Bryan E

I always enjoy looking at the Col Littleton website and catalog to see the cool stuff they carry. Lots of great ideas for you there. I use it for ideas and modify so I'm not making a copy of those. Give it my own custom touches. http://www.colonellittleton.com/

I always enjoy going to Will's site and looking at all the cool items he's making. I really appreciate how he is happy to give instruction to those that want to try to replicate what he is doing. Thanks for the link to his galary. I love that old stitching horse he's using. Bet it's been used to make so many cool items. Boy...if it could talk. Thanks again. Bryan

My experience is that a proper made belt, double thick leather of veg tan, will not need any further stiffener to support a properly sized holster where the loops match the belt width. A well made belt of such construction as what I used is very stiff indeed. Let's say you wish to make a belt, double thick which is two thicknesses of leather, say two 8 oz layers. Now think about the added thickness of the Kydex. It will add a lot of thickness if it's stiff enough kydex to add stiffness to your belt. I've made Kydex holsters and used a .08 Kydex. I've seen thinner used but I liked the stronger stuff. My hand sewn belt measures .275 thick, so add another .08, and it's gonna be one thick belt.

I need to make another belt for myself. I made my first one, good for daily use and for concealed carry and it's finally time to get started on another one after 16 years of almost daily wear, 7 days a week. It was veg tanned water buffalo, from Tandy. I did cut it on the curve, and sized it to 1 3/8" width. It's just a plain black belt and all saddle stitched by hand. The stitching got worn in a few places but with the saddle stitching, it never did un-ravel, just had a few bad spots so I would go back and re-stitch as needed. Man...hand stitching these long belts is a chore but a fun one. I don't do it very often so I'm not fast at it, and I'm sure my diamond awl wasn't sharp enough but I learned a lot from the first one and expect this next one to turn out even better.

Wow...looks great from my computer screen and I bet it's even nicer in person. Really good looking rig. How was it stitched? Great Job. Bryan