Dwight

I don't understand the problem: cut the stitches, . . . remove the screw / rivet / stuff. Voila, . . . you have a pattern. It's actually looks like a takeoff of a Thad Ribka holster, . . . called a Rhodesian, . . . which are all considered to be great from what I've ever seen. I make a similar holster for small automatics, . . . it works really well for M&P Shields and smaller pistols. May God bless, Dwight

If you have the gun, . . . use the search function here, . . . make yourself a pancake, . . . a simple two piece holster, . . . with the gun in the middle. Add a couple of metal clips, . . . one on each end, . . . voila, . . . IWB holster that will work. This will then give you the personal information as to what you DO like about it and what you DO NOT like about it, . . . so then you can make one that suits you, . . . your way. If you look on my website, . . . my "Cactus" holster evolved in a similar fashion, . . . and is super comfortable, . . . even all day in the heat of the summer, . . . with an all steel 1911 commander in the saddle. Good luck, may God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Art, . . . appreciate the effort my friend, . . . but Bruce uses a washer with his split rivets, . . . and they seemed to be flat headed. The rivets I have are solid brass (or bronze??), . . . have a domed head, . . . and when they were set, . . . the tips of the legs were driven down into the leather so the legs, . . . if you looked at a side view, . . . would resemble a rounded "M". That would prevent the tips from snagging on anything. My opinion is they were put on with some kind of special setting tool, . . . as they were all way too uniform to have been done by hand. It's really no big deal, . . . I was just wondering if anyone knew of using them, . . . as it would maybe give me a date for the ax and when it was used. Got a suspicion it's an old timer. Joet, . . . are those the type of rivets you have??? May God bless, Dwight

Leonguaranipy, . . . just passing on what was given to me. I had the same problem with my first painted holster, . . . made for a special friend of mine, . . . did not know how to get it done. Manager of local Tandy store told me, . . . the rest is history. May God bless, Dwight

Plus, . . . they are not above getting something for you. They're good people to deal with. May God bless, Dwight

I have done basically what you are asking, . . . using Resolene to seal the leather, . . . then paint the Resolene. May God bless, Dwight

Today, I took apart an OLD, . . . old, . . . ax sheath, . . . from the C. C. C. & S. . . . whoever they were, . . . to fix it up for a friend. The thing was put together with brass rivets (for want of a better name) that had a head on one side, . . . then split in the middle, . . . and each had two legs and were pounded out flat on the other side, . . . holding the leather pieces together. Anybody got any kind of an idea about how old this thing might be? It was really dry, . . . so I gave it a dose of oil, . . . after I took it all apart. Going to put it back together for him next week, . . . just was hoping somebody could share a bit of info. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

Sometimes I groove, . . . sometimes I just dampen the leather, . . . set my pair of dividers, . . . outline the edges with the dividers, . . . then I have a tendency to have a much better looking stitch line regardless of which tool I used. A stitch groover also takes off that all important top layer of leather, . . . and on really thin leather like a wallet, . . . or some purses, . . . it can seriously weaken the overall product. May God bless, Dwight

Poor gator.............. Seriously, . . . really good looking rig, . . . you did your profession well. May God bless, Dwight

Deanimator, . . . if you go to my website, . . . you can see the holster, . . . where it rides, . . . how high it rides, . . . and how well it conceals as a tuckable IWB. It is the holster I wear 98% or so of the time, . . . there are a couple others I use occasionally, . . . but "occasionally" is the operative word there. If you want it to be comfortable in virtually all positions, . . . it has to be flat backed for most people. Now there are some chubby folks out there who have enough of a "cushion" that you could put a Ma Deuce down their pants and it wouldn't bother them, . . . but for most of us, . . . the flat backing is the key for comfort at about any position. Try looking on the main page: www.dwightsgunleather.com May God bless, Dwight

I would really suggest you try the kit first. No they are not tooled, . . . you do that too. Once you've made a couple of kits, . . . you will then have a better idea if you want to continue in leather, . . . and won't have a big cash outlay if you decide to pursue basketweaving or some other endeavor. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Guys, . . . thanks a bunch, . . . think I'll find one in one of those places. Still don't know for sure if I'll need it, . . . went out and looked on Ebay earlier, . . . just didn't have that "comfy" feeling about it. But anyway, . . . thanks again. May God bless, Dwight

Anybody got a good source for a raccoon skin? I may be needing one for a project, . . . need to find a source. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

Red Cent will have to beat me to this one, . . . I don't have one on the place that is finished, . . . and after looking at all the pictures I have, . . . nothing is really suitable to show it. I may have a job coming up for one, . . . I'll make a note to get some pics then. May God bless, Dwight

This is about all I ever saw as a kid growing up, . . . in the '50s, . . . except for those the police carried, . . . and many times they were very, very similar but were black. This is a Heiser holster, . . . and was laced around the outside edge, . . . the ones I saw were all sewn along the edge. May God bless, Dwight This is about all I ever saw as a kid growing up, . . . in the '50s, . . . except for those the police carried, . . . and many times they were very, very similar but were black. This is a Heiser holster, . . . and was laced around the outside edge, . . . the ones I saw were all sewn along the edge. May God bless, Dwight

No insignia on it, . . . in fact everything but the New Jersey is not ID'd. The manager of a local VFW gave it to me, . . . it actually is a beer promotional poster, . . . they had one for WW2, Korea, 'Nam, and the sand box, . . . I talked him out of this one, . . . cut up a bamboo fishing rod, . . . framed it, . . . It reminds me from time to time just how well I've been protected.............. May God bless, Dwight

If I was doing MC chaps for the lower half of my legs, . . . I'd just rip out the seam in my jeans, . . . sew the leather to the jeans, . . . sew the seam back up and be done with it. I took the seam out of two pairs of jeans a couple years ago, . . . lined them puppies from top to bottom, . . . and they are so warm, can't wear em any length of time in a warm house. May God bless, Dwight

I like to use the hammer and dome the outside piece, . . . but inside where it will rub on a gun magazine, . . . cell phone, . . . etc. . . . I prefer them to be flat. I've got several pieces of steel and lumber out there in the shop, . . . some specifically sized to go right into the box. I also made a tool that uses a small paper clip, . . . I slip the rivet into it, . . . goes down into the pouch and out the hole, . . . slip in the lumber, then the steel piece, . . . pull out the tool, . . . put on the cap, . . . SMACK, . . . done. I believe it was an M14 magazine pouch that I first did this with. Double cap rivets are what I've just always called rivets: May God bless, Dwight

I make similar boxes for cell phones, . . . magazine carriers, . . . etc. I set the rivet by sliding a piece of lumber in the pouch, . . . then a 1/4 or 3/8 inch piece of flat stock steel, . . . one smack with a hammer, . . . rivet is set. I can set that rivet with a hammer faster than I can even think about doing it with the setter. Just the way I do things. . . . works for me. May God bless, Dwight

Actually, . . . the original plan was for a table with drawers or a lifting top, . . . something where my leather would lay flat. I wound up not having as big a place for that table as I felt I needed, . . . had to look for another way, . . . got the inspiration just as I was getting ready to make that wall, . . . and as the saying goes, . . . the rest is history. What I really like, . . . is once it has hung in there for a couple of days, . . . most of the curl from being rolled goes away, . . . and it makes life easier down on the cutting table. Good luck.... May God bless, Dwight

My source said he was all but thrown out on his ear, . . . hoping for a bus to get him before he bounced, . . . But we all know how those stories get manipulated to agree with the teller's point of view. He did agree, though, with the earlier post about folks having a party because of the news. My only hope is that this bodes well for us as consumers of their products. May God bless, Dwight

I am not going to be one of those dozen posts, . . . but I would encourage you not to give up on the weldwood. I personally have never had your experience, . . . BUT, . . . we don't do things alike either. My belts, . . . like yours, . . . get a coat on each piece of leather, . . . but I force dry mine, . . . with a heat gun, . . . and they are not tacky, . . . they are DRY. You can take a cotton ball all the way from one end to the other, . . . you will not lose one fiber of cotton to a tacky place when I am getting ready to put my belt pieces together, . . . and owing to the heat gun, . . . they will be slightly warm. I put them together, . . . and my marble rolling pin comes out, . . . after I have first "set" them together with the palms of my hands. My opinion, . . . you got some foreign something or other in that weldwood, . . . and the same thing will happen again, . . . regardless of the brand, . . . if the new stuff is equally contaminated. In almost 50 years of using contact cement, . . . I did get one bad can once, . . . a couple years back, . . . worked good at first, . . . then seemingly overnight it got all thick and stringy, . . . totally unuseable, . . . I pitched it and did not look back. I've never used Barges because I like weldwood, . . . understand it, . . . am familiar with it, . . . and am not with Barges. BUT, . . . best wishes on whatever decision you make. May God bless, Dwight

Actually, . . . what I have is nothing more than a big box, . . . almost 8 feet tall, . . . 4 feet wide, . . . 12 inches deep. I have racks inside, . . . that swing, . . . allowing me to pick what ever piece I want for this item, project, or task. Really pretty simple when you come down to it, . . . and as I said before, . . . was putting up a wall anyway, . . . just made it thicker and hollow, . . . serves as my "vault", . . . so to speak. May God bless, Dwight

We added a car port to the house, . . . and on the other end of the car port, . . . I built the hobby / leather shop, . . . needed to get it out of my family room, . . . made my wife VERY happy. It would never do for anything above a 2 or 3 man operation, . . . and that would be crowded, . . . but it works really great for me. May God bless, Dwight

I have a relatively small space in which I work. The table in the picture is 3 feet wide, 5 feet long, . . . the covering is 1 inch squares, and is a "cut proof" bench top piece from Joann Fabrics. As you can see, . . . my sewing machine is at this end, . . . everything sewn flows up and onto the table. To the left of the table but unseen is a belt sander and a tube sander, all I do is turn around, . . . they are there, . . . turn them on, . . . go at it. To the right of the table is all the punches, and other tools that would be used to shape or decorate or stamp the leather. Additionally all my snaps, grommets, rivets, and their associated punches and tooling are all there. Farther back in the shop on the same side as the tools is the sink, . . . above which is all the finishing products and stains. The "wall" you see behind the table is indeed not a wall, . . . but my leather vault, . . . 12 inches deep, . . . 4 feet wide, . . . 7 feet tall, . . . with swinging arms inside that hold my leather in a vertical position, . . . open the vault, . . . thumb through till you find the piece you want, . . . take it down, . . . cut it, . . . hang it back up. Everything is designed to be within arms length of the table. Works for me. May God bless, Dwight