Dwight

I haven't tackled the vest yet, . . . but I've got the machine, the liner, the conchos, and the leather. Wish I had the determination to go do it. Your work looks good, lady. Curiosity, . . . what is the connection to the Viking interest? Mine is from having been a sailor, . . . would love to haul out one day in a long boat,............. May God bless, Dwight

Electrathon gave you the cat's meow answer. Piece of conduit about 10 inches long, . . . lay one end up against a disc sander or a belt sander, . . . go slow, . . . sharpen it on a bevel back up about 3/8 of an inch, . . . take a round file to the inside when you get done, . . . cut your holes in the strap with another piece of scrap leather under your guitar strap. I make almost all my punches out of pipe, conduit, or tubing, . . . figure I've probably saved about $500 or so over the last 10 years. Plus I have some unique punches that nobody but me makes (that I know of). Here are a few of them. May God bless, Dwight

I put a light coat on both pieces, . . . dry them with a heat gun, . . . stick em together, . . . sand the edges, . . . bevel the edges, . . . then I sew the rascal. I have never had a problem sewing anything, . . . from a couple of pieces of really thin leather, . . . to a 3/4 inch piece, . . . Actual time from sticking to stitching, . . . probably 20 minutes at the most. Works for me. May God bless, Dwight

rbrooks, . . . I don't do a lot of shoulder holsters, . . . but mostly when I do, . . . they are "different". This is an example, . . . if I remember correctly it is an M&P 9mm, . . . and it had a laser on it. Nice weapon, . . . pain in the watoosie to make a holster for it. I refuse any and all horizontal shoulder holsters for striker fired weapons, . . . but I will make em muzzle down like this one. Take a look at how I did it, . . . it uses a thumb break for retention. A double mag pouch on the off side makes it ride easier with less shifting. Holler back if you have any questions, . . . more than happy to help. May God bless, Dwight

Terrypen, . . . get your camera out. Most people (myself included) do really well with pictures, . . . it is really time consuming and sometime futile to try to decipher another person's description. Cut the pics to 800 by 600 in size, . . . and post them. We can do a lot more towards helping you then. May God bless, Dwight

I have too many machines to do a lot of hand sewing, . . . but occasionally I have to do it. For example a knife sheath would be glued together, . . . welt inserted, . . . edges sanded, burnished, beveled, etc. I use my stitch gouger on both sides of the piece, . . . then go to the top end and make my first hole, . . . as straight down as I can do it, . . . but I don't go all the way through, . . . just far enough to be able to turn it over, . . . and see where the point wants to come out. If it is not on the stitch line, . . . I pull it back a bit, . . . adjust the angle of thrust, . . . and try again. I keep this up until I have that first hole exactly where it needs to be to look right. I then take my stitch wheel and mark both sides of the stitch gouge, . . . starting with a point in that first hole I've already made. Then, . . . just make the rest of the holes, . . . starting on top, . . . not going all the way through, . . . turning it over, . . . looking where the point is coming through, . . adjust it to come through on the mark you made in the gouge with the stitch wheel. I do all my holes first, . . . then come back and stitch. Probably not the most efficient, . . . but for an old codger like me, . . . it works, . . . that's all that counts. May God bless, Dwight

My belts are all snaked through the dip dye tank after they are fully assembled, . . . sewn, . . . burnished, . . . punched. I then re-burnish the edges, . . . apply the final sealer (mostly Resolene), . . . polish and send. If it has to be a natural inner liner, . . . I accomplish that by dying only the outside piece, . . . then assembling the 2 layer belt. Two layer belts are the only ones I make. May God bless, Dwight

Good looking work, . . . I have the patience for woodwork, . . . housebuilding, . . . electric, plumbing, and a host of other things. Never could create the patience for that kind of metal crafting, . . . Thanks for posting, . . . may God bless, Dwight

In one word, . . . nahhhhhh ! Get youself a can of Weldwood contact cement, . . . I like the gel for suede, . . . the liquid will work too, . . . buy a pint of each, . . . find out which one you like. Put a coat on each piece, . . . and we're talking raw leather here, . . . no parts cut out or anything like that, . . . just one piece of 7/8 veggie tan, . . . one piece of suede. After you coat each piece with a thin and EVEN coat, . . . stand back and let it dry. There should be NO tacky spots at all, . . . anywhere, . . . nada, . . . zero. I use a low setting heat gun to kind of speed up this part of the process. Just remember, . . . you are boiling off a flammable solvent here, . . . and it can smell up the place in a heart beat. Oh, . . . and don't wait too long, . . . couple hours max time before you put em together. When you do, . . . lay the suede down on the veggie tan, . . . get out your favorite rolling pin, . . . and have at it, . . . right / left / up / down. If you have time, . . . put some books on it, . . . go to bed, . . . get up tomorrow and treat it as though it is one piece of leather (it really is by now), . . . and make the holster from there. You will have to sew the edges, . . . and burnishing doesn't work as well as it would with two pieces of veggie tan, . . . but it "kinda" works. Have fun, . . . may God bless, Dwight

I live near a privileged town, Delaware, Ohio, . . . still has a full time cobbler, . . . open 6 days a week, . . . does excellent work. I asked him the same question (want to make a pair of Western boots some day, . . . on my bucket list y'know), . . . and he said you sew a strip of leather to the bottom of the pieces of the shoes, . . . AFTER the basic form has been molded on a form called a "last". The strip is the red color in the drawing, . . . his example was about 2/3 oz, . . . and about 3/4 inch wide. He said to sew that in the position as in the drawing, . . . all the way around the shoe, . . . then take a sewing machine, . . . sew that strip to the sole, . . . putting the shoe together. Hope this helps. The other thing I have done when I couldn't figure out a piece of clothing, . . . go to Goodwill, . . . buy something similar, . . . take it home to your handy-dandy razor blade, . . . dissect it, . . . see how the pros did it. May God bless, Dwight

This is not a very good picture, . . . my apologies, . . . and it IS THE RAW piece of leather with the image on it. Notice down around 4 o'clock on it, . . . I smudged it slightly getting the thing laid down, . . . But the colors are 80% or so vivid, . . . I'm thinking a sealer of some kind will make this thing a keeper. Anyway, . . . take a whack at it, . . . see what you all come up with, . . . I'm kinda excited about it. (edited to say that the fuzziness is the picture's fault, . . . the actual image is in the 80 / 90 % crisp region, . . . very presentable in my estimation) May God bless, Dwight

Maybe some or even all of you already know this, . . . I just learned how to do it. Want a full color image from a photo put on your flat piece of veggie tan???? 1. Get a piece of waxed paper from the kitchen, . . . cut it to 8 1/2 by 11 size. Flatten it out and put it in your printer. It worked very well in my Epson 1100 wide format printer, . . . printing portrait. 2. Find the image you want to use, . . . I did mine on Microsoft Publisher. Reverse the image if there is printing on it or anything else that would need to be reversed. 3. Print onto the waxed paper. 4. VERY CAREFULLY lay the waxed paper where you want it on the leather. YOU ONLY GET ONE CHANCE. If you try to move it at all, . . . it WILL smear. 5. Holding it so it cannot move, . . . gently stroke it with the edge of a credit card, . . . left / right / up / down. 6. Remove the wax paper, . . . count to 10, . . . it is dry. I haven't taken it any further than this, . . . having so much fun so far, . . . but maybe someone else can add to this and make the process more complete. May God bless, Dwight

Carrieanna1172 Looking at first the shoes, . . . then your attributes, . . . I don't think that would be much of a problem to someone who already sews. I have several "home" size sewing machines (a Brother, . . . couple of Singers, . . . and a White) that would sew that leather with no problem. Get a 16 or 18 needle from JoAnn fabric, . . . some of their tapestry thread, . . . and have at it. Use 8/9 oz veggie tan for the soles, . . . 1/2 oz or 2/3 oz for the uppers, . . . regular bias tape around the edges, . . . you should be good to go. Oh, . . . and do you burn yours, . . . or have you figured out how to use a laser printer to put any color image you want on veggie tanned leather? May God bless, Dwight

First drill a proper size hole in a short length of 3/8 inch hardwood dowel. You can force the blade base into the dowel, . . . then mount the whole thing in the drill press, . . . and later if you change your mind, . . . you have your blade without having destroyed it by grinding it round. May God bless, Dwight

Just wanted to say that I am a happy Toledo Industrial Sewing Machine Co. customer. I bought a Singer 111W155 from a friend, . . . he used it for canvas and "stuff". I want it for leather, . . . and the 1750 rpm motor was just wayyyyyyyyyyyy too fast. Enter Toledo Industrial, . . . and their expertise. I now have a machine that sews fairly slowly, . . . plenty of power, . . . piece of cake to install, . . . and even has an outlet on the back for my machine's sewing light. And the price was very fair. May God bless, Dwight

I guess maybe he'll do the same with the knife that he does with the 28mm cannons he creates, . . . shoots, . . . and enjoys. Sometimes, . . . there is no justification for any of the "things" we do. I'm in the process of building an actual shooting version of an M14, . . . that will shoot rim fire .22LR's. Been at it for a couple years, . . . just brought home the barrel tonight after having it turned down to the appropriate profile. Got a lot of work to do on it, . . . but that is OK, . . . probably be a while before I can afford to buy .22LR's the way it's going now Thanks for all the encouragement, . . . good words, . . . leather work is one of the few things besides eating a good steak, . . . that I have found to be theraputic in nature for my persona. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . here is the finished product, . . . the dye took a bit darker than it normally does, . . . probably the cow caused that, y'know. Anyway, . . . it has been a fun project, . . . hope Bob enjoys using it as much as I did making it. May God bless, Dwight

I don't do a lot of bags, . . . etc. . . . but when I do, . . . they are contact cemented together. Trying to hold several pounds of leather, . . . keep the stitches aligned, . . . make sure you are doing it right, . . . it's too much for me if I'm also having to hold two pieces (or three or four) of leather in the right place. For me, . . . contact cement is as important as the sleigh is to Santa Claus. As for rubber cement, . . . over time, . . . it dries out, . . . turns loose, . . . doesn't hold any more. I've got stuff stuck together with contact cement that's been there over 20 years, . . . still holding on. Stitches can break, become worn & frizzled, . . . but if the CC is still there, . . . it'll keep it together. OTOH, . . . if you only need it to hold long enough to stitch, . . . go for it, . . . rubber cement is great for positioning and stuff. May God bless, Dwight

When I make them, . . . 1st thing, . . . ALWAYS contact cement the zipper to the leather. You will be more than unhappy if you don't, . . . or at least I was. 2nd, . . . because I have a Tippmann Boss that I use for such things, . . . I have to do it in a certain way. Looking at the gunbag, . . . zipper open in a big "V", . . . zipper tongue at the bottom of the "V", . . . I start sewing up in the right hand corner of the "V", . . . come down that leg, . . . sew over to the other side, . . . and go back up the left side. I do that so my spacing from the edge of the leather to the stitches remains constant, . . . and for me it reduces the option for the leg to "pucker". AND, . . . I don't use the zippers you described. I go buy an actual brass zipper the appropriate length for the bag. Good luck, may God bless, Dwight

I'm an old fan of the Lone Ranger, Tonto, Silver, and Scout, . . . and I just saw a left handed, female Kemosabe in the picture. I'm sure all the guys who played the Lone Ranger wish they had shooting skills like hers. That's all a really good looking bunch of leather work. May God bless, Dwight

Is her nickname "The Lone Rangerette" Sorry, . . . could not help myself, . . . bad jokes are worse for me than Snickers,........................ May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Jim, . . . I use a little different approach, . . . but it comes out the same. One thing I thought you probably should have added, . . . "Don't ever let the buyer TELL you what size belt he/she needs". Measure the belt he/she is wearing, . . . then ask them if they are going to wear the new one any differently than this one. One of my first belts was for a guy who wore 36 waist Levi's, . . . so he wanted a 36 in belt. His "want" was 36, . . . his "need" was 41. That and having made a gun / holster rig (53 inch belt) that turned out too small, . . . in the 30 days I took to get his order done, . . . well, . . . I had to add 3 inches to the belt. Have fun, belt makers, . . . Jim gave you all some really good tips, . . . use em. May God bless, Dwight

The resolene SEALS it, . . . in a kinda final way for the most part. I'm really not much on horse tack, . . . someone else can help you more there, . . . mosey down the forum lists till you get to saddles, . . . someone there can put you on THE stuff for your bridles. Make sure you PM me with the finished product, . . . I'd love to get into that stuff here, . . . but I live 40 miles from the center of Quarterhorse USA, . . . and for the most part, . . . tack is easy come by if you are willing to ask around for it. Just no real market for the custom stuff from what I've seen. May God bless, Dwight

Make it out of kydex. Seriously, Riley, . . . waterproof and leather are two terms that just don't go together unless you are talking about work boots and vaseline petroleum jelly. They can be come waterproof to the point that you can work outside all day and your boots stay dry. But for normal leather products, . . . I like Resolene, . . . it makes them water "resistant", . . . and I'm sure some of the waxes do too, . . . someone else will have to chime in on them. Another product is a cake made of 50/50 (by weight) virgin beeswax and neetsfoot oil, . . . blended together in a jar, . . . in a double boiler or a crock pot, . . . poured out into muffin cups. Apply it in a similar fashion to paste shoe polish. Again, . . . water resistant, . . . but not water proof. It is what is on the boots I have on my feet right now, . . . for going out in the snow. May God bless, Dwight

Actually, . . . I use water and a couple of electric burnishers for 99% of my burnishing, . . . and Resolene keeps the edges nice once I get them there. I had some issues with some edge coating things, . . . like gum trag, . . . finally settled on just plain water and friction, . . . it works, . . . Now if we were doing a super custom piece that someone is going to pony up several hundred / thousands dollars for, . . . we might re-visit this. As it is, my customers are practical, . . . down to earth people who appreciate a good looking product, . . . but are not all in a wad for perfection. Fact is, . . . most of em come to me for the hand made look that is different from the kydex or machine punched / mass produced junk you find at Walmart. May God bless, Dwight