Dwight

I started to get sarcastic, . . . say if the leather was as old as you and me, . . . ain't no wonder it wrinkled, . . . but you know I wouldn't do anything like that. But seriously, . . . I've had a couple of bouts with the wrinkle monster, . . . wish I had a definitive answer. I do know it seems to happen more with thicker leather than thinner. AND, . . . the one place I have whooped him, . . . is in the front inside of my lined holsters, . . . I do the John Bianchi skive on the inside piece, . . . takes them thar wrankles right out of the holster front. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Joe, . . . I did a bag for a lady to carry her books in at the university, . . . not thinking, I "Resolened" it, . . . man was it stiff, . . . beautiful, . . . but stiff. If she had a small book in the bottom of it, . . . would have made a dandy weapon. I'll have to give the Aussie a shot, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I'm a chap, chink, holster, belt, and knife sheath guy. These I can do. I have a very special lady getting married later this month, . . . and I want to make her a purse, . . . one she will treasure, . . . and I can do the whole thing except that super elegant finish. Most of my stuff gets Resolene, . . . Beeswax/NFO, . . . or Bag Kote. Her purse will be tooled, . . . not much but some, . . . shoulder strap, . . . either a largish clutch purse or small revival bag, . . . and probably out of nothing heavier than 8 oz. What will give her a soft feel, . . . warm touch, . . . and yet protect her bag? Thanks, guys, . . . this is a "once in a lifetime" shot for me to say "welcome to the family" to a very special young lady, . . . marrying a very special young man who happens to be my cousin. It needs to be right, . . . so I need your advice. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

It was really easy, Keith, . . . it's a concho, . . . not sure where I picked it up, . . . had two of them in my "other things" drawer, . . . dug it out, . . . took a look, . . . liked it, . . . used it. I'm thinking I bought it for a project that fell through, . . . but anyway, . . . it's just a pretty brass concho. May God bless, Dwight

USMC black is a great dye, . . . goes deeper than the pro oil or any of the H2O stuff I've used, . . . but it leaves a pigment trail that a blind man could follow at midnight in a coal mine. I used to use it, . . . got sick and tired (arms got tired too) of all the buffing to remove the extra pigment, . . . moved to pro oil, . . . haven't looked back. May God bless, Dwight

At this point, . . . your best bet is to grab a couple of towels your wife won't miss, . . . lay the project down and rub it like you are trying to rub the black off that pretty brown leather. It will take some elbow grease, . . . but it will be worth it when you are done. THEN, . . . find a large wash cloth (again something she won't miss), . . . wet this one, . . . have at it again. Don't quit until you no longer get any black coming off the bag. Then put a coat of 50/50 Resolene & water on the project, . . . and a second coat on anything that will touch the owner's saddle. Next time, . . . use something like Feibings professional black oil dye, . . . but stay away from USMC black, . . . and cut the dye 50/50 with Feibings thinner. May God bless, Dwight

I have a box full of leather pieces, . . . and among them are the "lesson pieces" that were salvaged from the project that in a different frame of mind would have gotten hung up on my rifle range and used for target practice. Throwing them in the box, . . . allows me to salvage any good leather that may be there, . . . and also reminds me of my humanity, . . . something that every now and then we all tend to forget, . . . But like Electrathon alluded to, . . . there are times when you realize that this is NOT ever going to be a properly finished product, . . . so it just becomes a lesson piece. May God bless, Dwight

There are a couple of cowboy chap videos out there (haven't seen them in a long timel . . . but I have viewed them), . . . that use an old pair of YOUR jeans as the pattern for YOUR chaps. Having had MC chaps in the past, . . . I would not doubt that it would work for MC chaps too. You just may have to do a bit of doctoring. One mistake some folks make with chaps, . . . put your zippers on upside down, . . . so you close the zipper from the top, . . . not from the bottom. Make your trial set out of a pair of jeans from a second hand store that is one size too big for you, . . . I think you'll like the fit, . . . I also make some of my chap "trials" out of heavy vinyl (about $20 USD per yard at JoAnn fabric, . . . it's $12 USD with a 40% off coupon, . . . and one yard will make a set of MC chaps for a petite woman. You then transfer the vinyl pattern to leather, . . . VOILA, . . . you are done. May God bless, Dwight

If you haven't already, . . . you might try dunking it, . . . in water, . . . it doesn't look veggie tanned, . . . but that will be the test that will tell. Personally, I would be tempted to get a veg tan belt strip, . . . lace it all around the top up there, . . . soak it down with hot water and set it in the sun, . . . if you bend it where you want it, . . . it will help, . . . will not cure, . . . If you REALLY want it to hold that square shape, . . . lace on the strip, . . . but put a piece of 18 gauge aluminum between the layers, . . . bend the aluminum, . . . it will work. But remember in the end, . . . leather doesn't really lend itself to bags like that, . . . think "saddlebags", . . . they always have a clasp, and a top to pull them together. May God bless, Dwight

I just fold my outside over, . . . Chicago Screw it together, . . . no problems. (I apologize that one layer is thicker than the other, . . . not intended, . . . just a cranky drawing program today, . . . almost all my belts are either the same thickness, or the inside is 1 or 2 oz thinner) May God bless, Dwight

Eh, . . . Camano, . . . thassa gooda worka you do, Bambino, . . . mebbe you comuh uppa to Shytown, . . . we getta you somma work, . . . mebbe somma inna de Bronx too. Da boss, . . . he lika whata you do. May God bless, Dwight

If you are using a sail needle (round handle with spool in the middle, needle out front), . . . you are not allowing any slack in your thread. To use one of them and not get dye, dirt, gunk, trash all over your pretty white thread, . . . the piece pushed through should be at least a foot longer than the whole final piece. Once you push it through, . . . make the stitch, . . . then pull out the slack. Yeah, . . . I know, . . . wastes thread, . . . but it WILL keep your thread from getting all gunky. That also works if you are saddle stitching, . . . sometimes folks will needle up real close to where they are sewing, . . . and that will get your thread dirty. Put your needles out on a piece of thread you are going to cut off and add to the trash barrel. And you don't want to know how long it took me to learn those UGH ! May God bless, Dwight

Another trick, . . . use an inside mold, . . . I do that with my holsters, mag pouches, and lots of other "stuff". The marks are on the inside, . . . for a fold like you have in the front or back, . . . I simply hold it in my hands (with inside mold in place) and hold it down as I roll from back to bottom then from bottom to front. It makes the sharp bend I want, . . . I do it on a perfectly smooth counter, . . . there are no marks, . . . and I would just leave the piece inside and lay it flat on it's back for an hour or so, . . . then gently remove the inside mold and allow it to finish air drying. May God bless, Dwight

Personally, . . . I'd go with another 6 oz, . . . which only makes a 12 oz belt overall, . . . which for concealed carry is just on the lower edge of my belts. Most of my bets are made of an 8 and a 7, . . . or thereabouts. May God bless, Dwight

Aart, . . . Here's one simple pattern, . . . index finger into left hole, . . . middle finger into center hole, . . . ring finger into right hole. The arrow is held between the index and middle finger, . . . that is why the slot. Make it out of suede or veg tan, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Plain, . . . common, . . . generic, . . . rope from the hardware store is my choice. Don't make many, . . . but it's what I use when I do. Buy the white nylon stuff, . . . hemp can have chemicals in it that may affect your dyeing process or leach out when it gets wet. May God bless, Dwight

Me too, . . . but if it turns out like it should, . . . sure beats trying to color them with a sharpie marker. Here are two belts I made today, . . . one is saddle tan, . . . the other is sunburst. Both dip dyed in a 9 x 14 pan in about 3/4 of an inch of dye (about a pint and a half). Both dyes were 50/50 mix of dye and thinner. Somehow, . . . one of us is doing something the other one is not doing, . . . But even though I don't like the process, . . . I like the product. May God bless, Dwight

I couldn't have said it better, . . . so here it is a second time: what ^ ^ ^ ^ he said ^ ^ ^ ^ May God bless, Dwight

Blackey, . . . I too used to do a lot of drawing, . . . as a maintenance planner / scheduler for a 45 man mechanical / electrical maintenance shop in a UAW factory. I used both a $29 drawing program, . . . and a light version of Auto Cad. BUT, . . . when I began trying to put those skills to use in the leather work, . . . quite honestly, . . . it was far more trouble than it was worth. What I do now is work up my patterns using legal size manila folders, . . . pencil, eraser, rule, . . . and one of the best friends anyone drawing ever had, . . . an Epson digital scanner. You can digitize anything you want in a heartbeat, . . . scan it, . . . save it, . . . send it, . . . pull it up and modify it, . . . and without the Auto Cad learning curve. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . I have to admit I've never had that kind of trouble, . . . the worst problem I ever had was doing a bunch of belts one time, . . . not thinking, . . . got in a hurry, . . . dipped em and hung em up by the buckle ends to dry. The next day they (except for one black one) were dry, . . . and the color ran from very light at the buckle end, . . . to very dark at the other end, . . . the dye had migrated. What I do when my brain is in gear, . . . lay the belt on the down side edge for about a half hour, . . . flip it and let it dry for the next 24 hours or so. All of them come out nice and uniform, clean looking, and the correct color (most of the time anyway). I also only use about 3/4 of a quart of dye, . . . isn't so messy that way. May God bless, Dwight

In three words or less: just do it. Unless you have some kind of kinkydoodle pig skin, . . . you should have no problems. I used to use pig skin, . . . got away from it as I didn't like the way it took the dye compared to veggie tan. I don't do a lot of lined holsters, . . . but when I do, . . . they are all veggie tan now, . . . and you just get em wet, . . . pigskin or veggie tan, . . . mold em, . . . and let em air dry, . . . kinda plain and simple. May God bless, Dwight

Seriously, . . . I would have to write a book to tell you how I lay this out, . . . and I don't do very many of them either. BUT, . . . the whole secret is in the layout, . . . that particular belt has (the way I count it) 7 sections and the tongue. My template is a piece of manila folder, . . . cut out to the shape of the part circle, . . . and folded so it rides on the edge of the belt. I would outline the belt tongue area first, . . . then divide up the rest of the belt back to the buckle, . . . in this case, . . . by 7. Using my calculations and my specs, . . . the tongue area would be 9 inches from tip of belt back to the center of the first little diamond shape. If it was a true 40 inch belt I would be making, . . . that would leave 31 inches, . . . then minus 2 for the buckle, . . . it is 29 inches, . . . divided by 7, . . . is 4 inches, . . . (the extra 1 inch is hidden behind the belt tongue when it is buckled). I'd make my oval shaped piece that would span that 4 inches, . . . lay it along the bottom, . . . trace the bottom pieces, . . . turn it over, . . . trace the top pieces, . . . get a cup of coffee, . . . take a break, . . . then go to sewing. I really don't like doing these, . . . but will for a friend or a good customer. They are nerve wracking because one misplaced stitch and the whole thing goes into the scrap bin. But have fun with it if you like, . . . just remember that the layout is the key to it, . . . May God bless, Dwight

That is the very reason I use a hand setter and a mallet. I've always perceived that machine and others like it as a solution looking for a problem. May God bless, Dwight

All dog collars I do (which is not a lot) are finished with Resolene, . . . with special emphasis on the backs and edges. Have never had any problems with it, . . . I do "everything" else before the resolene, including slicking/burnishing the edges. That makes a hard edge that looks really good too. May God bless, Dwight