Been 'speerimentin' agin' ( "That's a Wrap" )

[Adirondack Jack]

Some of ya'll may know I live in an area that once was the leather capital of the world.  Though not what it once was, we still have some of the best leather folks on the planet within half an hour's drive.

So I got to chattin' one day with a feller with all the know how and machinery to do about anything with leather.  I showed him one of my hand cut and punched "Heavy Duty lever wraps" I had made myself.  I explained to him that I was using 7 1/2 to 8 ounce leather and that made punching with one of those "pliers type" punches a challenge, after the first couple of hundred holes I showed him my rifle with the wrap installed, and asked "Why don't ya give me a quote to DIE CUT a whole passle of wraps."   I gave him a sample of my 8 ounce "Heavy Duty" wrap, told him it worked well, was easy to lace on, etc.

So Today he calls and says he has had a die made, and has cut out some samples, using whatever leather he had lying around.  The die cut wraps are really nice, but lo and behold, he'd cut out a bunch with 10 ounce leather before deciding that was not what I asked for, and going after some 7 1/2 to 8 ounce leather.

"You might as well take them with ya" he says, indicating a pile of 10 ounce wraps.  So I took em back with me to the shop, and after liberally spraying one down with Rem Oil, I commenced to lacing it on a rifle.

The down side is the heavy leather is a beyatch to lace on, requiring the use of a pin (a tapered punch would be ideal) to tease the holes open temporarily while the lacing is inserted, (they close back up in a minute or so), and quite a little bit of finnessing the leather and lacing to get it to shape and snugged up.

BUT, once installed, my "medium" fingers slipped inside the lever like a glove   There is NO lost motion at all when flicking the lever on the Marlin. My 14 yr. old wandered out to the shop just then, and I explained that this was a "super heavy gauge" wrap.  He cycled the rifle a few times, compared it to one with the "Heavy Duty" wrap, and after some silent contemplation, declared, "Now THAT'S A Wrap"
http://cowboy45special.com/lever_wraps.html