Dwight

I did not read all the other posts . . . but I'll comment my thoughts. #1 . . . I made and sold belts . . . holsters . . . western gun rigs . . . knife sheaths . . . billfolds . . . and whatever with a Boss for 18 years . . . using 346 thread almost exclusively. Never had any problem except that at 6 stitches per inch . . . they way I make a 40 inch belt . . . puts me at just about 600 stitches total. 600 pulls on the handle . . . and 600 pushes up on the handle. Generally that was about a 20 minute endeavor. #2 . . . I would still be using it had not a good samaritan not reached out and helped me buy my 4500 electric. #3 . . . I would not sell you my Boss (its 24 yrs old) . . . for anything less than 750 dollars. Go from there my friend. May God bless, Dwight

Trash can would already have happened for me. I'm of the opinion that I'm not going to let 10 bucks worth of raw material destroy 50 dollars or more of material and labor . . . I'll pitch it first. May God bless Dwight

Yeah . . . I don't like pocket ammo either . . . My fix is a bit different . . . quicker too . . . lol May God bless, Dwight

In a one word answer . . . no . . . It doesn't. But then again . . . this is laced on there TIGHT . . . TIGHT Plus . . . if it moved it would have to move forward . . . and mine is designed to end at that skinny part of the stock . . . so it would have to jump over the hand grip . . . ain't gonna happen. May God bless, Dwight

I have relatively high cheek bones . . . when I want a cheek weld . . . I want it hooked on that riser. My M14 . . . with my 50 mm scope . . . and my cheek riser. Decoration is the logo for Destroyer Squadron 7 out of San Diego . . . I rode two ships in that group. I have sold a number of these . . . mostly one guy sees it . . . wants one. I make em in basically any height . . . this one is one of my higher ones. May God bless, Dwight

Go to Lowes . . . in their metal aisle . . . you will find aluminum and steel angle iron. Buy their 1/2 inch aluminum . . . cut it down to maybe 12 inch pieces (2) . . . Put masking tape on the bottom of each . . . and trim it with a razor knife. Aluminum can mark damp or wet leather . . . the tape stops that. Put your stamps in a row in the order you need them . . . and tape around the angle iron . . . For 1/4 and 3/8 stamps . . . forget the press . . . use a small mallet . . . Tape the angle iron down on the leather where you want it . . . stamp it . . . you're done. Small stamps like those do not need a press of any size. May God bless, Dwight

If it were me . . . the horse's head itself would stand out . . . Eyes, mane, nostrils and outline would be depressed . . . and if your machine is that good . . . all lines that show the outline of the head . . . should taper away from it . . . But that is just my opinion . . . and if it were really me . . . I would laser engrave them . . . much more detailed, once you get it dialed in . . . and totally 100% uniform. PLUS . . . you could cut out the fobs . . . dress the sides . . . and set up your engraver right there at the show . . . and you could hand it to them . . . and they would enjoy it more knowing it was done on the spot. At least that was my experience at shows I used to do. May God bless, Dwight

It was not a good picture . . . so I could not tell if it was a single layer or double layer collar. For a single layer collar . . . a rotating punch . . . mallet . . . razor knife . . . bag of brass rivets . . . and a piece of 1/4 inch steel . . . about 4 inches square . . . and a cork back ruler either 18 or 24 inches long . . . and a rivet stamping tool. And you can do double layer collars by adding a quart of Weldwood contact cement and a bag of acid brushes from Harbor Freight. Instead of sewing the layers together . . . brass rivets will put them together in fine fashion . . . but if your sewing machine will sew 5/32 of an inch of leather . . . that is two 5 ounce layers . . . or one 10 ounce layer . . . which is good for all but the German Shepherd and larger dogs. May God bless, Dwight

You do not say what kind of gun is going in this holster . . . which is THE deciding factor on the thickness. I would never do a double thick IWB for a S&W Shield . . . but I might do it for a full size Kimber 1911. Most of my IWB holsters are 6 to 8 oz . . . and like AIZilla said . . . works out fine . . . my signature holster is in my avatar . . . a long eared pancake . . . Ii call a cactus. The added piece on the front of it makes it very stable . . . without needing to be double thick. My carry holster is almost 20 yrs old . . . gets used at least once a week . . . May God bless, Dwight

I mix white resolene with water 50/50 . . . and put it on with a 1 inch . . . cheap . . . bristle brush. I put on enough so that as I scrub the brush around it creates a little bubbly lather . . . then I just keep brushing . . . left right up down etc . . . until the bubbles are all gone. For just getting it "rub off proof" . . . one coat is plenty. Successive coats will make the product stiff . . . but 2 to 3 coats makes it darn near waterproof . . . I use it on holsters . . . and belts . . . have never had a "ruboff" complaint. Just be a tad careful going over any antiquing . . . make sure it is 100% fully and positively dry . . . then use a bit of care like I said. It can dissolve some antiquing . . . but won't if you are careful. May God bless, Dwight

On all my work shoes / boots . . . I have laces just like "normal" guys wear. But I put those lace up zippers in them . . . and they can be made as tight or loose as you want them. Pull the boot on . . . pull the zipper up . . . you're good to go . Bought em off ebay . . . search for "lace in boot zipper" May God bless, Dwight

Ya got a lot more patience than me . . . good job though May God bless, Dwight

Years ago I bought all my thread from Tandy . . . they sold a white thread and I don't know if it was poly or nylon . . . I think it was nylon . . . At any rate . . . I was using a Tippmann Boss then (that I still have) . . . and together they worked great. The thread was waxed . . . and at times it did kind of clog up the enterprise . . . but a quick cleaning and we were back in business. I'd love to find that again . . . I only use size 346 May God bless, Dwight

Putting on the oil and deglazing with alcohol . . . an analogy would be taking a bath then rolling in a mud puddle. The alcohol will screw up the oil . . . and the leather probably would have been better off had you done neither. The NFO simply replaces some of the natural oil in the skin . . . that was removed in the tanning process. Far as I'm concerned . . . the deglazing products were developed for a problem that does not exist . . . kind of like you and I taking a supplement to keep our bald eagle feathers from falling out of our heads. I'd lost a couple of projects when I was earlier in leather . . . taken raw leather . . . made a project . . . especially had wet molded it . . . then dyed it . . . and when I went to bend a part for a buckle or something . . . the outside hair layer cracked and broke. Once I started oiling everything before dying it . . . that problem pretty much went away. May God bless, Dwight

I use a brush so I don't get it on my hands . . . no other reason. I've done leather for over 20 years . . . never found a reason to deglaze anything . . . other than when I'm gluing the hair side to something . . . then I seriously "deglaze" with a wire brush and some elbow grease. Far as I'm concerned . . . deglazing products were invented to sell a product that fulfills an imaginary need. Kind of like selling blinker fluid. May God bless, Dwight

That is why I am presently carrying a Springfield 3 inch barreled 1911 in .45ACP . . . If I laid it on a table . . . most gun guys would think it is an EMP . . . it just looks like one. 9mm modern ammo will expand to basically 1/2inch . . . (.19 square inches) putting a hurt on the bad guy. Modern 45ACP ammo will expand to almost 1 inch . . . (.78 square inches) putting 4 times the hurt on the bad guy. I carried a P365 for a while . . . couple different Shield's . . . Ruger p89 . . . Taurus G3C . . . never, never felt secure and comfortable with them. This little baby does the trick. But as Chuck said . . . get what is best for you . . . I like this one . . . and it will never find a home in a plastic fantastic holster. Leather all the way . . . or Mexican carry at certain times. May God bless, Dwight

If you want an inexpensive "best of both worlds" go to Harbor freight and spend 50 bucks for this little sander. Round sanders have a habit of digging in . . . and you have to really spend a lot of time learning how to not allow it to do that . . . and even then . . . if you are not paying attention . . . if you run into a hard bit of leather it will not take off what you wanted . . . if it gets soft on you . . . you will have a half moon indentation in your project. This little belt sander does not allow that to happen any where near as bad . . . especially if you use 120 or higher grit belts. You can remove the little clear plastic piece on the top of the top pully . . . as I did . . . and if you have an inside curve piece that needs sanding . . . that little curve will do it nicely . . . Plus . . . it has a hole in the side for a power vac . . . sucks the sanded leather (mostly) out of your way. I own two of them . . . have never seen anything any better. May God bless, Dwight

There was a thread on here a few days ago . . . but I wanted others to see one way to do this. I did not create this method . . . but it does work quite well May God bless, Dwight https://youtu.be/ELmvtb2SyWo

Well . . . here is how I do it . . . someone else showed me on another video . . . here is my version. May God bless, Dwight https://youtu.be/ELmvtb2SyWo

Your answer is right there in that statement. Light brown. I do not know why . . . only know it happens . . . light browns . . . especially saddle tan . . . have a habit for some reason to like to come out a bit splotchy. The cure I found for that is to get a 1 inch bristle brush . . . some genuine neatsfoot oil . . . put a light but wet coat on the hair side of the leather . . . leave it for 24 hours . . . come back and dye it. I've had no more splotchy dye jobs since I started this. May God bless, Dwight

Whatever you use . . . I would plan on doing the whole table top. I doubt you will get the two to match up . . . using a different product. I'm not familiar with gilding other than I've seen it done . . . And whatever you decide upon . . . were it me . . . I'd plan on masking off all not leather areas . . . and using a small air sprayer . . . I'd spray the finish on . . . rubbing might mess up the gilding I would think. May God bless, Dwight

I was at a Harbor Freight store a couple months back . . . saw a small . . . really stout . . . putty knife. Said to my self . . . wonder if I could make that into a skiver . . . sure would be nice. I did . . . had to seriously put a long angle on it . . . had to strop it really good . . . It works for some of the holster work I need it for. I can also use my round knife for a big job . . . this is for grab an go skiving . . . May God bless, Dwight

My 4500 came with one as a group of accessories. I like it for just about every thing I do . . . which mostly is belts, holsters, knife sheaths . . . and a very occasional billfold. I spent a couple hours making mine quicker and easier to take off and put back on with a couple of 3/8 inch wing nuts . . . I use it most of the time. May God bless, Dwight

It really only gets tough when you try to use 3 needles and 4 different colors Other than that . . . just remember to do whatever you do . . . the EXACT same throughout the stitching. May God bless, Dwight

Gosut . . . try this: 614-781-1700 is the phone number for the Columbus, Ohio Tandy store. Call it up . . . ask for Scott . . . he's the manager. Ask him if he has 15 minutes to chat with a newbie . . . who needs some help. Odds are he will have . . . and I don't know all his schedule . . . other than he is not there on Tuesdays. Tell him what you want to do . . . what your budget is . . . what kinds of tools you think you need . . . ask him for recommendations. Scott will not sucker punch you . . . he is top notch honest . . . and tell him I sent you. Your shipping for whatever you buy will be a bit more than one closer . . . but you can take heart in knowing you are getting good stuff . . . and if you have some kind of ID number that identifies you as a true business . . . you'll get a price break that will help with the shipping costs. He's never sold me any junk leather . . . if I got any . . . I picked it out myself. And any time I've said hey Scott . . . how do I do this . . . he showed me right then and there . . . he's just good people. May God bless, Dwight