Dwight

Weldwood contact cement, . . . and a leather working awl to do the holes. The first one will hold it, . . . the second will poke it. May God bless, Dwight

Because most of my holsters do not call for them, . . . I need very few of them. When I do, . . . I have a sheet of kydex, . . . cut it out with snips, . . . sand the edges, . . . drill the holes, . . . glue it on, . . . one rivet and one snap later, . . . done. May God bless, Dwight

Assuming you meant the straps coming from the holster, . . . down and under the belt, . . . comes back up and snaps at the top of the belt: Mine are 6 1/4 by 3/4, . . . the 3/4 being a "fat" 3/4. May God bless, Dwight

I'm with Ken on this, . . . I do the same. Fact is, . . . some of my holsters get the stitch gouge treatment on the front and the back as well. It makes the stitches lay down a lot better, less chance of fraying, and the holster coming apart. May God bless, Dwight

Yep, . . . that's my "Cactus". And while I'm still on the 1911 board, . . . forum, . . . just don't get there as much any more. They say there's never a dull moment in the pastor's life, . . . and while that may not be 101% true, . . . it can be close. I love the Glidden area, . . . some of the nicest folks I ever met in my life up there. My cousin had a house, . . . unfortunately it burned down, . . . and we used to go up there for deer season sometimes. I'm not sure of the road, . . . thinking it was on 13, . . . there was a novelty shop, junk shop, flea market type store, . . . loved to stop there but had to be careful or I would buy the place out. They had stuff you NEVER saw anywhere else. Anyway, . . . again, . . . welcome aboard. What is your first project you want to do?? May God bless, Dwight

Mike, . . . I had the same dilemma a few years back on a big Colt, . . . .44 mag. I sent the owner a picture of another gun, . . . outlining the measurements I needed, . . . then when he measured it all, . . . I made up a dummy wooden gun in all of about an hour. Like your customer, . . . it was for a cowboy type holster, . . . it fit perfect, . . . he was absolutely thrilled. If I were in your position, . . . I'd do that all over again. May God bless, Dwight

Rick, . . . get a flat, rectangular magnet and contact cement it to the back of the holster if you have enough steel up under there to hang it. Most new vehicles do not, . . . but that is one option. If you don't have steel, . . . two pieces of Velcro will accomplish the same task, . . . sew it to the holster before you mold it, . . . and you are good to go, . . . I've made a couple like that, . . . they are just neat. Another that I've seen and like, . . . they take and make a belt for the steering column, . . . and put a steel belt clip on the back of the holster, . . . like an OWB holster with a clip. Anyway, . . . it's not a tough job, . . . MayGod bless, Dwight

Barkster, . . . through experimentation, . . . I've found that THE best black dye job I can get comes from the Pro Oil dye, . . . BUT, . . . I cut it 1 to 1 with thinner. I also dip dye, . . . into the pan it goes, . . . maybe 3 seconds or so, . . . pull it out, . . . shake off the excess, . . . lay out to dry. I found by thinning it, . . . it does not affect the color, . . . but the excess pigment ruboff and buffing is MUCH less, quicker, and easier. May God bless, Dwight

I guess I've only been making belts now for about 10 years, . . . so my technique may be juvenile. I just have them take off the belt they are wearing, . . . and measure from the outside of the buckle end, . . . to the most used hole. I have never failed to make a belt that fits using that strategy, . . . never, . . . not once. I did fail when a guy told me he needed a 36 inch belt. I made it. It was 4 inches too short. We measured his old belt, . . . yep, . . . 40. So much for believing the customer. If someone needs a belt, . . . and I cannot measure it myself, . . . I tell them how to do it, . . . or send them a little drawing that has been on here several times in one form or another, . . . and again, . . . if they measure right, . . . the belt fits right. Now, . . . I did have one customer that I made a 53 inch belt for once, . . . he couldn't pick it up for almost 60 days, . . . when he came to get it, . . . he needed a 56, . . . but that is another story for another day. Measure, . . . check your measure, . . . write it down, . . . it'll work. May God bless, Dwight

Bushpilot, . . . there are times I wish I had your patience. And today is one of those days I'll tell myself again that I need to do more work like yours. But then I'll start, . . . I'll mess up the tooling, . . . pitch it in the trash box and say to heck with it for another 6 months or so. That really is a beautiful bag, . . . showed my wife, . . . her first comment was it looked like a saddle bag, . . . and she thought it is really pretty. You do good work, my friend, . . . May God bless, Dwight

If you get a couple of tools, . . . it will work better for you. One, . . . buy an awl blade, . . . maybe 5 bucks, . . . set it in a drilled hole in a small piece of a broom handle, . . . it makes better holes than trying to poke them with a knife point or something like that. Take a set of points (dividers), . . . set them for the distance between the legs on the spots, . . . and use that to mark where you will want them. Poke the holes with the awl blade, . . . bend the legs over into the spot with another piece of broom handle or a piece of dowel rod the size of the spot. Push them up into the curve and they won't drag on other material. Do the same for the flat backs. And yes, . . . they are plenty long enough for that thickness of leather. Good luck, may God bless, Dwight

Well, Aaron, . . . you've probably come to THE best site on the internet for your stated purpose. Most folks are pretty willing to help out, . . . share, . . . course there are some cantankery old coots on here too, . . . but just take them with a grain of salt, . . . their keyboard is worse than their bite. Have to admit, . . . the WI was caught my attention, . . . spent many wonderful vacations in the Bonduel, Rhinelander, Shawano, Merrill, and Glidden areas. Getcha some leather, . . . some tools, . . . and go for it. Holler if you need any help. May God bless, Dwight

Quite honestly, . . . I and probably most others, . . . after several minutes pondering your question, . . . I have no idea of exactly what you want to do. Is this a double layer belt, . . . and you don't want to turn over the end? Are you trying to lace the buckle to the end of the leather belt instead of snaps? Are you talking about the tongue end becoming ugly? Try again on the description, . . . someone here will probably come through for you. May God bless, Dwight

Did you ever think about buying actual sewing needles for a leather sewing machine? I have needles for my Tippmann, . . . I sew through 3/4 inch leather with them, . . . never a problem. Using a drill press with them would be not really different from my machine. And I don't mean to sound mean or anything, . . . but I do not think I've ever seen a knife sheath that thick, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I've never been a fan of thumb breaks, . . . but my 1911's (so far) are Commander and full size, . . . they squeeze down in and don't wiggle out. But I do really like it overall, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I use a Tippmann Boss, . . . and a couple of other household machines in the stuff I do. First thing I would look at is the tension on the top thread. Looks to me like it is REALLY loose. And the comment about not all needles being created equal, . . . "Right on, brother". May God bless, Dwight

I'm glad I was sitting down when I called,........whew!!! Thanks, Art,...... May God bless, Dwight

Good job, Dave, . . . I wonder if that was the old .22 revolver I traded off a long time ago, . . . looks enough like it to be a twin, . . . and I'm just down the road from you by 40 miles. Anyway, . . . I like it, . . . your carving and stamping will always look better if the holster is brown or tan would be my comment on the decoration. May God bless, Dwight

If you cover the rail and the part of the gun behind it with 2 or 3 layers of masking tape, . . . then make the holster, . . . it does not "fit" quite as close as you would like, . . . but it also does not tear up as quickly. OR, . . . (I have not done this yet), . . . one could make an "inner" holster for the offending part, . . . of kydex, . . . mold the leather holster around the weapon with the kydex in place, . . . contact cement the kydex in place, . . . and go on with life. May God bless, Dwight

Here's what I noticed: 1. The belt holes do not have parallel sides. They are oval shaped, . . . should have straight and parallel sides. 2. The stitch lines are all in too far from the edges, . . . the leather will eventually lift up and look ugly. 3. The front piece as done is way too big. If it is for support, . . . only needs to be about a 1 1/4 inch band across the top, . . . if for accent, . . . then it needs to accent. This one looks more like an extra piece of leather didn't know what to do with it, . . . sewed it on the front. But for a first holster, . . . looks a lot better than my first one. May God bless, Dwight

One alternative would be a $49.95 drill press from Harbor Freight. Putting a leather needle in it and using it to do the hole punching, . . . it would speed up the process, . . . make sure the stitch is where it is needed, . . . and save a big bunch of cash from a machine. One could even get tricky by threading that needle, . . . and as it starts back up, . . . put a second needle through the loop, . . . effectively sewing the thing. Anyway, . . . good luck whatever you do, Alex. May God bless, Dwight

Unless you are making a shoulder holster for a S&W 500, . . . with a 24 inch barrel, . . . the 4/5 should work well, . . . I do that a lot.

I have a Tippmann Boss, . . . love it, . . . I really do not think there is anything out there that will do a better job of "positioning" a stitch exactly where you want it. It is hand operated, . . . you cannot leave it running while you do something more important. It does need to be mounted to a substantial bench, however. It will sew through 3/4 inch of dry veggie tanned leather (I have done it, . . . only once, . . . but I did it). It is made for thicker leather jobs, . . . but I do purses, belts, holsters, billfolds, and some saddle work with mine. Investment is in the thousand dollar range. The stitching on the front looks beautiful, . . . the back not as pretty, . . . but you have a "one face" product anyway, so I think it just might do the trick for you. May God bless, Dwight

Some years ago, I bought my first stitch line gouger, . . . from Tandy. I messed around with adjusting, . . . moving, . . . trying, . . . etc. One day I got fed up with it, . . . set it at a +/- 3/16", . . . locked down the screw, . . . ground off the rest of the post, . . . been using it ever since. I do have an adjustable one for "other jobs", . . . but this is my go to gouger, . . . use it almost all the time. May God bless, Dwight

Do this: Use contact cement, . . . glue the edges together so they cannot move. Sand the edges until they are all nice and rounded, smooth, and the contour of the holster is appropriate. Bevel the edges Gouge the stitch line Mark, punch, stitch (or in my case, . . . sew). Works a whole lot easier that way, . . . believe me. May God bless, Dwight