Dwight

If you are burning your ends, . . . just be sure to check it when you are done. Just every now and then, . . . it'll form a little hard ball of nastiness that actually can cut you, . . . or if on the backside, . . . it can snag a shirt, britches, vest, etc, . . . and make the owner very unhappy. When I burn em, . . . I always rub em good with my thumb to make sure I didn't create one of these little monsters. May God bless, Dwight

If I were a gambler, . . . I'd bet that the problem lays in one of two areas: your table is bouncing, . . . or you do not have a proper surface under your leather for tooling. I don't do a lot of tooling or stamping, . . . but when I do, . . . my big hunk of fake marble comes out, . . . onto the bench, . . . and a toolin' we will go. But even a good piece of marble or something similar, . . . can be somewhat negated if the table is a bouncy one. Check those out, . . . and proper casing when it actually looks like it is almost dry again, . . . will give you the best impressions, . . . for sure. May God bless, Dwight

Unless the customer had specified he/she wants it differently, . . . my belts are all two layer, . . . glued and sewn together to make one very stout belt on which can be carried just about any combination of gun, ammo, flashlight, cell phone, etc, . . . a non LEO would normally carry. I cement the two pieces together, . . . sand and bevel the edges, . . . punch all the holes, . . . and give the edges an initial burnishing. If the stitches are to be white, I do not sew it, . . . I dye it first. If the stitches are to match the belt, . . . I sew it first. I then dip dye the entire belt, . . . lay it on edge to dry for a few minutes, . . . turn it to the other edge, . . . and about a half hour later, . . . hang it from the buckle end to finish drying. I then apply the final coat finish, . . . 50/50 Resolene, . . . let it dry, . . . do a final burnishing pass from end to end, . . . finish the assembly, . . . pack and ship. Properly applied, . . . Resolene will not allow your dye to bleed, . . . and I have been so enamored with it, . . . I don't mess with any other product other than Bag-Kote, . . . which I seldom use. My belts are more a simple utility belt, . . . but from 24 inches or more away, . . . they look like a dress belt. Like Chief, . . . I'm not thrilled at all with the edge coat products, . . . my experience is they flake off and then there is a jagged edge of hard finish, . . . and it looks ugly. Gum trag sits in a bottle on a shelf, . . . I very seldom use it for anything, . . . because any place it touches, . . . cannot be dyed. It is a 100% blocker, . . . and I just will not take the chance of ruining a belt or holster I have several hours and other material costs in, . . . just so I can use Gum trag. Simple water burnishing will look every bit as good as any Gum trag job, . . . once you take the time to learn how to do it. But as Cheif said, . . . this is just one way, . . . others do different things, . . . that's what makes life interesting. May God bless, Dwight

What little experience I have with them, . . . paint will cover dye, . . . block it out, . . . dye will NOT cover paint. What I usually do is dye the whole thing whatever color the background will need to be, . . . then paint in the other parts. May God bless, Dwight

I think the warranty ran out on Camano Ridge, . . . but what the heck, . . . we'll keep him anyway May God bless, Dwight

Since I dip dye all my holsters, . . . unless it is adamantly requested otherwise, . . . they are dyed through and through. Esthetics and beauty being in the eye of the beholder, . . . a dyed holster will look better longer inside than an undyed one, . . . IMHO. May God bless, Dwight

And I like the plain one. Like Bob said, it's all a matter of taste. May God bless, Dwight

That's some good work, Josh, . . . Do you suppose word will get around and your next job will be a full Sheridan floral for a set of saddlebags on a Harley? May God bless, Dwight

When in doubt about paint or dye, . . . always dye first. If that is not what you wanted, . . . you can always go back and paint over it. You cannot dye over paint. May God bless, Dwight

I finally (several years ago) said to the devil with knives, rotary cutters, head knives, axes, saws, . . . or anything else you can trim leather with to make it look right. I bought a 1 inch electric belt sander, . . . it uses a 1 x 30 inch belt, . . . makes more racket than teenagers tapdancing on a metal roof, . . . but the edges come out clean, . . . straight, . . . level, . . . and ready for beveling and burnishing. It is especially useful if there is more than one layer, . . . belt, holster, pouch, sheath, etc. I wore out the first one, . . . bought another one, . . . now I have a rotary, reciprocating drum sander that also works magic, wonders, miracles, . . . woo-hoo, . . . who needs knives? May God bless, Dwight

Not trying to be nosey, . . . but just for instance, . . . what does a piece like that go for in the UK? Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

For me, . . . it would force me to hand sew a large portion of it as my machine would not easily handle that stitching chore. What I would probably do is mark it and use my sewing machine to make the holes in the outside layer, . . . glue it together and hand stitch it. I actually like that look, the way they did it, . . . and it is a means to discourage copycats, . . . lots of folks would say to heck with it, . . . to complicated. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . one of my "suits" I wear is Mr. Cheapskate, . . . always lookin for a bargain. My dye expenses sometimes make me want to say ouch, . . . and for a while there, I was doing more black than ever before, . . . which got me to looking at the roon. But besides cheap, . . . I'm also practical, . . . and I know that nothing in the dye will hurt my leather goods, . . . probably just stay with the dye process, . . . it works, no fuss, . . . and I really do hate to break in a new process. I'd be spinning too many wheels in the next little while just making sure my roon process was right, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I have one of those cheap stitch groovers from Tandy http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/en-usd/search/searchresults/8074-00.aspx that I use on all my outside stitches for wallets, belts, suspenders, holsters, . . . virtually everything. It is set at a good, full 3/16th of an inch, . . . and I took a little hand grinder and cut off the excess sticking out the side, . . . that way I will always have a perfect reference to where it should be. There is a little brass screw in the end to facilitate adjustment, . . . I just boogered it down tight. Take a look on my website, . . . you can see how it looks on the front side, . . . and I've never had any issues with the stitches pulling out sideways or anything. I think John Bianchi may have mentioned that spacing in his video, . . . I got it from somewhere, . . . have used it for a number of years, . . . works for me. May God bless, Dwight

For a while, . . . I would take pieces of the exact same leather I was getting ready to sew, . . . and would finagle with the settings until I got it just "right". Problem was, . . . sometimes even then it would have bad areas on the underneath side. I finally went back and reviewed my John Bianchi notes, . . . he promoted using a stitch tool to flatten the stitches, . . . his was a bunch more fancy than mine, . . . but you can betcha mine works. After I get done sewing, . . . I'll just dampen that area, . . . go over the stitches with my home made tool, . . . they improve immensely. BUT, . . . having said all that, . . . don't ever think that the Boss will give you stitches equal looking to a top notch hand stitching job, . . . ain't gonna happen. And as a suggestion, . . . come in a little further on your belt, . . . you were really close to the edge there, . . . and that will make them also look bad. May God bless, Dwight

Looks right purty to me, . . . but then again, . . . I don't do that, . . . hardly at all, . . . and it never comes out that nice. Good job, . . . keep it up. May God bless, Dwight PS: You need to burnish the edges,..................lol

Well, . . . some good came of it. I've been really considering the idea of setting up a vinegaroon rig, . . . Guess who ain't gonna do that now!!! I knew it needed neutralized, . . . but I didn't know enough about it to know it could cause that kind of problem. Look out oil dye, . . . here I come, . . . again ! May God bless, Dwight

I full well understand and agree with what you said. It is a whole lot easier, etc, . . . to let someone else do it. For the last 15 or so years before I retired, I worked as a program administrator for a major paint company, . . . managing their 45 man maintenance department work order system. That included ordering parts, maintaining inventory, daily work orders and a host of other "items". What I did was simply not try to anticipate every need, . . . but address each need as it surfaced. When something came up that I needed to have an answer for, I would put it in the schedule, . . . then add it to the program, . . . which I found was for me, easier than trying to follow directions from someone else's program. Right now, . . . I'm using 2 computers and an external HD for backup etc, . . . but I'm looking for another desktop, . . . and when I get it, . . . I'm going to use it for a server, . . . with something like Dropbox as my cloud backup. One thing you may also look at if you have an Ipad, . . . Easy Books, . . . is an app you might want to look at. I think it could be useful, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Dan, . . . when using Resolene, . . . the very first thing you need to do is dilute it with water. Do it on a 1 to 1 basis, . . . 10 oz of Resolene, . . . 10 oz of water, . . . stir briskly for about 30 seconds, . . . you are then ready. I actually keep mine in a Skippy Peanut butter jar after I've mixed it. I have sprayed it on with a little air brush I bought from Harbor Freight, . . . about $15, . . . works well, . . . but you MUST clean it thoroughly after spraying Resolene through it. I also use the cheap, . . . 1 inch wide, . . . bristle brush (looks like a little cheap paint brush, . . . which it is), . . . from Harbor freight. I start with applying a good wet coat, . . . wet enough that I can brush back and forth on the surface and begin to make a froth of the finish. At that point, quit adding material, . . . begin soft stroking the piece with the brush, . . . left, right, up, down, sideways, . . . until you have brushed out all the bubbles. At that point, . . . hang it up to dry. May God bless, Dwight

Add to what dirtclod said, . . . make yourself (or purchase one) a stiching pony, . . . Here's how to make one,..... http://www.wrtcleather.com/1-ckd/tutorials/_stitchpony.html Check out you tube for "how to saddle stitch", . . . and put that other thing you have in a drawer somewhere. May God bless, Dwight

Two layers of 2/3 or 3/4 will be good, . . . as long as it is a purse. Some "ladies" I know carry things like .45's in their purses, . . . that would be a bit thin, . . . the image would show. But I've made a clutch purse out of 6/7 (one layer in each part) and it was good. My wife has a beautiful shoulder bag I bought her 30+ years ago, . . . 10 oz. My best advice, . . . because each of us judge things differently, . . . make the purse of what you have. Then you can honestly say, . . . by your standards, . . . it is too soft, . . . too hard, . . . too flimsy, . . . too rigid, . . . by YOUR standards. I'm designing a billfold that will be made of several single layers of 3 oz, . . . and at 69 years of age, . . . I'm assuming my son will take it out of my pocket when he comes to claim the body. May God bless, Dwight

In my shop, . . . "almost" all my leather is hanging, . . . and one day soon, . . . ALL of it will be. Hanging it will often times remove many wrinkles, . . . but more important, . . . it prevents future wrinkles. I built a special 4 foot x 8 foot x 1 foot thick "vault" that I need to finish the hangers in. When it is done, . . . all my leather will hang straight in it, . . . sorted by thickness and type. I hit on the idea some time back, . . . hanging them from the inside of a closet door, . . . but I'm getting "pushed out" of the closet and into the shop, . . . and that will be my solution to anything longer than 24 inches and wider than 6 inches. The smaller ones go into a couple of 30 inch drawers I have in a cabinet. May God bless, Dwight

Personally, . . . I use MS Access and Excel, . . . works for me for everything I need, . . . and I don't have to second guess what some IT engineer wanted this button to do when he designed it and put in on page 743, paragraph 3 of volume 2 of the instruction manual. If I want info at a show, . . . on vacation, . . . at the bank, . . . it can be in my cloud as well, . . . and probably as easily accessed. I say probably because I am not familiar with Xero, . . . but I am with Access and Excel. If you can do simple math, . . . algebra especially, . . . take a course with the two programs, . . . build YOUR program, . . . you may be very wonderfully surprized how wonderful it is to have a program that YOU fully understand because YOU made it. May God bless, Dwight

Mine go together with 3 staples, . . . I have a jig that marks the holes, . . . I punch them with an awl, . . . insert the staples, . . . bend em over with a pair of pliers, . . . then finish the belt almost every time with Resolene that seals the staples. I sewed them for a while, . . . this works better IMHO. I also block and form them so that the outside edges keep it from rolling unless the wearer gets dragged by a horse or something similar. May God bless, Dwight

We as holster makers and belt makers do this all the time. My belts are two pieces of leather, . . . bonded together with Weldwood Contact Cement, . . . then sewn along the edges, . . . and many holsters I make are done the same way. You apply a thin coat to both flesh sides, . . . allow it to dry to the point you can touch it and it does not feel the least bit sticky. Lay one on top of the other, . . . roll it with a rolling pin or something of the sort. It bonds the two pieces together to the point that it is like one piece of leather that has a "good side" on both sides. It is also stiffer than an equal thickness of leather that is only one layer. May God bless, Dwight