gunfighter48

Hi Don, It's the edge dying that is bleeding under the tape I'm using. John

Well I finally got some pictures of some of my belts. These are double thickness (16 oz total) belts for folks that carry concealed weapons. There's a big gun show in town this weekend and so far I've sold 5 belts. Will be at the show tomorrow and see if I can sell some more. So far the customers really like the belts. But what are your thoughts? I have been using blue painters tape to seal the backside of the belts before I edge dye and it's letting some of the dye bleed through. I am using low tack tape and think I will switch to a medium hold tape. Is there a better alternative?

I use either Super or Satin Sheen on the holsters that I make. It helps to prevent the dye from rubbing off on the users clothes and helps to water proof the leather. I use a light coat of Lexol leather conditioner and then two coats of Super or Satin Sheen. Don't use Neets foot oil on holsters, it softens the leather too much and they won't hold their shape, at least that's what I've always been told.

I got into Cowboy Action Shooting about 12 years ago. This is a target shooting sport and a BIG part of it is dressing the part of a cowboy or TV cowboy. This includes a double holster rig and belt, shotgun ammo belt, knife sheafs, etc. I wanted a set of holster from El Paso Saddlery but couldn't afford the price as I had just spent $2300 on guns and reloading equipment. I lived in Spokane, WA at the time and there was a Leather Factory store in town. So I dropped in one day and ask what I needed to make a couple of holsters. The folkes were very helpful and knowledgable. They got me started (and didn't take advantage of a newby) and I've enjoyed leather working ever since. For a kid that grew up in the 50s with all the cap guns, bb guns, etc. there's no better sport than playing cowboys with real guns!!!!!!!!! I had to give it up about 5 years ago because of back problems and I do miss it but still like leather working.

The tracks are noticable but how bad depends on your standards. I will have pictures of some of my belts on this site in a few days and you can see if they are too bad for your use. I'm not that concerned as the tracks are on the back side of belts and holsters. As I said I'm still playing with the presser foot tension and feed dog height. I'm look for the sweet spot that minimizes the tracks but still feeds reliably. I'm new to sewing machines and have a lot to learn!!!!

I am currently using a Model 5 for belts and will be doing magazine holders and holsters with it. It is not a walking foot machine, it's a bottom feed machine. It does leave tracks on the back side of the item being sewn. But they can be minimised by using the correct amount of presser foot tension and adjusting the feed dog height. I bought an extra pair of feed dogs and am going to try modifing it with slightly rounded corners on the feed dogs. Should leave less of a mark. The reason I bought it was it will sew an honest 5/8 in of leather and the price was what I could afford at this time. It does a great job for the money and Neil is a great guy to do business with, very helpful. Prices of accersories are very good and Ferdco 440R parts will also fit the Model 5 just fine.

I usually use 7/8 oz leather for my holsters, but it depends on the design and the quality or the leather. With a one piece holster I use 7/8 oz with a two piece I use 7 - 10 oz for the back and 6 - 8 oz for the front half. My holsters are IWB for concealed carry. Using the best grades of leather you can usually use thinner weights and they will hold their shape just fine. Buy the best grade you can afford and experiment with your designs.

Very nice belt and holster. For a pricing guide take a look at El Paso Saddlery, they are the defacto stardard in cowboy rigs. The cowboy action shooting crowd buys a lot of their rigs. There are other makers but El Paso will give you a guide to follow for pricing. I did cowboy action shooting for about 8 years and always wanted one of their rigs but never could afford one. That's how I got started in leather working, making my own holsters and belts. Here's a link to their site. http://www.epsaddlery.com/

I have that same drill press and the chuck will stay on it ok. I have done some heavy wood bit drilling with it and it works just fine. I bought a set of drum sanders at Harbor Freight and use the 2 in diameter one for truing up the edges of my double thickness belts, works great.

I bought a Canon S3IS online a couple of months ago for $240.00. It's a great camera, Image Stabilization, 12X zoom, macro mode, shutter and aperture modes as well as a half dozen other modes. The only thing I miss is a hot shoe. I started out with 35mm SLRs about 1974, then graduated to 2 1/4 X 2 1/4, and then back to 35mm. Was a weekend pro for about 10 years, wedding, model portfolios, model and real railroad photography. Sold all of my photo gear about 10 years ago and have just gotten back into photography. Digitals will do things we could only dream of 20 years ago! Stick with any of the big names, Sony, Nikon, Cannon, Pentax, Kodak and you will get a good camera. BTW I found daylight compact spiral fluorescent lights, balanced at 6500K (daylight balanced) at Home Deport and Lowe's for around $7.00 per bulb. Makes using a soft box simple and you can do the white balance with them to ensure the correct color for you pictures. I've got to get some pvc pipe and make a soft box so I can photograph my belts and other leather products.

Every time I try to open anything in the for sale items it says " The error returned was: Sorry, but you do not have permission to use this feature. If you are not logged in, you may do so using the form below if available. " ??????? I also get the same error message trying to use the new Specialties forums.

People Eating Tasty Animals

I use Shoe Goo all the time for many different repairs and it is tough as nails. I used to fly fish and used it to attach felt soles to my waders. Never had a sole come loose! I would use some type of form in the shape of a foot to press down on the glued shoe and sole to even out the glue so there's no hard spots or lumps in the finished shoe. It's a little pricey but should work just fine.

Try Zack White also, I have been very pleased with them so far. Usually better prices than Tandy and prompt shipping. Their leather is better quality than Tandys so far. The only problem I have with Siegel is they don't accept American Express cards and I do 99% of my orders on it. http://www.eleatherworks.com/home.php

Also check with hobby shops that carry model airplane building materials. They carry a very fine grained plywood from 1/16 to 1/2 in thick. They also carry a lite plywood that is very strong and light weight. Hobby shops are also a good source for all types of modeling tools used to carve woods and clay.

Deer hide makes beautiful coats. There was an Indian woman where I grew up that hand sewed coats from deer hides that she tanned. She did exquisite bead work designs on the backs of the coats. She made coast up to her 90's and lived to be over 108 (they didn't have any printed records when she was born and think she may have been over 114 years old). Deer hide also makes good leather worker aprons.

I bought a $89.00 bench top drill press from Harbor Freight and use 2 in sanding drums to true up belt edges. You could chuck you slicker in it and since it has 5 belt positions for setting the speed, you could set the speed to what's needed. Should work great for slicking edges.

Too all those that have or are serving, my sinecre thanks. The prodest moment in my life was when I raised my right hand and was sworn into the Army (4th generation Army). Nothing like giving somethimg back to the country we call home!!!! :biggrin: John Army Satellite Communications 1967 - 1970

Right now I'm spending about 4 - 5 hours a day making belts. But there is a big gun show Dec. 8th and 9th near me and I'm working on 32 heavy duty gun belts to take to the show. I will also be making some mag carriers and a few holster to take to the show. Between my full time job and taking care of my handicapped wife, I'm burning the late night oil!!!

Some of us are alive today because we had a gun. Our house was burglarized 6 years ago while we were a sleep. The next door teenager and his gang banger buddy ( He was a Blood gang member from LA.) came in through a sliding patio door. The police said the gang banger was always armed and was wanted on several armed robbery warrants. It was over 100 deg F that night and we had the air conditioner in the bedroom running on high. We never heard them come into the house. They stole anything that looked of value and was quick to get out with. They never came into our bedroom, where the wife and I both had pistols on our night stands. We would have heard them come into the bedroom, very squeaky door!!! I had just been out shooting that day and did very well. I brought the targets home to show the wife and set them down on a table by the bedroom door. The cop said the only reason they didn't come into the bedroom was that they saw the targets by the door. They knew we could shoot very well. Even the crooks don't want to get shot if they can avoid it. Had I not went shooting that day and brought the targets home, we most likely would have been shot and possibly killed that night. When you are a victim your opinion changes dramatically about guns and self protection. Had they come into the bedroom our only protection would have been our guns on the night stands. They caught both the teenager and his gang banger buddy. The teen went to juvenile hall until his 18th birthday (he was 14 at the time). The gang banger went to state prison for 7 years for stealing our car and 5 other home burglaries besides ours. Self protection is every persons right and in the USA it is a protected part of our constitution, the 2nd Amendment. That's one of the things that makes America unique in the world. By conservative estimates firearms are used around 2 million times a year to protect their owners, most of the time without firing a shot. The sight of a gun makes the bad guys turn tail and run. Like I said the bad guys don't want to get shot if they can avoid it. Historically our country was founded, expanded, settled, and civilized by the gun. It's an ingrained part of our culture. As other have said you have to compare the statistics based on the population of our country.

Jordan, Glad your machine got there is one piece. I too have seen first hand how freight is shipped, not a pretty sight!!!! I'll second the comments about Ed Santoro. He's the one that helped me with my decision to buy the Model 5. Very stand up guy and a real asset to this forum. I bought some bobbins from him and the deal was extremely easy and he's a pleasure to do business with. John

Hi Tom, Welcome to the forum, it's a great place to learn about leather craft. I did a search on Google for "leather supplies uk" and turned up many pages of sites specifically for the UK. Look for books on leather crafts they will run from very basic to very advanced but most all will show you what you need to do different projects. That's how many of us started out. Sorry I can't be more specific but leather crafting is such a wide category that it's very hard to recommend what you will need. Braclets, wallets, and belts make a good place to start. I started with one of Tandys leather kits that had a very basic set of tools and variety of small projects and then bought books to expand my knowledge. As my knowledge grew so did my tool collection!!! It's a great hobby.

Hi Ed, Art posted in another thread that you can get smaller spools of thread from "SFS (Shoe Factory Supply), ask for Dan Bussey, 800-256-3892". I saw an ad on another sewing machine site that he can make up 4, 8, 12 oz spools of thread. Don't know what he charges but might be worth a try. John

Title kind of says it all. How much of a fee do you charge for a returned check. Have you been able to get the customer to pay up or do you turn it over for collection?

I just received 3 full sides of leather from Zack White and the leather is very good quality. I bought 7-8 oz grade 1 domestic tooling sides for less than I was spending at the local Tandy store. The leather is much better quality with very little waste. They shipped promptly and UPS got it here in one piece, just barely!! They had torn the outer paper wrapping but there was a heavier cardboard wrapper under that and it survived intact. Very happy with Zack Whites service and I will be ordering from them again.