Hey fellow Glowforgers! So this past week I finally got the nerve to test out some leather and the two test pieces turn out well so I decided to take “the leap” and shoot for the stars. I have no leather working experience so I am aware I could take this a step further and round the edges but and maybe add some kinda shine to it but honestly I have no idea how to do that, but I love how this gun holster turned out! I just figured I have an inquisitive mind and can come up with something nice. So to make this I hand traced my hand gun and cut out the pattern from chip board then took a photo of that, did a lot of photoshopping and illustrator work and got the pattern digitalized so I could print it on the laser. Then I add the engraves and then the chrome and gold hardware after. This is made of ONE solid piece of leather. [warning: this post has a photo of an unloaded and removed clip gun, I am not here to offend anyone or start a debate just to show of the beauty of leather engraving and a design I was excited about creating.]
Here is my two test pieces if interested that first lead into the holster project:
And Here is all of the photos of the holster, it changes colors in different lighting so I have several different photos so you can see it in all types of lighting:
Any thoughts on the design or comments about the project are welcome. (Again, I apologize if this offends anyone, I just wanted to share my creation and show the cool engraves you can get in leather.)
If you would like to see some of my other creations I haven’t gotten to share on the forums yet feel free to check out my facebook page: fb.me/freshstartcustoms
Wow, nice engraving! I wonder if there is something you can treat it with to protect the design. My guess is that it will be more delicate than a tooled design would be.
Yea this seems to hold up pretty decent considering I wiped it down with simple green and a rag. But if you scroll up to the two test cuts that was after I was rough with them I scrubbed those with the orange brand soap and a toothbrush the put them in and out of my pocket several times to act like it was a keychain. But yes if someone knows an easy good sealer for leather I don’t see it hurting any for an extra layer of protection.
I was told this was actual hide I got it from an upholstery shop near by that makes holsters as well so I assume this will hold up well. Thank you for all the other info here, I seen all of your works of leather lately, they look great. How do you do your edges? Do you just use sand paper?