Dwight

I don't know how to explain how it does it, . . . experience taught me it does do it. #4 created a sharp valley, . . . which I have found become problem areas. All I was suggesting is that you get away from doing that. I tried to modify part of the picture so it explains it better, . . . I would have followed the track around the yellow insert. May God bless, Dwight

Several things come to mind, . . . but first, . . . as a beginner, . . . you are doing pretty good. 1. For IWB holsters, . . . it is FAR more comfortable for the wearer if the mag holder and holster have a flat back touching the wearer. Yours both have lumps of the mag and the handgun digging into the wearer. 2. Your stitch lines are in the wrong places around the weapon. Pull both in much closer, . . . and follow the outline. The rear stitches behind the trigger guard really won't help hold the weapon in place. You will get away with this one because it is an IWB, . . . but if this was worn as a pancake, . . . outside the belt, . . . the holster would open up in short order and become more of a bag on his belt than a form fitting holster. 3. On both of the reinforcement pieces, . . . lose the sharp points. I know it looks cool, . . . but leather and sharp points will always be at odds with each other. The point gets soft and raggedy in short order, . . . begins to look like a piece of a paint brush hanging off the corner. 4. On the mag holder, . . . there is a valley between the loop and the mag, . . . cut your leather in an upswept arc, . . . never a valley. That becomes a weak point in the item. 5. I also never put the nuts on the back side of the holster. People who sweat profusely (I am one that does) will very quickly find great big ugly rust spots on their inside garments, . . . rust spots that in many cases will not wash out. Two or three really nice shirts, . . . ruined by 50 cents worth of cheap metal, . . . can ruin the whole experience, . . . and give your holster business a bad name really quick. But, . . . your first project is a whole lot better than my first one, . . . keep trying, . . . keep learning. May God bless, Dwight

There is always a "first time" for everything, . . . but I've never had much trouble with contact cement in cementing leather together. When I do, I simply add another light coat to the side that is causing difficulty. BUT, . . . I only use the contact cement to hold it while I'm manipulating it, . . . cutting it, . . . sanding it, . . . etc. The stitches and/or rivets are what I rely on to hold it together. Try a couple of pieces of scrap, . . . that will answer your question. May God bless, Dwight

Mike, . . . I don't have a "pattern" but the ones I used to have were shaped like the enclosed. Not hard to make, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Never heard of such a thing, . . . but then again, . . . only been messing with leather for some 40 years. May God bless, Dwight

I don't remember the DOS command, . . . but there was one similar, . . . that's where I learned it, . . . back in the days of 5 1/4 inch floppy drives and Win 3.0,............ May God bless, Dwight

On regular use, . . . unless it is really humid, . . . Resolene coated items can usually be handled in 8 hours with no ill effects. For white stitching, . . . I let it go till 24. As a side note, . . . it has been quite some time since I got an order for a black belt with white stitching. Got one yesterday, . . . came home and found this conversation. Sometimes the events of this life somehow seem too characteristically interwoven. May God bless, Dwight

Back when we had 40 meg hard drives, . . . or paid $175 for one of those huge 80 meg ones, . . . I routinely went through my total of 120 megs in a similar fashion as I showed earlier. I would whack anything in a doc, xls, jpg, bmp, or other familiar extensions, . . . if it was a duplicate or if I knew it would not ever be needed again. Sometimes it did wonders for me, . . . sometimes I wondered what the heck I just did. Thankfully, . . . with today's hard drives having such great capabilities, . . . I just don't bother any more, . . . (BUT, . . . I have really learned how to use the "search" function). Please do take to heart the good advice Billybop gave you about not whacking those you don't know. You can also go over to the column marked "Size", . . . double click on it, . . . it'll bring the "big" files to the top and you can see what is hogging all your HD space if that is a problem. May God bless, Dwight

On your Windows start button there is a search function (or "find", . . . depending on your version). Get the little dog up on the screen by following the prompt. In the parameter window type *.* and hit "enter". Go get a cup of coffee and maybe a couple doughnuts as this will take a few minutes at least. When it is done, . . . go to your "view" tab and select details, . . . double click the "name" column, . . . it sorts alphabetically, . . . and you can spend the next few hours perusing down that list to get rid of all your duplicates. Or, . . . you can buy a bigger hard drive, . . . and do like me, . . . not worry or care about duplicates. May God bless, Dwight

Let me jump in and tag this so I can get the information too, . . . between us we have 4 saddles needing some serious help. May God bless, Dwight

The basic answer is similar to the speed / power question. Which can you have? Either, . . . but only one, . . . which do you want? Same goes for wet forming around a shape, . . . and stamping/tooling. You can have one for sure, . . . but the other will suffer at least, . . . and you may not be able to get it at all. That would be my answer for tooling then bending & forming a shot shell holder. Ain't gonna happen. The tooling requires an almost dry surface, . . . wet molding requires a far greater wetness, . . . all the fine details will be lost, . . . and mostly all you will have is the outlines and the cuts made by the swivel knife, . . . the rest will be severely damaged if not flat out ruined. May God bless, Dwight

IF, . . . and again IF, . . . you buff that holster enough after you have dyed it and let it dry, . . . thoroughly, . . . completely, . . . like DRY, DRY, . . . you should then have a very bare minimum rub off. BUT, . . . you still want to seal it and finish it. SO, . . . cut, . . . glue, . . . wet form, . . . trim, . . . burnish, . . . dye, . . . DRY !!, . . . buff, . . . buff, . . . buff some more. Put a finish coat of 50/50 resolene and water on the holster, . . . let it DRY !!, . . . 24 hour minimum, . . . don't cheat !!! Then, . . . stitch it with your purdy white thread, . . . 346 or even 400 if you can get it, . . . after you get done with the stitching, . . . take a small paint brush and add a coat of resolene and water to the stitches, . . . blend it back onto the holster and wrap it around the edges. Makes a purdy, purdy, purdy holster. May God bless, Dwight

All I do is put the wax and the oil in a jar, . . . set it in my crock pot with enough water in it to float the jar of wax & oil, . . . and go find something to do for about a half hour. When I come back, . . . all is melted and run together, . . . so I grab the jar with a hot glove, . . . pour the contents into cupcake papers in a muffin pan, . . . let it harden up, . . . stack it up on the shelf. I use it almost like it was Kiwi shoe polish, . . . the same process will work for you. And yes, . . . it will darn near waterproof something. Makes a really nice finish. May God bless, Dwight

Cut the blank, . . . measure and punch the holes to make the blank the "right" length belt. Make the belt keeper. Now all mine are 2 layer belts, . . . so this is where I glue the pieces together, . . . sand the edges, . . . run my #4 edger down both sides, . . . stitch groove the thing, . . . then run it through my sewing machine. Dye with Feibings pro oil dye, . . . cut 50/50 with Feibing thinner, . . . let dry 24 hours, . . . buff off the extra pigment, . . . buff again, . . . buff again, . . . buff until a white face cloth will not show any appreciable pigment coming off. Burnish the edges real good, . . . apply a coat of 50/50 resolene and water, . . . OR, . . . apply a pre-blended 50/50 mixture (measured by weight) of virgin beeswax and neatsfoot oil, . . . The wax/oil mixture has to be put on by hand, . . . then hit with a heat gun on low, . . . melts the wax and helps it cling to the leather pores. THIS IS something you want to practice before putting on a finished product. See if you like it. Resolene will give you a more stiff belt, . . . wax/nfo a more supple belt. Then leave it over night and the next day, . . . polish it like you were getting ready for Captain's inspection. This is my workflow, . . . so to speak, . . . don't get any complaints, . . . so it must be working. May God bless, Dwight

Red Cent, . . . bring your camp fire chair, . . . your root beer, . . . come on over, . . . I'll light the fire when you come in the driveway. Seriously, . . . I love a good conversation as well as the next guy, . . . but I've also learned that there are any number and/or percentage who feel they have to "defend" their way of doing something, their purchase, their ownership, . . . so depending on the subject, . . . sometimes I'll ask people (I have a question over on the purse section, . . . been there for a couple of weeks, . . . knowing someone on here has the answer), . . . but other times, . . . Google is my friend. I put something like "snake skin tanning" and got a couple of youtubes right out of the chute, . . . tough to beat that. But anyway, . . . I'm just glad we have both, . . . Google, . . . and this site, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Yes, . . . absolutely, . . . provided: a) you did as Shooter McGavin suggested, . . . buffed all the loose dye off the project first, . . . and you really do have to put some muscle into getting it out or off the flesh side, . . . and you put on a proper coat or two of Resolene. I've read where folks just "dunk" it in Resolene, . . . shake it, . . . and consider it done. Simply stated, that has never worked for me, . . . I have to take a bristle brush and paint it on like I'm painting the holster. Then I brush it around, up, down, left, right, obliques each way, . . . beginning with a bit of a lather created by the brushing and adding of product, . . . and ending with all the little lather bubbles broken by my constant brushing. Once the lather is obtained, . . . don't add product, . . . just brush. When I use this technique, . . . mine don't bleed. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Camano, . . . Good job, Red Cent, . . . as before, . . . that is one of my favorite patterns. Been seeing it for over 50 years on belts, purses, and stuff. Can't say as I ever got tired of seeing it. May God bless, Dwight

I searched both pages, the margins, the headers, . . . anybody seen the holster? May God bless, Dwgiht

Goggle it my friend, . . . take the lesson you find there that sounds most logical. I have just about quit asking people, . . . I just do the Google, . . . asked a "people" a week ago about a feature on a sound mixing board he sold me, . . . when it didn't work, . . . Googled the right answer. You have a world at your fingertips, . . . use it. May God bless, Dwight

Hicks, . . . ya done a good job there pardner. I am not a fan of ankle carry in any form, . . . but yours is the pattern I have made before for others, . . . who do seem to like them. And, . . . just as a comment, . . . I much prefer the real wool, . . . the synthetic stuff feels like a Walmart bag on my skin when it gets all hot and sweaty. And, . . . Well, Lobo, . . . we're probably about the same age, . . . because I remember complaining like the devil, . . . I bought my 4 inch Python for $160, . . . and they wanted $190 for the 6 inch model, . . . and I got all miffed and didn't buy it. Would I ever like to go back and re do that decision. But anyway, . . . I'm saying late 60's, . . . early 70's, . . . still in the prime. BTW, . . . you do know that since God told Noah that man's life would dwindle down to no more that 120, . . . that that makes 60 middle age. Just a little note there to help your day. May God bless, Dwight

Yessir, . . . good looking. What does the knife itself look like? I enjoy seeing those hand made knives, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Remove the rear (left side) clip, . . . take it to a grinder or sander, . . . remove all the metal you can up to about 1/8 of an inch below the rivet hole. That will make it tip forward a bit, . . . bring the butt end up out where it belongs. Then place it back in the holster, . . . shove it as far down as you can, . . . re-punch your hole, . . . it should make a good holster from what I can see here. Make your stitch lines tight to the frame of the gun, . . . you'll be doing two outlines, . . . down next to the weapon, . . . along the bottom, . . . then up the outside, . . . and across the top, . . . finish up at the bottom of the weapon for best looks, . . . double stitching about 4 or 5 stitches. The fact that you cannot stitch the very bottom is good, . . . it allows "stuff" to fall out the bottom and never plug up your barrel, . . . which produces a never forgotten moment. Honestly, I don't understand the trouble you are having with snaps, . . . the military has used plain old snaps for about a hundred years, . . . I've used em for many years, . . . just do not have a problem. Perhaps you are doing something wrong in the setting of the snap. If the male portion (bottom) is not secure, . . . fastened down tight, . . . they come unsnapped a bit easier, . . . but that's the best advice I know. Reverting to another type of snap is to ignore the bottom line problem you have now with snaps. May God bless, Dwight

Looks good, . . . but then again, . . . I'm partial, . . . always did like that design. May God bless, Dwight

My first two critiques, . . . the front stitch line, and the back stitch line. 1: Both are too far away from the piece, . . . wearing that as an OWB pancake, . . . it will open up and become loose pretty quickly. 2. Your back stitch line looks like it just wandered away from the weapon down at the muzzle end. Follow it around the trigger guard, . . . and stay close, . . . all the way down. You are also most likely boning your leather when it is really too wet. Boning needs to be done when the leather is almost dry, . . . otherwise it will "unbone" as yours has done. Personal preference: I hide the slots in Chicago screws, . . . let em see the pretty part, . . . not a screw slot. But, . . . in all honesty, . . . it is a heck of a lot better than my first couple of holsters. You're on the right track. . . . just polish the rails a bit, . . . you'll do OK. May God bless, Dwight

Bob, . . . thanks for the tip, . . . spent about an hour "perusing" their offerings, . . . got a couple of ideas, . . . sent the questionaire off to her soon to be mother in law, . . . needed some advice, . . . but I think we are on the track. Now to get a bottle of Aussie and dig out those special pieces I saved. Yessir, . . . I think we have a plan. May God bless, Dwight