Dwight

Another poster said: "Ask him for the measurement from the hole he uses to the buckle hook on his old belt and you should be good to go." In all honesty, . . . if you do that, . . . he will bring the belt back, . . . complaining it is too small. For a cartridge belt (I'm assuming you mean a US Western style ranger cartridge belt, . . . like John Wayne wore and carried his six gun on it), . . . it has to be 4 inches longer than the belt he normally wears. Using the "Ask him for the measurement from the hole he uses to the buckle hook on his old belt and you should be good to go." formula will get you his dress belt size, . . . add 4 inches to that and you will not go wrong. That is not my advice, . . . John Bianchi made that pretty plain on his videos. Below you will see the pattern I use, . . . and pretty much how I do it. The overall blank is curved, making the top slightly smaller than the bottom, . . . making it hug the wearer's hips better, . . . the last pattern shows various end configurations you can use. Most folks only put 5 holes in their belt ends, . . . I give my customers 7, . . . gives them more "room" for versatility. So far, only one customer was less than happy, . . . it took me over a month to make his 55 inch + belt, . . . and he gained 3 inches in that month. Had to remodel that one. May God bless, Dwight

You do not want to pound on em, . . . and JoAnn also has a bigger one in white, . . . 36 by 60, . . . it's on my work bench. Put a piece of marble on it, . . . pound to your little heart's content, . . . You can see it behind the Boss. May God bless, Dwight

This is my favorite: Only two pieces of leather, . . . less than 100 stitches, . . . two snaps. May God bless, Dwight

For holsters, . . . 50 / 50 mix of Feibings pro oil dye, . . . and Feibings thinner. Pour it all into a 8 x 14 x 2 inch cake pan, . . . dip the holster, . . . and roll it around in the liquid until it is all covered. Pull it out, . . . hang it up to dry, . . . Finish with a 50 / 50 Resolene and water mix, . . . applied with a cheap bristle brush. Works for me. May God bless, Dwight

It's been my experience that I can find cheap surgeons, . . . cheap lawyers, . . . and even cheap politicians, . . . but a cheap splitter, . . . ain't never seen one. But that's just my experience, . . . YMMV Whatcha needing to do hockeyspikey? There is probably a work around, . . . fill us in on the details. May God bless, Dwight

Now that's creative, . . . looks like the colors match too, . . . Is that a palomino stitcher, . . . or a golden palomino? May God bless, Dwight

Zayne, . . . contact Weaver Leather in Berlin, Ohio, . . . they can make you one, . . . it's called a clicker die, . . . If they are too expensive for your budget, . . . a piece of galvanized, . . . 4 inch electrical conduit will be 4.026 inside diameter, . . . and if you sharpen it so that it is the outside edge that is sharp, . . . it should be very close to your 4 1/8 inch need. Just look up an electrical contractor in your area, . . . we literally used to throw away pieces of that stuff after a job. You couldn't keep the stubs, . . . they just got in the way, . . . and were always 3 inches too short for the next job if you did keep them. For my work on something like that, . . . I would lay down the leather, . . . flesh side up, . . . use an ink pen to outline my pattern, . . . rough cut them with a razor knife, . . . then take them to my sander, . . . and finish "rounding em out" on the sander, . . . flip em over so they are hair side up, . . . run an edger around the top, . . . done, fini, complete. And with my little $50 belt sander, . . . I'm no more than maybe 30 seconds on each one, . . . rounding em out, . . . another 30 seconds on marking and cutting, . . . maybe a full minute on edging them, . . . May God bless, Dwight

One thing you can do, . . . determine what it is you want to put on the jacket, . . . buy enough corresponding vegetable tanned leather, . . . cut the pieces to the shapes you want for your jacket. You can then tool, . . . stamp, . . . paint, . . . stain, . . . whatever you want for your jacket, . . . to your heart's content. THEN, . . . get those pieces sewn onto your jacket. Virtually all motorcycle folks, . . . military folks, . . . and others wearing "stuff" on their leather jackets have also done it this way. May God bless, Dwight

The last one I built, . . . Resolene, . . . 50/50 with water, . . . it was about 8 oz over a beautiful 1/4 inch long lambs wool lining. I was very happy with the result, . . . but I seriously doubt if it will ever see any hard use, . . . most likely a wall hanger. But knowing that, . . . I still used Resolene, . . . it is very water repellent, . . . goes on easy, . . . and has a UV blocker which will stop sunshine from discoloring the item. May God bless, Dwight

What are the needs as far as leather is concerned? May God bless, Dwight

Where are you located? I ask only because I would not do it unless I could see and talk to you about exactly what you wanted, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I believe most of the ones I've made have been maple, . . . but in reality, . . . it is what was sold to me at the hardware store, . . . for a hardwood 1/2 inch wood dowel. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . I'm not sure I'd want a reinforcement piece out of 11mm steel either. That's something near 44/100 of an inch, . . . Of course, . . . I doubt if it ever would get "bent out of shape", . . . provided of course, . . . it could ever get "bent into shape". May God bless, Dwight

That's good looking, Stacy, . . . keep it up. May God bless, Dwight

When I was in the military, . . . we had our handy dandy, flap over, push the button through the hole, leather holster for our 1911's, . . . that were older than most of us and weighed almost as much as did the pistol inside it. One hand re-holstering???? You must be kidding, . . . unless you have 3 or more extra appendages on that one hand doing the re-holstering. Fast forward to civilian life and a CHL: Get up in the morning, . . . put on clothing, . . . add holster, . . . get ready to meet the day. Go to town, . . . maybe stop at the post office, . . . maybe visit your kid's school to watch a practice or a game, . . . stop at any one of a half dozen government buildings for licenses, license plates, election posters, etc. I do this at least once a week, . . . sometimes more often, . . . and I have a few places I shop that do not allow handguns. No, . . . I am not going out into my shop and create some dufus looking wannabe holster that requires two hands, 13 fingers, and the ability to bend over completely backwards and kiss the floor just to put my 1911 back in my holster. I want one that creates, . . . exemplifies, . . . allows, . . . and promotes one hand re-holstering. Why? Because I am lazy for one thing (I freely admit that, . . . ) and except for the first time in the morning, . . . standing beside my bed, . . . all the other re-holstering opportunities are in my vehicle, . . . sitting in the driver's seat, . . . and it is really hard to pull my left arm around my body, . . . past the steering wheel, . . . over the seat belt, . . . so it can hold the holster open while my right hand inserts the weapon. THAT, . . . is the reason I designed, . . . created, . . . and manufacture a holster that "creates, . . . exemplifies, . . . allows, . . . and promotes one hand re-holstering". It is not necessarily, . . . "tacti-cool", . . . but it is "practi-cool", . . . and it makes life just a little bit easier. May God bless, Dwight

That's a good one, . . . BUT, . . . cutting up furniture in my wife's house, . . . ummm, . . . probably not a good idea. But, . . . the creativity is outstanding,.................A+++++ all the way. May God bless, Dwight

If you have the 2 inch or so round one, . . . don't do it. The edge speed will still be too fast to burnish, . . . it'll just burn, . . . no "ish". Rather, . . . take a 1/8 inch drill bit, . . . put it into a drill, . . . drill down through a 2 inch length of hardwood 1/2 inch dowel, . . . glue the drill into the hardwood, . . . put this contraption into your Dremel, . . . then take files and cut grooves into it, . . . put some bees wax on it, . . . and it will make a really good burnisher. I've made a number of them for friends and students, . . . they work great. May God bless, Dwight

FWIW, . . . all my pocket holsters will fall off the gun if held outside the pocket, . . . this doesn't seem like it would. Personally, . . . I would also never make a pocket holster with a forward cant, . . . getting to a weapon under stress is bad enough without the forward cant. Third, . . . I would put a cover in front of it, . . . probably not in jeans, . . . but every pair of my dress pants, . . . that thing would print worse than a $5 computer printer bought at a yard sale. Last, . . . it is obviously for a right handed person, . . . who now has to shift the weapon to his / her left hand so they can extract the extra mag, . . . so they can swap the two during an encounter, . . . while trying to watch bad Bob, . . . reload, . . . etc. This will sell on Etsy, . . . but in the practical world, . . . and please don't take this personally as though I'm really whacking you, . . . but the idea is just not well thought out, . . . IMHO. May God bless, Dwight

I took some thinner, . . . wet down an old rag, . . . rubbed down my brown boots, . . . let em dry, . . . now I got black boots. You need to get the wax off for sure, . . . and I had plenty on there, . . . plus whatever was the original factory finish, . . . it all came off with the thinner. May God bless, Dwight

C'mon, Red Cent, . . . 11 gauge is closer to tank armor than flashing,........ that stuff is an eighth of an inch thick, . . . well, . . . almost armor anyway May God bless, Dwight

Right on my friend, . . . the leather is not a lining, . . . it is the hinge, . . . follow the picture, . . . it goes down under all three pieces there, . . . one upright is screwed to the bottom, . . . as well as the spacer, . . . the leather is just tacked onto the 1 x 4 with some little brass brads, . . . acts as a hinge. In case you haven't figured it out, . . . I am a scrounger, . . . don't always have to have "the thing", . . . I can usually figure some way of making something do, . . . in this case it was the hinge. May God bless, Dwight

This is my little pony, . . . it is 18 inches tall, . . . base is about 14 inches long. It is cut out of one 1 x 4 pine board, . . . about 51 inches long or so (actually was a piece of scrap out in the wood shop, . . . a cutoff from another job). I lined the jaws with scrap leather, . . . used a cut off 1/4 x 20 piece of all thread (probably also a longer bolt cutoff from the shop), . . . and some nuts. Bottom hinge is another piece of scrap leather. Probably took me an hour to make. It sits on my chair, . . . between my knees, . . . and goes under my workbench or desk when not in use. May God bless, Dwight

There is also a Tippmann Boss stitcher on Ebay, . . . current bid is $610,................I love mine.

Two thicknesses of 12 oz leather becomes 3/8 of an inch, . . . of dry leather, . . . which will take a heavy duty treadle machine. As Constabulary pointed out, . . . most treadle machines on CL are dressmaker type machines that will at best sew a couple layers of 2 oz together, . . . and will not handle the thread you need. On the other hand, . . . take a couple of pieces of the leather you want to use, . . . make a change purse out of it, . . . stamp it a bit, . . . tool it a little, . . . then take it in to a larger JoAnn Fabric store, . . . ask one of the demonstrators there to show you how well their machine works (or won't work). You might be surprized. I do have a little "Brother" machine that I use for some light leather sewing, . . . I paid $25 for it to a lady who bought it for less at a yard sale. But, it will not do 2 pieces of 12 oz. Good luck, may God bless, Dwight

I'll try to answer best I understand the questions: 1. Yes I do, . . . in "most" cases. I can do that with full confidence as I always cement the pieces together, . . . sand and bevel the edges, . . . before I stitch groove. That gives me the ability to run a stitch groove on the front and the back and know that they will line up. 2. Yes, . . . if you do your part in punching them straight through. For the little bit of hand stitching I do, . . . I run both grooves, . . . mark it with a stitching wheel, . . . and punch through the front, . . . while watching the back. I use a pony most of the time for this. I watch for the point to appear, . . . if it is not in the groove where it should be, . . . I back up the awl a few thousandths, . . . re-push, . . . until I get the point to come out where I want it. 3. Lay down a piece of virgin bees wax, . . . stroke the awl on the beeswax (both sides of the awl) before starting in. That will fix your problem. 4. Take a look at the little drawing, . . . it'll show you how to clamp down the edges to get rid of the space you are having. On another note, . . . that is a good looking piece of leather work. May God bless, Dwight