Dwight

I'm assuming this is a loop between the shoulders to hang the jacket on a hook With that in mind . . . the "loop" leather would be popped thru that sort of oval piece . . . and then thru probably 8 oz little circles. It would then be splayed into 4 pieces . . . each would be glued and then cemented to the little circle Then you super wet the whole thing and form that semi oval using regular tools and let it dry . . . when it was originally cut . . . I would have cut it probably 1/2 inch wide all around it . . . and once dry . . . trim to the exact size you would want. Glue and stitch . . . re-dampen the oval . . . touch up the molding . . . done It is actually a novel piece of work . . . would add a bit of bling to the garment . . . I would never use it . . . but it is a cool touch May God bless, Dwight

If you were in the military . . . Resolene and dress shoes would be a gift from heaven. Super polish them guys . . . about 6 or 8 coats or resolene . . . you have a pair of inspection shoes that need only to be put back in their protective white socks . . . to await the next inspection. Didn't have it when I was in the Navy . . . had to do it the hard way. And I would probably bring the holster back to you within about a week. Neutral or any other shoe polish has no ability at all to protect the leather item. Rubbing up against a wall . . . gate . . . laying on the ground . . . the leather will look like it was found on the beach at Normandy. May God bless, Dwight

Neatsfoot oil is meant to replace the oil that was latent in the original hide. It is very easy to get too much in there . . . kids usually do that with their baseball gloves . . . thinking sloppy and floppy will catch a ball better It don't. My oiling is done with a cheap 1 inch pig hair paint brush from Harbor freight. I put it on quickly . . . just enough to see it is wet . . . and quit. The "wet" stage disappears very quickly . . . My item will be just barely noticeably darker the next day. Usually only determined by putting a piece of the original leather up to the oiled one . . . squinting a bit . . . to find a difference . May God bless, Dwight

Do it however you want . . . but if my project requires a gusset . . . I lay down the item . . . trace the outside for the length of the gusset I want . . . then cut the outside of the gusset piece out of a hunk of leather. I then decide how wide a gusset I want . . . use a pair of dividers and mark that all around the inside of the piece I cut out I then cut out the gussett . . . glue it in place . . . sew / lace / stitch / as necessary. May God bless, Dwight

I'm old school . . . one pencil . . . 2 or 3 erasers (lol) . . . ruler(s) . . . compass . . . blank paper . . . and masking tape to use for making a pattern bigger than an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. I then take a picture of it with my phone . . . turn that into a *.jpg with Adobe Photoshop elements 2.0 . . . and go to work from there. I've done it so much that it has almost become intuitive . . . AI programs are not as fast as I am . . . because most of the time my pattern hits production run with the first iteration . . . AI isn't smart enough to outthink the directions . . . usually needs a half dozen corrections . . . and by that time the other one is done and I'm off having coffee and pie. But that's just my way. PLUS: Some folks make a separate pattern for each holster or change purse or whatever. If for example I'm doing something different on a pancake holster for a 1911 . . . I basically make the one for the full size . . . and use it for all sizes. There is a bit of waste . . . but it keeps my pattern storage down and I can easily trim a full size to the officer's size in 2 minutes . . . May God bless, Dwight

I don't have anything against any of the professional punch makers . . . But I'm a cheapskate . . . so I make my own. So far . . . no one as asked me if their holster had holes made by one of the professionals . . . they just pay up and go on down the road . . . happy little customers. Mine are made from good old EMT . . . better known as Electrical Metallic Tubing . . . or conduit for short. Probably took me 2 hours to make all of them . . . punches and round end strap cutters. May God bless, Dwight

I'm wearing a 20+ year old belt . . . 1/4 inch thick . . . 2 ply . . . It has been on my body for just about every one of those days . . . The resolene finish is still on there. Not really sure that there is a more durable finish . . . but it does make the product stiffer . . . Oiled leather always looks good . . . but it can get buffed up and beat up pretty quick . . . and there is no wax that will do much more than a couple months as far as protection. May God bless, Dwight

Last Christmas I was asked to make 4 belts . . . I told her how . . . and STRESSED it needed to be measured correctly. I have 3 of the 4 in my shop . . . you guessed it . . . wrong dimensions. I'll "fix" them . . . basically using the original poster's idea. But like another said . . . it's almost as tough to "re do" work as it is to do it in the first place. May God bless, Dwight

Good job in my book . . . May God bless, Dwight

All in all a good job . . . but as another pastor besides Bob . . . as he said I would slick the edges real good . . . PLUS . . . I always run an edger around the leather . . . knock off those little peek-a-boos that slip up just above the edge . . . make it look like a torn piece of paper. But I do like the design . . . you did a good job. Especially the designs on the flap and the back . . . I'd never attempt it because I would get almost done . . . and I'd have a double line I could not cover up. That is also why I don't do a lot of stamping . . . etc. May God bless, Dwight

I'd suggest a Tippmann Boss . . . used you should be able to get one for that price. They are 1000 or so brand new. You can sew down on them to two layers of canvas (I've done it) . . . or you can to up to almost 3/4 inch of veg tanned leather. I've made leather dog collars on my old Boss . . . and it worked fine. It is a non motorized . . . hand operated machine . . . and they are hard to screw up. The company used to have a full lifetime warranty on the machine . . . no matter who owned it. You'ld have to check if they still do . . . and my guess is yes. You can also go into a Tandy Leather store . . . they sell a similar machine . . . take your sample in there . . . let the manager show you how their machines do . . . then go home and look on Marketplace for a used one. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . if you google . . . "image: boston mass firefighter helmet shield" . . . you should get something near 20 pages of information. Google is your friend when wanting to see something . . . just start with the word "image" May God bless, Dwight

You should never put shoe polish on before any kind of oil. It can block the oil from penetrating. But since you have already done it . . . go for it. I ALWAYS . . . oil before I even think of dyeing or stamping . . . and I use just a light coat of neatsfoot oil. For me it has been THE thing that makes my dye jobs much more even. May God bless, Dwight

Ebay is always your helper for things you need . . . https://www.ebay.com/itm/396977964819?_skw=1911+blue+gun+model&var=665436502944&itmmeta=01K4QBB3J8JF2KZBGH9YMEN1N9&hash=item5c6dbb0713:g:tV0AAeSwb~hodTUX&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1dv2i7ARm3ClNSsxdtKFB0OrG7CAZhEJjKYUozIlkBZe12kCtsecjRR47D6rvCFoRec%2FX13vaUqONlPVuq8ifPxLlvOb2ayE5GdDgATYD0i9splPUBTWVubnSw92ndH%2FksNNy23VBBduDpIktGIOt5LGgTbkyoTPm9EuBvVrsHzfNgoTn5eUH%2BlBCv%2BNQn5knlxF5IQxSNpfAwGKnysm02WUKCQobVKBqvt8Du%2BjYCgvrZoMa47UpZkcPbioivcv%2FU%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_a5rOulZg&pfm=1 May God bless, Dwight

Just a curious question . . . if someone was to send you a "pattern" . . . made of plastic . . . cut out on a computer based machine . . . of an exact personal buckle . . . would you be up to making that buckle? I'm thinking of the American Western buckle type . . . May God bless, Dwight

Let us know how you make out . . . I actually built a box out of 1 x 12 pine lumber . . . a piece of clear plastic . . . put a fan in one end . . . bored a hole in my shop wall . . . and all the burnt leather stink gets blown out into my side yard. I do have the benefit of doing a lot of wood stuff . . . so wood scraps are usually laying around for me . . . but even if you have to buy it straight up at Lowes or Home Depot . . . it's still a lot cheaper than the enclosures the mfg's want to sell you for the laser engraver. May God bless, Dwight

I don't mean to take over this thread . . . but I thought I'd offer Digit another pattern . . . Simple . . . quick . . . and absolutely works like a charm . . . short piece of suede and one snap I "invented" this as I hate carrying anything in a shirt pocket other than a ball point pen or a lead pencil. This is lightweight . . . hardly recognize they are even there. May God bless, Dwight

And I'll echo those ^^^^ words . . . May God bless, Dwight

Some years back . . . I started making key fobs for folks . . . and started to fix one for me . . . went back and forth on name vs address vs phone number. Finally decided that any of those could get my vehicle stolen if the wrong person found it. Wound up putting my Vietnam Veteran Assn. group name on it . . . it's a local group . . . and if returned to them . . . they would let me know. Wound up making key fobs for all of them . . . it's a lot safer than a name or address or phone number. Since then my advice is to always put your church name . . . club name . . . company name . . . or something like that on the key fobs . . . as it could mean you would get it back . . . but would prevent an immediate pilfering of your vehicle. Just a suggestion. May God bless, Dwight

That's why in my "wardrobe" . . . there are no less than 8 or 9 belts. Generally speaking . . . I wear the one I have on . . . and have for over 20 years . . . will probably kick the bucket some day and it will still be serviceable. But that's OK . . . pass it on to someone who needs one. May God bless, Dwight

Toxo . . . go to the other thread about clicker dies and no press . . . find my post on page two . . . lots of good ideas for you there. Long and short . . . you can make something much better than a clicker die on your computer . . . which will do a better job as well. I have done both. May God bless, Dwight

Let me ride this rodeo out of town . . . and start a new one. You obviously have a computer . . . and if you have ANY photo program . . . you can take a photo of ANY SHAPE you want . . . fill in the shape with black . . . and go to your 300 dollar 10 watt laser engraver. It may take two 30 second passes to cut out your shape . . . but it will cut up to 8 oz in two passes. The neat part is you never EVER have to get another clicker die. They are a thing of the past with a laser engraver. I use mine to cut small stuff any time I want an EXACT shape . . . the engraver and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (5 dollar program on Ebay) . . . are all I need. My bed is about 14 inches by 14 inches . . . so I can cut anything that size . . . and as many exact copies I want providing I have the leather. You do have to rig up a fan to take the burnt leather stink away . . . but that is the worst . . . and it is not hard at all. AND THE BEST PART . . . When you get done with cutting stuff out with the laser engraver . . . you can then waste a couple days . . . and as much corrugated brown cardboard as you can scrounge up . . . learning how to do roses . . . buildings . . . automobiles . . . horses . . . any shape you want . . . for any drawing you want . . . on your laser engraver. The cardboard mimics leather fairly well . . . so you can get a good idea of your settings needed . . . then do a small check piece of leather . . . then do a large picture or drawing or whatever your heart desires. If you really take your time . . . you can do photographs . . . army patches . . . custom book marks . . . billfolds . . . purses . . . and if you let your daughter play with it for a while . . . she might teach your wife how to use it . . . they can make the decorated front of the purses . . . you can do the rest . . . and you have a whole brand new product line. Or you can just put names on the key fobs . . . that'll work too. May God bless, Dwight

Hey Roger . . . look on Ebay . . . most of the time you can pick up a CD with the program Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 . . . for 4 or 5 bucks US . . . or even a later dated one. There are some serious picture "help out" tools on there. My phone for example . . . usually takes pictures at anywhere from 5 to 12 megabytes . . . and those won't send for the most part. Sometimes they are dark . . . especially a Glock gun in a black holster. And the camera puts them out in a huge size . . . maybe 3000 by 4000 or so. There is a little ditty in there that allows me to correct all this . . . I can enhance the photo with a little "fill flash" . . . I can make the picture a lot smaller . . . Plus I can cut down on the picture from 12 megs to maybe 600 kb . . . which I can send to anyone. The enclosed example I did in about 10 minutes . . . and it would have been only 2 minutes . . . except I had to hand cut the shadows out of it. And putting pics on the internet . . . or saving to your computer . . . it is a snap. May God bless, Dwight

You can add just one tiny thing to make the whole rig just a bit sharper looking. Whether you use rivets or chicago screws . . . put them thru the outside piece of the leather for attaching the little belt around the holster . Doing that will get rid of the unsightly screw heads and rivet heads on the back side of the holster. Not a serious critique . . . just one of those things that will separate sellers . . . especially if you are at a show or something . . . where others there are showing their wares. You can show that your holster is "cleaner" looking . . . which can result in an extra sale . . . and a slightly higher selling price. Also if you use a buckle . . . put a keeper on the little belt . . . or use a closed buckle . . . makes it look more realistic . . . and again . . . just one of those things that sets you apart from the run of the mill makers and sellers. Always remember that even the slightest "upscale" idea can push your wares out if front of the crowd. John Bianchi here in the states was the guy who perfected that idea. He could almost have designed a cardboard box to carry your gun in . . . and would have had 100 sales sight unseen. May God bless, Dwight

Years ago I never paid any attention . . . but the producer and / or director of Bonanza and a few others . . . must have been anti gun people. None of them carry even one extra bullet . . . blank belts all the way around. Didn't notice it until I got into holster making . . . then started watching . . . goofy if you ask me. May God bless, Dwight