Black paint mystery?!

[DonVoigt]

Nice job, great you took your time and the result is impressive- now a nice holster.

[ithacaartist]

Eugene,

Reach around and give yourself a pat on the back for this one! Very nice results, and I'm particularly surprised how clean the stitching seems to have come.

[Eugen]

Originally Posted by sheepherder

It does indeed!

How did you 'whiten' the stitching???

And what is that little hooked tool???

I was lucky in that the black paint used did not seep into the stitching, but rather remained on the surface. So I simply, well not very simply, applied pressure with the wider flat tool and moved along the stitching. It was almost a slow poking movement. The paint flaked off and revealed egg shell colored stitching.

That blue polymer pick is just one of a batch of cheap tools I 'picked' up off Amazon. I knew using a metal scraping tool would be risky to the leather and perhaps tear into the surface of the leather, so I went with hard polymer. That picker worked in tight spots. Most of the paint was removed with that bigger tool.

Originally Posted by ithacaartist

Eugene,

Reach around and give yourself a pat on the back for this one! Very nice results, and I'm particularly surprised how clean the stitching seems to have come.

Thank you and the others for your supporting comments and help on this project. Folks on this forum are wonderfully helpful beyond expectations.

Yes, I got lucky on the stitching. I am glad the nincompoop that spray painted the holster did not use black shoe polish or other staining product on the stitching, or it might have been a sadly different outcome.

Perhaps with my work restoring this holster I will have earned a boy scout Luger badge or promotion from Luger Forum newbie ...to rookie second class now. LOL

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by ithacaartist

Reach around and give yourself...

... ...

[sheepherder]

Originally Posted by Olle

I have seen some holsters like that, and I was told that they were fixed up after the war, possibly by Russian arsenals.

Makes you wonder - Some members have reported their RC/VoPo Lugers coated with an almost tar-like finish...Maybe this holster was coated with the same finish???