Would I be cheating to make and use an embossing press?

[Tallbald]

I know I"m new to the craft, but already I'm experiencing limitations in the time I can work at this craft due to repetative  motion injury problems in my wrists and fingers. When stamping, my fingers soon go numb and positioning my border stamps becomes difficult. It has lead to uneven depths and repeating patterns I'm not proud of. As a toolmaker, I could see the advantage of a press that I could thread my homemade tools into so I could more accurately do my work. It would also be quieter when working at the kitchen table (actually my loving wife and I chose  a thick maple top steel framed workbench for which I made poplar divided drawers,from Sam's Club, as a kitchen island) . Thoughts sure appreciated. Don

[ChuckBurrows]

IMO do what it takes to accomplish your ends.
Long story short - If I had not adapted to using some alternative methods such as how I sew, back in 1982 after a serious neck and back injury I would have had to quit altogether. Now almost 30 years later due to further injuries and just plain getting old, have led to further adaptations.
On the other hand there I are some things I'm no longer physically comfortable doing and that will bring those techniques to an end at some point and I just have to learn to live with that fact. i.e. I can only tool leather now in spurts of maybe an hour at a time before the pain is too uncomfortable - swinging a maul longer than that is just too much and I have the same problems that you have.
All of this has lead me though to move into doing other things such as more beadwork, etc. so I still get to do what I love.

[KidTerico]

I agree with Chuck about the pain part as we get old . I,m 68 and have all kinds of pain and the same problems you have with the hands so It takes me a lot longer for stamping etc, but I,m  a old diehard and will not use a press and will continue to plug along but thats just my 2 cents worth. KT  

[Tallbald]

Well since posting this, I've been in the shop making a new stamp. My fingers have gone numb, and wrists and right shoulder are already sore from swinging my mallet testing the  results. I had taken a few minutes and found that Harbor Freight has some small benchtop arbor presses at affordable prices. I make my stamps from stainless long shank 1/4 inch hex head bolts and may just have to tinker with making an adapter that would let me secure the stamps into the end of the arbor to emboss  leather. As a bonus, I could use the press for installing snaps and rivets. If I have success, I'll post a picture of my contraption. Thanks all, Don.

[KidTerico]

Don good luck , hope it works for you. Nothing wrong doing it that way. Please show if it works. Its all for fun. KT

[Popa Kapoff]

I'm experiencing limitations in the time I can work at this craft due to repetative  motion injury problems in my wrists and fingers.

Try working with your arms exstended. I found that when tiring fly that work farther from my body made my carpul tunnel less and I was able to tie 50 or so flys not 20.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

Tallbald, I'm a big pard like you, I had a bad accident in 05, broken wrist and two shoulder surgeries, I got into leather as suggested my my friend CowboyWC, as a means to get some dexterity back in my hand and fingers, well it helped but didn't solve the problem, as Chuck and KT  I have had to adapt to doing things different to make them work, it was hard at first and still is, but you can work around your problems, so yes do what you need to do to make it work for you, this is what counts, seems a lot of us are in the same boat here, but have worked things out to our advantage I'll be 66 next month, and plan on doing this for years to come but at my pace, when the fingers cramp up on me I take a break same for my shoulders and neck. I've been forced to have patience, if it takes me a ton longer to get something done, that's OK, at least I can still work with my hands and that is important to me, and I think it is for you too.

                           Good luck pard, and keep on cowboying 

                                     tEN wOLVES 

[PJ Hardtack]

Don

I believe that there are examples of embossed holsters in Rattenbury's "Packing Iron".  David Carrico is now offering an embossed gun belt and will probably extend that to his line of holsters.
I recently bought a pair of Taylor's '63 44-40 New Army conversions and they are too large to fit my Carrico Remington 'Slim Jim' C&B holsters. Since I suspected that this would be the case with other makers as well, I was stumped until I read a review of the unlined embossed holsters offered by Oklahoma Leather, Miami I.T. BACO was offering them at $20.59 so I figured - what have I got to lose?
I orderd a pair and was quite pleased. They are lightly oiled leather but I managed to stain them russet to match my belt, cartridge pouch and belt slide. This really enhanced the embossing (an attractive design with a double border/floral motif) and allowed me to 'wet mould' the leather. The guns fit so deeply that 1/4" of the 8" barrels was showing. They are a generous cut; a 'one-size-fits-all' proposition, so I had to handsew 1" to extend the seam under the trigger guard, extending the existing curve.
If I get ambitious, I may sew in a toe plug and that will add to their appearance.
They look way beyond their modest price and suit my CAS character. I'm not into 'Drugstore Cowboy' leather and not embarrassed to wear unlined leather. My first CAS holsters were unlined Mexican Double Loop and they are still among my favourites.

So, go ahead and make your embossing die! You've got a potential customer right here! My ego doesn't require handtooled leather no working Cowboy could ever afford. ;>)

[Cliff Fendley]

Many old examples I've looked at were embossed.

[Springfield Slim]

If you use a press to individually press in a stamping tool instead of hitting it with a hammer it is still hand tooled. If you make a large plate that "tools" the whole holster at once, then not. With your single tool press you have not lost any of your control, nor any of your own imagination in how it is tooled, just eliminated the manual labor part. Don't see anything wrong with that.

[Tallbald]

Hi again everyone. My wonderful wife (men I am truly blessed to have met this woman--I know at my plant , lots of men and women habitually disrespect  their spouses while I sing my girl's praises. Thank you God) and I talked about the problems I am having with numbness in my fingers etc. She and I added Harbor Freight to our errand list and I came home with one of their 1 ton, 35 pound cast iron tabletop arbor presses. With the 20% off coupon and KY tax, it came to $40 and change. Also got a free little LED flashlight that I asked her to put in her sewing accessory basket to help on this and that. I'll post another question here in a bit about stamp length, and this afternoon assess the project to see where I can begin. I will say that I really appreciate all the replies and will post results when I'm done. Don

[TN Mongo]

I use a press to put names on belts.  Personally, I think having your name on a gun belt looks horrible, but when they pay me good money to do it, I will.  The press works very well for letters and large stamps, but I still use a traditional maul and stamp for borders.  To me this is sometimes the hardest part of a project because it's tedious and tiring to try to do precise work.

Like several others have mentioned, my hands, arms, and shoulders hurt after I've done a lot of tooling.

[Dalton Masterson]

I dont see anything wrong with embossing, if thats what you are comfortable with. I have never seen embossing with as much detail as hand carving, but it would still be historically correct.

A guy at the gun shows is selling embossing plates. I was looking at them a few weeks back. They dont look bad, and with a little bit of creativity, could really fancy up an otherwise dull looking piece of leather.
Look up Cottonwood Cottage in Oberlin KS. I know he is listed as a SASS Affiliated vendor on the SASS website.

DM

[Slowhand Bob]

At one point cutting and sewing leather was bothering my hands so bad that it was causing problems with my day job.  It actually did not take long for much of the pain and stiffness to reduce after getting more mechanized in the leather shop.  No doubt ,in my case, that hand sewing was the main culprit.  The good news is that some times the pain can be reversed if addressed quickly enough.