malabar

"These were mostly flintlock rifles..." You mean percussion rifles, not flintlocks. "...a ball & powder pistol is not accurate." Cap and ball pistols are actually quite accurate. The rifles, of course, are more accurate, because the pistols were firing round balls while the rifles were firing conical bullets. But at handgun ranges (50 feet or less) they were accurate enough and quite lethal. tk

That's beautiful work.

If you want the stiffest possible belt, that keeps its stiffness the longest, put a strip of kydex between the two laters. We've made hundreds of belts this way. We originally designed them for high-rise holsters we make. The belts are stiff enough that they don't have to be tight to keep a full-sized pistol in a high-rise holster snug against your body. I've also made a couple that had a spring-steel core (they were black bag types), but mist folks find them uncomfortable, and they ring metal detectors every time you walk through. tk

Stitches will work a whole lot better than rivets. Of course, that much stitching might aggravate the bursitis, as well. tk

Good designs, nice workmanship! tk

Weaver makes good tools. DO NOT buy Tandy -- it's junk.

It's the rig Russell Crowe used in 3:10 to Yuma. He had a strange crucifix on than handle of his pistol, and the rig was dubbed "the hand of God."

When I was starting out, I bought all my tools from my local Tandy. When I started pounding on a big strap end punch, the edge crumbled. As a longtime woodworker, I can sharpen anything, but the steel in that tool was junk. I went back to Tandy and asked the manager if there was anything of better quality. He was pretty blunt. "I won't buy that crap. Get your tools from Osborne." I took his advice and have never looked back -- strap-end punched, round punches, bag punches, rotary punches, you name it. They hold up well and resharpen easily. I also have a few of the Weaver Master Tools, and they'er very nice indeed. I do still use the little edge rounders from Tandy (all my big ones are from Osborne).

Thanks for the tip. I'll check them out.

We're paying $4 a pop from buckleguy, so Weaver's price doesn't bother me. But the ones I've seen from weaver don't look as good as the ones I'm getting now.

When I posted it gave me an error and told me the post had not gone through. So I reposted. I've hidden the duplicates.

We make a couple of hundred gunbelts a year. They're extremely heavy duty and made of top-quality bridle leather, veg-tan and kydex. We've been buying our buckles from Buckleguy, which has very high-quality, handcast buckles of solid brass. The problem is they don't have a very wide selection. I'd love to get some buckles that are a little more elegant, or even some that are forged steel or graphite. But I cannot find other wholesale sources that are of similar quality. I've looked at Ohio Travel Bag, but their quality is all over the place. Where can I find some really cool, high-quality buckles?

Very nice. Who makes these?

Nice work. How difficult is it to actually draw and resheath over your shoulder?

We make heavy-duty gunbelts that are way over 1/4" thick and put 'em together almost exactly the same way. Only differences: I never thought about putting the strip underneath to get a better grip -- I'll have to try that; you have a fancier technique for making the knuckle; we use a heavy-duty lineoleum roller instead of thw wall-paper roller. Thanks for sharing.