, they make the palm of your hand tingle with each successive shot.

I was pleased.

I saw Pop this weekend, and gave him thanks for the bullets and the knowledge. As is his way, he nodded matter-of -factly, and headed for his reloading bench. He pulled down several boxes, and told me he was pretty sure he was done playing with that load, and since he gave me his Marlin 1894 a few years ago, I might as well take care of his mold for it.

I'm now set up to reload that mean-ass .357 load, and I got Pop, once again, to thank for furthering my knowledge.

I appreciate it, Pop. I really do.

Stock Cover (x2)

So I finished up my stock cover and sling for my Marlin 1894 just a few days ago, and I forwarded pics of it to a gunnie friend, who told me he HAD to have a stock cover for his Marlin 336.

I happened to be heading by his work on Friday, so I told him to bring the 336, and when I was free, I'd swing by. I headed that way, and picked up his rifle (as well as his payment. He's a longtime friend, so I let him barter 300 rounds of factory loaded  .38 spl in exchange for a stock cover).

When I got back home, I got to work. He saw mine, which I tooled to match my cowboy rig.

He wanted something fancy-tooled, but not necessarily just like mine. So I improvised a zig-zag pattern followed by a tight veiner stamp, highlighted with a dot-stamp. I finished the blank space with some fancy stitching tooling. I dyed it to come close to the color of the sling he had on the 336.

Anyway, he likes it, so I'm happy!

Stock cover and sling for Marlin 1894

I have been thinking about slings. Since I now have a .357 single action, it's time to make a matching sling for my Marlin, since they share a caliber. I have been planning one in my brain, and figured on making it cut to spec.

But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted it adjustable, at least to a point. I like using a sling for steadying an off-hand shot, and the secondary look made by the sling attaching back to itself is a great help in stabilizing a rifle. So I started figuring it out.

While I was at it, I decided to make a stock cover with 6 bullet loops on it, too.

I mocked it up, and liked where it was going.

Later, I tooled it to match my personal gun belt, and dyed it to match, too.

Now I'm waiting to let everything to dry. I'll post finished pics in a few days.

A Hat, A Gun, and A Trip to the Store

Two days ago, my dad dropped off a gun. Talk about awesome! I love a .357, which is the perfect woods cartridge in my part of the world. The Uberti is about as perfect a woods gun as can be had. That it will be a great form-gun for fast draw rigs is a great bonus.

But I've been looking at that gun, and seeing it in it's holster got me thinking: I really need to make matching gear.  The start of that project? A hat band that matches my holster.

(Not my gun. This is one I borrowed from dad a few weeks back)

When I was dying it, after using a dark brown, I planned on coating it with Hi-liter, which soaks into the tooling and gives a nice contrast. I must have been distracted, because somehow I grabbed edge-kote, and smeared it with that. It turned out darker for the treatment, but it still looks nice.

Also, now I need to make a matching sling for my Marlin 1894. If I have 2 guns that are wood and blued steel, both in .357, I guess I should have a sling on the rifle that matches the pistol's gunbelt, right?

Well, I'm going to get on that, but that meant I needed to head to the Bass Pro and pick up a set of sling swivels.

My Mother in law and Grand-Parents-in-Laws gave me gift cards for my birthday (totally unnecessary, but appreciated) so I went to the store. Of course, you can't go to Bass pro and pick up sling swivels alone. No, they put the sling swivels on the same isle as the reloading stuff, the bastards! So after spending the gift cards  (and 90 bucks of my money, too...) I walked out with a set of sling swivels, a bullet puller, a Lyman reloading manual for pistols, a pound of Unique, a pound of Blue Dot, 100 .38 caliber 158 grain Hornady XTP bullets, and 250 rounds of plated Berry's 124 grain round nose 9mm.

I always need more 9mm range ammo, and Unique and Blue Dot were staples on my Pop's reloading bench, so I figured I'd give them a try.

I got the XTP's because my Pop made some hunting ammo a few years ago that was BRUTAL. I have like 25 left, but I wanted to mimic the load, so I gotta get with him on what powder he used.

And after I got home, I was putting the reloading stuff away and found ANOTHER  bullet I wanted to make a hunting load out of. Again, it's a mimic of one my dad has made before. It uses a hard cast, gas checked 180 grain flat nose bullet that is a real whitetail-whacker. I know he used Lil Gun, but again, I'm gonna have to get with him on the exact recipe.

Anyhow, it looks like I need to get some reloading done.

Full Tooling

2 weeks ago, when I was visiting family, my Brother-in-law told me he wanted to commission a fast draw rig. He said he wanted some tooling, and wanted it dark brown. I gave him the family price, and asked him if he trusted me. 

"Yeah, I trust ya"

Well, I showed him an example of some tooling that I wanted to try, and he liked it (it was the border tooling on the 'Hand of God' rig made by Will Gromley for Russel Crowe's character in '3:10 to Yuma').

I didn't tell him that I wanted to embellish the tooling I showed him, or that I was going to do more than just that tooling.

But, he told me he trusted me, so I started working.

There are 1,399 individual tooling marks in this rig. Ask me how I know. (Heck, you don't have to ask, just look at the gnarled claw that's probably going to simultaneously develop arthritis and carpal tunnel that is my right hand.)

Anyway, he got a good deal on a custom, fully tooled rig, and I got another walking billboard for my work, so I think it's a win-win!

C.R.K.T. S.P.E.W.

At Academy the other day, I saw a knife on their clearance rack. It was made by Colombia River Knife and Tool, a decent middle-of-the-road brand knife maker. I liked it immediately for several reasons: 1) It was a smaller knife- I'm past the point of wanting *UGE!!* knives, and I find a small fixed blade knife to be ideal for lots of things. 2) it's a wharncliffe design, meaning a straight blade with a sharply tapered point-it's a good utility design that can pull double duty a s a self-defense blade. 3) it came with a solidly okay sheath-yeah, I'm a leatherworker, and this thing may get a new sheath at some point, but it didn't come with a shitty nylon job that I couldn't use, so this knife doesn't have to get relegated to the desk drawer until I can make a sheath.

Anyway, I was able to pick it up cheap today when I went back to academy, and having been futzing with it for the past hour, I like it. I mean, it's just an initial impression and all, but it seems like a well-designed knife. It came very sharp out the box, but I suspect that the steel used will need dressing often.

That's not a problem, however, as I have a nice set of stones to keep it honed.

So there ya go, initial impressions of the CRKT SPEW are positive, even if the name implies that it would blow chuncks.