Dwight

I've done this both ways, . . . see drawing below. May God bless, Dwight

In two words, . . . "you're not". The shiny finish is the hair side of the animal skin, . . . devoid of hair of course, . . . and is just like your skin, . . . your forehead when you look in the mirror. The tanning processes developed down through the years have worked to emphasize and bring out the natural luster of the leather, . . . and quite frankly, the effect you are asking for would have to destroy or seriously alter the top layer of the leather, . . . seriously weakening and changing the material. If you do not want shine, . . . use suede leather. May God bless, Dwight

I have a 50 foot front porch, . . . and occasionally have a special dye job needing special color on the thread. I tie a piece the length of the porch (or as needed), . . . using latex gloves, . . . I saturate a paper towel with the appropriate dye, . . . and simply walk down the thread, . . . squeezing the thread inside the saturated paper towel. I usually also go back the other way, . . . giving it a second coat. A few hours later, . . . it's dry, . . . and I've never had any serious problems with that thread, . . . but I don't use linen, . . . so I cannot speak for the material. But I would think it would be worth a try. And besides that, . . . vinegaroon works mainly because of a chemical reaction between it and the leather, . . . one which probably does not occur with the linen. May God bless, Dwight

Sewing across a strap or belt, . . . literally perforates it like a tear off piece of a sporting ticket. And, . . . unfortunately, . . . it can have the same result: the perforation becomes the weakest piece of the belt or strap, . . . and after a little time, . . . some wear, . . . and a full load placed upon it, . . . that is the place where it will tear just like a ticket stub. Tomt is straight on in his remarks, . . . but other than that, they look good. May God bless, Dwight

First off, . . . I cannot take personal credit for this really neat idea. Some time ago, . . . and at a suggestion of another , . . . I made a rig for cutting fringe, . . . and does it ever work well. I've done 2 pairs of mens chaps, one pair of girl's chaps, and one pair of ladies' chinks, . . . and am thoroughly sold that for me at least, . . . this is the way. It is piece of plexiglass with several lines made by scribe or scratch with a sharp pointed something or another. I would use the gusset piece at the knife edge, . . . leaving it long enough to fringe, . . . having it overlapped on both sides by the front/back piece, . . . but that is just my way of doing things. I have also used the front, . . . fringed it, . . . especially for a "native American" look. May God bless, Dwight

Actually, the answer I would have to give you is "NO", . . . simply because I use either some brisk rubbing or a heat gun on low setting when I apply the wax (especially for touch ups later on), . . . and the heat or friction just "makes' it work. The fact that it is totally repairable at some later date, . . . for some reasonable need, . . . was what drew me to it in the first place. May God bless, Dwight

I will not make a belt for anyone based upon the size of his/her pants. I almost did that once, . . . guy wore 36 Wranglers. Just for kicks and giggles, . . . we measured his belt he was wearing. I made him a 39 or 40 belt, . . . the Wranglers had "grown" as he did. I just won't invest the time and effort until I have told the customer in absolute unmitigated terms, . . . "we gotta know" the size. If they lie to me or are too lazy to check for sure, . . . then the "problem" with it belongs to them if it don't fit. But I don't make them off the Levis or Wrangler waist sizes. May God bless, Dwight

BDAZ, . . . that is the same size as my new work table. I couldn't put shelves under it, . . . because at both ends and one side, . . . I sit down and slide my poor old tired legs under it. Not being critical, . . . but I also cannot use your arrangement as I have a ton of sunlight pouring in my south window and door. The leather would be right in the sunlight in my shop. BUT, . . . FYI, . . . if you have a JoAnn fabric place near you, . . . they have a white poly-something plastic cutting template that is all laid out in 1 inch squares, . . . 36 X 60. The actual piece is a couple inches bigger each way for a border, . . . but if you ever do things needing some kind of quick measuring, . . . it is great. Plus it is made to be used with rotary cutters, . . . and works fine with a razor knife too. You can go on line get a 40 or 50% off coupon, . . . makes the thing about 25 bucks or so, . . . I cannot buy a better work top for that kind of money. I cleaned up the plywood I had for the top, . . . laid down several strips and a border of 2 inch double sided carpet tape, . . . woo-hoo, . . . works like a champ. May God bless, Dwight

Take a look at this thread: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=53478&hl=vault#entry342100 Here is the final product, . . . and I love the way it works. Only takes up a small amount of floor space, . . . I could probably hang 200 sq feet of leather in it. May God bless, Dwight

If you make it right, . . . it comes out looking and feeling a lot like Kiwi shoe polish, . . . just a tad harder. Use it just like you would the shoe polish. I start with pouring the mixture into muffin papers in a muffin tin, . . . makes little cakes of the stuff. I rub a cake on the project, . . . "lightly" hit it with low setting on a heat gun, . . . oil sinks in / wax flattens out, . . . play with it a while, . . . you'll get the hang of it. You can also up the ante with a tad more nfo, . . . I lucked out once on a batch, . . . it was softer and easier to use, . . . but would melt if it got very warm. I keep bees too, . . . but mine haven't done anything for the last couple of years, . . . hoping it changes this year, . . . I love honey, . . . and it is just too expensive to buy all I want. May God bless, Dwight

I just finished a clamshell for a friend, . . . it needed two pieces of metal reinforcement. I used 16 ga aluminum, . . . band saw cut to shape, . . . contact cemented in place, . . . works fine. If you need something that will be covered completely, . . . I have made some out of the 3/32 or so white plastic that is used for post sleeves. I think it is PVC, though it may be a different plastic. One thing for sure, . . . if you rough it up a bit on a sander, . . . it takes to contact cement like a duck does to water. Just remember that if you want to bend it, . . . bend it before you put it in the leather, . . . metal you can bend later, . . . the PVC has to be done first. But boy does it work well when you do it that way !!! May God bless, Dwight

You very well describe my cell phone case, . . . 50/50 beeswax and nfo, . . . boiled together in a crock pot (actually in a jar in a crock pot of water). Rigid, . . . kinda shiney, . . . yet soft feeling. It's actually my favorite finish, . . . May God bless, Dwight

If you can imagine the scene where the bad guy and the sheriff face off in the middle of Main Street, . . . The bad guy wears a regular belt, . . . the sheriff wears a curved one. When a dust devil stirs up, . . . they both begin coughing, . . . but the sheriff's gun belt stays up, . . . the bad guy's is now down around his ankles. If you didn't laugh, . . . you should have, . . . because that is the type scenario the curved belt is supposed to prevent. Most of us who live long enough to grow old either wind up with way too much derrier, . . . or as in my case, . . . it went away. I keep mine cinched up pretty tight to keep it on, . . . and the curve does really help. May God bless, Dwight

I work with leather between 3/4 and what would amount to 48 oz (3/4 of an inch) thick. My Harbor Freight belt sander and my Menards oscillating drum sander are my chosen sanding tools. I have on occasion made both pieces bigger, . . . deliberately, . . . so when they were glued together, I could trim the excess with a knife, . . . but only on some special pieces do I do that. I prefer the belt sander. Air brushing the dye does a "pretty" job, . . . but the dye is only on the surface. Any real good scratch and you are down to bare leather. I prefer to dip dye, . . . will only airbrush for special effects. May God bless, Dwight

My Tippmann Boss never squeaks at Kydex, . . . unless it is a whole bunch thicker than this stuff. Treats it like leather and just goes on through. I've actually sewn leather in excess of 1/2 inch thick with it. May God bless, Dwgiht

The part that aggravates me the most is cutting out the pieces. The rest is kinda, sorta, almost maybe fun, . . . but cutting out the pieces (along with determining which old dead cow to cut up) is the one part that aggravates my gizzard. I don't do enough of the same identical thing to warrant a clicker cutter, . . . mostly custom stuff, . . . so it is cut, whack, chop till ya get a piece of it to work with. I also generally follow: cut out, . . . glue together, . . . sand edges, . . . bevel the edges, . . . stitch gouge, . . . sew, . . . burnish edges, . . . mold, . . . dye, . . . re-burnish edges, . . . finish, . . . add bling as needed. Sometimes sewing goes after dye, . . . if customer wants white stitches. May God bless, Dwight

That is some pretty good looking work, . . . and I don't mean to rain on the parade, . . . but: There is another "lobo" who has been around for a bunch of years, . . . www.lobogunleather.com Might be bad to get confused with each other. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . first report is in, . . . he liked some of it, . . . some of it needed work. I had to go back and chop the ears off it above the clips, . . . and put a sweat shield on it. Thought of ripping it apart and re-doing the whole thing, . . . knew I'd never hit the same holes in the kydex, . . . so I just, . . . uhhh, . . . modified it. It's a prototype anyway, . . . having fun, . . . thanks to you. Thanks again, . . . and I probably mentioned it before, . . . but if I didn't, . . . you do beautiful work. May God bless, Dwight

I will not be a critic, . . . course then again, . . . could not find anything to be critical of. Great job, . . . and as a fellow vet, . . . thank you, . . . thank you very much. Words are not able to convey the appreciation. May God bless, Dwight

And here is how I have mine set up, . . . it causes me less problems. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . I was out in the shop earlier this morning, . . . just happened to have my camera, . . . so here is what I use. # 1 is the whole thing laid out on the floor # 2 is the tongue end, . . . with the place where I pop the hole for either a Chicago screw or concho, . . . # 3 is where the two pieces come together, . . . this time it is set for a 40 inch waist. Again, it will make a 44 inch belt, . . . but that is adding the necessare "extra" so the gunbelt fits over the hips like it is supposed to. # 4 is the buckle end, . . . showing where I pop the holes for the buckle retainer # 5 is the templates I use for the tongue or buckle end. These are standard ones from which the customer can choose, . . . if he wants something different, . . . takes more time, . . . costs more $$$. Anyway, . . . that's how I do it, . . . set the belt pattern, . . . mark it, . . . cut the front, . . . mark and cut the back, . . . punch the holes, . . . and go for it. This is a direct product of John Bianchi's VHS series of tapes on how to make a Western gunbelt. May God bless, Dwight

Awww, . . . c'mon oltoot, . . . gotta have some good reason to come back in the house. I mean, hey, . . . those cookies will go stale, . . . the mice will get the swiss cheese, . . . and that left over bag of Hershey kisses from Easter will just get gobbled up by the crumb crunchers, . . . if I don't have a reason to go back in and check on them. May God bless, Dwight

I agree with all Wizcrafts said except for this one statement. Back after I got mine, . . . I posted a query on this forum, . . . and I really wish I could remember who it was that answered it. We sat and talked on the phone for about an hour one Sunday afternoon, . . . and the very first thing he brought up was how the thread was feeding off the spool. i told him, . . . factory specs, . . . and he indicated that was the very first thing I needed to change. I bent my thread arm down so the eye was parallel to the middle of the spool, . . . added a ring to the eye that had no edges on it, . . . and I pull the thread through it first, . . . It makes the spool turn around on the post, . . . like the spool in a regular sewing machine, . . . The thread will either wind tighter, . . . or unwind (depending on the direction of twist) if you leave it as per factory specs. It only makes a difference on a long run like the outside of a purse or a belt, . . . but it can and will make a difference. May God bless, Dwight

I have occasionally seen the same thing, . . . VERY occasionally, . . . and not lately. Generally, . . . I have chalked it up to a harder / softer piece of leather in the affected areas, . . . and it seems to be the answer, . . . though I would not bet the world series on that answer. Try tightening up the top tension a good solid 2/3 of a turn, . . . then adjust the bobbin accordingly. Also, . . . make sure the needle you are using will slide freely down a piece of the thread you are sewing with. A needle with a smaller hole will give you fits too. I found shortly after getting mine a number of years ago, . . . the instructions point you in the general direction, . . . but you have to walk the course. Play with it. And, . . . go get a couple of 1/4 x 20 wing nuts, . . . and a couple of 1/4 inch lock washers. Use the wing nuts & lock washers to lock your top adjustments in place. I've had em move on me during a big holster or belt, . . . and it is some kind of aggravating. May God bless, Dwight

My new shop area is 12 by 22, . . . and I had outgrown it the day I turned the lights on in it. I just have to deal with it, . . . as I cannot afford to do any more. One thing the USNavy taught me, . . . storage (as much as possible, in plain sight) is the key to making the most out of limited space. Right now I have about a hundred bucks worth of shelving boards (#2 white pine) that have not gone up yet, . . . they will, . . . and it will then make things better. For sure, . . . insulate the thing, . . . especially the roof, . . . keeps the sun out in the summer, . . . the heat in during winter. Mine has a mininum of 2 inches of foam all the way around, . . . 6 inches in some places, . . . even the floor is insulated w/2 inches of foam. May God bless, Dwight