Dwight

I'd wear it proudly if I were a lady May God bless, Dwight

That would be made by me using two molds. Both are 2 piece molds . . . one big enough for the pen body . . . the other one big enough to hold the total pen body. You might try making one big enough to put both pieces in there . . . that would alleviate any match-up problems later on. I'd then find out the dimensions of his pens . . . taking a decent picture of them . . . you can fairly accurately predict the size for each hole . . . and I would add a 1/16 to 1/8 inch to each hold just to make sure. Wooden dowels can be substituted for the real thing. And don't worry about the expense . . . if you do that right . . . I'm betting for more orders based on word of mouth . May God bless, Dwight

Yes . . . I totally pre bend my holsters that are lined. AND . . . you isolated the big reason . . . wrinkles. If you glue them flat . . . you have a 999 out of 1000 chance that the inside will wrinkle like the 98 yr old witch living down the road. I moisten and wet mold the inside piece . . . as it touches the weapon . . . so it needs it's positioning settled up front and wet molding it does that trick. I then let it dry . . . completely . . . At the same time . . . I will also wet mold the outer layer so that the sight track portion knows it is not laying flat the rest of it's life. It's only a so-so molding . . . just enough to set the curve for the final bonding. I do the same for the back flap of the holster . . . bending the inside piece before bonding with the outer piece. It makes for a much better curve for the flap. Concerning the weight . . . generally speaking the thicker the leather . . . the stiffer the final product. But that can also be achieved by cheating. Putting the two pieces together . . . and either slipping it thru the Mexican loops or adding the front buckle loop . . . you then wet the whole thing . . . and hang it in a 140 degree farenhite "hot box" . . . take it out after a couple hours . . . if it was made out of 5/6 or 7/8 . . . the holster itself is a weapon . . . you could knock someone out . . . banging them on the head with that holster. May God bless, Dwight

I am going to give this man or the scribe who wrote this . . . a get out of jail card. The last sentence is totally . . . completely . . . dumber than a cracked rock . . . WRONG !! The get out of jail card says they simply made an editing mistake . . . or were talking without thinking . . . the statement is totally wrong. A holster made for example out of one single piece of 12 oz veg tanned leather will be a stiff holster. . . . no doubt. But if you take two pieces of 6 oz . . . (piece # 1) one with the exact design and dimensions of the original 12 oz . . . and a (piece # 2) second piece that is about 3/8 inch longer and wider than the first one . . . and you make a holster out of this . . . it will be MUCH stronger . . . MUCH more durable . . . and will retain it's strength for years . . . after the first is a flat plie of trash leather . . . looking for a scrap heap to jump into. You make the first piece so that it is cut from the original pattern . . . but cut with the flesh side facing up and the pattern laying on it. The second is cut with the hair side facing up and the added 3/8 inch added to the original pattern. Take this first piece . . . dampen it substantially . . . and roll it into the general shape the holster body would need . . . let it dry. Add contact cement to the flesh sides of each piece . . . let it get dry enough that there is only a very slight tacky feeling to the touch. lay the second piece on the table . . . hair side down . . . and using the edge of the barrel that houses the sight track . . . gently put the sight track of the first piece down onto the second piece . . . get a good contact . . . and roll it a bit from side to side. Keep working until you have the stitch edge in your left hand . . . the holster basically squeezed together. This is the process that makes the strongest and most durable holster out there . . . made entirely of leather. Some folks add a metal lining between the two pieces of leather or a piece of kydex. I've never found a need for it. And again . . . that is in full defiance of the last sentence I highlighted for your understanding. As printed, that statement is not worth a pothole in the middle of an airport runway. May God bless, Dwight

What he ^^^^ said May God bless, Dwight

First off . . . I only did this once . . . came out really good. It is a throw-off of the Roman soldiers in Jesus' day . . . how they made their "Caligae" footware. They laid down a substantial thickness of a basic hunk of leather . . . thru which they protruded the little nail like devices that gave them traction in slippery ground . . . something like a baseball players spiked of years ago. Next . . . on top of that they would lay down a piece of leather that would become the shoe part . . . it envelopes your foot . . . has the laces / buckles . . . and holds the shoe onto your foot. It is simply a flat piece of leather that would not be cut out unless the maker knew already the exact measurements. A third layer would then be added. All these layers would follow the general shape as OP's original page. These three layers would then be sewn together using 3 distinct stitch rows. One on the very outside perhaps 1/4 inch from the edge. Second inside the first about 1/4 inch and the third about 1/4 inside the second one. The foot was placed in the proper orientation . . . the leather pulled up . . . and cut off to match the wearer's foot. Sandals were also made this way . . . as were dress sandals . . . but it was designed originally for the Legionaires and for the battlefield. The drawing is not to any kind of scale . . . just showing how you would do it . . . with a bit of a modern twist. Pull the tabs over to the area with the same label . . . run a lace thru theree . . . starting at the toe and going upward. Tie off at the top. Drawing is rough . . . but a picture is worth a thousand words . . . so here is the 1000 word response The real beauty is that this can be made on any flat sewing machine . . . no super equipment required. All the sewing is done with it in the flat layout May God bless, Dwight

Yep . . . that's a good way to do it . . . But my problem would be if I had anything more than a couple different belt configurations and maybe one bridle . . . I'd for sure have to put tags on them . . . tell me what the heck it is I made. I'm moving my reloading room . . . and I've had to laugh at myself . . . things in there I have no idea what they are . . . and won't remember until I need it for the job. It's tough getting old. May God bless, Dwight

Do you still have the HDD?? I've got a buddy that is fantastic at fixing computer stuff. If you have it . . . I could ask him to take a shot at maybe retrieving the stuff . . . he's usually up for a challenge of most any sort . . . and that would be one. Lemme know. May God bless, Dwight

You need to do 3 things: 1: get 120 or 150 grit sandpaper . . . and you may even want to to up to 180 or 200. It looks like you have 80 or 60 grit on there now . . . and it is way too coarse. You also might want to hook up a vacuum to the sander . . . I did with mine . . . it grabs the dust and makes a better experience. 2: move your machine so there is almost zero distance between the sandpaper and the shelf on which the leather will sit. Mine would not move so I made a topper for the table . . . out of 3/16 basswood plywood and contact cemented it to the table. I purposely changed the sanding belt . . . and then placed the plywood shelf up so it was just barely touching the sandpaper. When I started it up . . . it sanded the plywood slightly . . . but left a VERY THIN space between the shelf and the sandpaper . . . THAT is the desired effect. 3: make sure your table is exactly 90 degrees angled from the sandpaper. I sometimes have a problem with seeing my project . . . so I outline where I want the sanding to go with a black ball point pen . . . and I sand it until the ink line just disappears . . . works perfectly. The technique is to slide the project back and forth . . . barely touching for chrome tanned . . . you can apply a bit more pressure with veg tan . . . especially if it is layered thicker . . . like a knife sheath or holster. When you have your desired edge . . . comes the final tricky part you need to do. Turn your project over and VERY LIGHTLY touch the sandpaper. It will take off a little "edge" that the earlier sanding produced. Try it . . . you'll like it. May God bless, Dwight

Actually if you do it that way . . . it is about identical to the one Weaver Leather sells for some exorbitant fee . . . I don't want anything in my shop to be intentionally built or made by me that could be interpreted as patent stealing. That's why my design did not use the stiff wire pointer . . . theirs does . . . But going back to your clear plastic . . . do you actually have the plastic? And do you have the drawings? Reason I ask . . . I have a laser engraver that I've never used on plastic / plexiglass. AND . . . what little I have . . . it is really thin . . . wouldn't work for the thicker belts I make. I'd be interested in doing a "shared experience" project if you could supply the drawings and plastic. I'd put it on my machine and see how well . . . or even IF . . . it would work. We would both learn something from the process. So far . . . I've cut 3/16 basswood plywood very successfully . . . but that is about all I've cut. It engraves beautifully. May God bless, Dwight

For punching belt holes and not having problems . . . take 2 or 3 hours out of your day and make this little jig. It will darn near end all your belt hole problems . . . May God bless, Dwight

Looks good from here . . . May God bless, Dwight

I would cut a piece of 3.4 inch pine to fill the hole . . . nice tight fit . . . that would be screwed to a piece of 3/8 inch plywood . . . that would be the size of the outside diameter of the pulley. Tool a really nice little Farmall "M" . . . sitting atop a small plowed field . . . with clouds on the left and right . . . and the IH in the middle above the tractor. Contact cement the tooled image to the plywood . . . get nails used for attaching cloth to a wood project from Hobby Lobby . . . ring the outside of the tooled image with them. Start the tractor . . . sand the pulley real well . . . paint it bright high polish fire engine red . . . call it all done May God bless, Dwight

I use two different ways to make boxes . . . the first you see as two pieces of wood . . . the leather is placed between the pieces . . . about 4/5 oz . . . WET LEATHER . . . and it is then placed in a vice . . . it takes about 10 minutes for it to partially dry and take the shape. That will hold a single stack 45ACP mag relatively loosely . . . which is the desired effect. The second way is the leather cell phone case. The bottom 2/3 of an inch or so is solid leather . . . cut out . . . and glued together . . . the inside width of the cell phone case. Once that is made . . . it is taken to a small belt sander that makes all the edges flat and level . . . then it's fastened with contact cement. I wore it for a number of years . . . my new one is made the same way . . . May God bless, Dwight

Go to google . . . search for "youtube: leather carving shadows I haven't done it . . . but anything I need info on . . . that's how I get it. May God bless, Dwight