Dwight

I'm really not sure where you came up with this information, . . . but it is just totally incorrect, . . . period. The tongue end of the belt needs to be long enough to go out through the keeper with an extra 1 inch or so, . . . when the buckle is in the first hole. Spacing them the width of the belt is not only silly, . . . but totally defeats the purpose if you have a belt that is wider than 1 inch. And 5 holes or 7 holes is only a function of how the maker wants to do it, . . . there is no "standard formula", . . . at least not on the west side of the Atlantic. May God bless, Dwight

Yep, . . . looks really good from here. I'm curious though, . . . how you finished off the beads, . . . or, probably, . . . how you did it in the first place. I could do the loom part, . . . even copy the patterns, . . . but the attachment, . . . haven't figured that one out yet. Have you got the little guy helping you with the beading yet? May God bless, Dwight

I don't have the fancy one made yet, . . . when I do, . . . it will be square white vinyl tubing, white vinyl angle, . . . the square tubing being bolted to the back of the press, . . . the angle guides being adjusted in and out by 1/4 x 28 threads and springs. I figure when I get time to do it, . . . it'll be a couple hours work, . . . but it will be worth it. Presently, . . . I'd use the "C" clamp set up if I couldn't just eyeball it. I did a leash for a friend over Christmas, . . . name and 10 digit phone number, . . . did it on a 1 inch strap, . . . all by eyeball, . . . turned out AOK, . . . but I wouldn't do that with belts or something I had a lot of other time or material invested in it. Hope this helps. May God bless, Dwight

Looks good, Josh, . . . any old outlaw (or peace officer) would have been proud to wear that into Dodge City. One of these days, . . . I'm going to waste a bunch of leather, . . . time, . . . etc. and make a "somewhat" copy of Roy Rogers' double rig. That is, . . . unless I change my mind and do a Lone Ranger, . . . I always liked both. Whichever I do, . . . I hope it turns out as well as yours did. May God bless, Dwight

Show us a picture of the holster you now want to duplicate. Most likely, . . . it will be a simple process, . . . but I hate to start trying to give advice: if it is this one, do this, . . . if it is that one do that, . . . but if the other one, gotta do the other thing. The 1911 is one of the thinnest of the big bore auto's, . . . so to start with the pattern will have to be somewhat bigger, . . . but again, . . . pop up the pics and one of us can probably point you in the correct direction. May God bless, Dwight

Redhairing, . . . while I do not do a lot of hand stitching, . . . as often as not, . . . it is done without a clam or stitching pony. Yeah, . . . it's a little tougher to do, . . . but I get it done, . . . mostly putting it between my knees or laying it off the edge of my work desk. You follow the same procedure, . . . it just takes a bit longer. But, . . . in all honesty, . . if you have a machine available, . . . that would most likely be a lot quicker and easier. May God bless, Dwight

When you get the wheel gun in there, . . . loaded, . . . how is the balance? It looks like it would be a bit top heavy and try to ride out, . . . hope it don't. May God bless, Dwight

I cannot tell a lot from the pictures, . . . they're a bit dark, . . . but for the most part, . . . everything looks fairly nice for your first ones. The only two things that kinda "jumped out" would be the suicide strap on the black one, . . . when you make those, . . . leave a tongue below the snap, . . . something to lift it with beside a fingernail. That one looked like you cut it real close to the snap. On the brown one, . . . you were probably attempting to be "artistic" with the little bumb in the sewn edge below the trigger guard, . . . and down at the tip end of the barrel. Those little cuts like that do lend an artistic flair to some things, . . . but to holsters, they will usually just become a frayed and raggedy piece of fluff leather a dingle dangling off the edge of the holster. Strive for more flowing and even lines, . . . avoid square corners worse than you would avoid a female skunk on PMS. But, . . . you started out good. May God bless, Dwight

I have a compass, . . . RARELY ever use it, . . . simply because there are too many rolls of masking tape, plates, saucers, coffee can lids, coffee cups, drinking glasses, pill bottles, etc, . . . which are perfectly round, . . . AND, . . . I can lean on with my left hand while scribing with my right. It don't move, . . . I get a good scribe, . . . and we're off to the races. When I do use the compass, . . . it has to be done from the back side so the "point" doesn't mar the good piece. You may also want to be sure to have one that opens and closes with a turn screw, . . . not one of those sliders like kids use in school. It'll slide on you every time and frustrate you worse than a dull beak on a woodpecker's head. May God bless, Dwight

If you want to make an actual groove, removing leather, . . . a stitch groover is hard to beat. You can get one that is pretty much fixed, . . . or adjustable, . . . or freehand. The freehand one is a hoot, . . . works great, . . . just take your time using it. Google up Tandy, . . . put in the search word: groover. I've got all three, . . . they work well for me. The cheap one with the wooden handle, . . . is my "fixed" one as I cut off the excess of the arm, . . . locked it into position, . . . never have any problem with my stitch borders not being the same from item to item. If you do not want to remove leather, . . . but just make a line, . . . an old pair of dividers works wonders. Just take em to the sandpaper and dull em real good first, . . . or they will cut the leather. John Bianchi in an older set of videos, . . . used the dividers to lay out his stitches on a belt and holster he made for demo. May God bless, Dwight

I use the hammer handle instead of a dowel, . . . because it starts out pretty small, . . . and goes up to pretty big, . . . AND, . . . they come pre-finished so all you gotta do is cut off the part that would go into the hammer head, . . . sand down the very end nice & smooth, . . . you've got a tool. It then works for lots of different sizes of holsters. May God bless, Dwight

It looks like there might be a welt in the holster, . . . can't see for sure. But the scratches seem to be on the outside half of the holster away from the leg. That would indicate to me that the ejector rod is probably hanging up, . . . or scraping badly. In John Bianchi's holster making videos, . . . he shows opening up the barrel end of the holster with a hammer handle. Yessir, . . . it works. I got mine at a yard sale, . . . sanded it all down, . . . smoothed it out, . . . greatest tool in the world for SAA holsters. It will open up that bottom where the ejector rod is, . . . make it smooth and non-catching. I recommend that tool to anyone making SAA holsters. May God bless, Dwight

Not sure I understand, . . . can you post a pic? That would sure help, . . . several would be ideal. May God bless, Dwight

The only difference, . . . I will sew down one side first, . . . sight track side mostly, . . . then only wet the "front", . . . which gives most of my hosters a flatter if not flat back, . . . which to me is more comfortable (I'm a bony old rascal with not much padding ). On my "fold overs", . . . I just wet the front piece, . . . when it's all dry, . . . complete it. May God bless, Dwight

Actually that is the process I have always used, . . . it has never failed me yet. When it is dry, . . . I cement the pieces together, . . . re-test the fit, . . . sew, . . . and finish. But that is just one way to do it, . . . kinda like making soup, . . . all kinds of recipes. May God bless, Dwight

You can do it either way, . . . but if you remove it, . . . lay the plate steel across the legs, . . . you get a little wider base, . . . less chance of tipping the thing, . . . and you can drill the back of the plate, . . . screw it to the legs. That will let you build a moveable fence that you can use to align your stamps and make your stamping look a lot more professional. May God bless, Dwight

Mine go in the holster, . . . into the vac forming bag, . . . get formed, . . . removed from the bag, . . . checked for correctness, . . . and removed. Total time in the wet leather is no more than 4 or 5 minutes. I use the weapon itself if it is available, . . . blue guns when that won't work, . . . and wooden replicas when the back is up against the wall. They are all treated the same, . . . And thanks for the detailed post, Rednichols. May God bless, Dwight

The very best thing for you to do, . . . go to a leather shop that sells the type satchel you want to reproduce. Find the one that has the right feel, . . . size, . . . weight, . . . in YOUR opinion. Take a dial caliper with you and measure the thickness. Then remember we are talking inches here not millymeteres. Convert the decimal fraction of the thickness into a fraction of 64ths, . . . 3/64ths, . . . 7/64ths, . . . etc. The number of 64ths is the oz weight of the leather. Then just go to the leather store near by, . . . tell em what you want to make, . . . let em show you what they have in that thickness. May God bless, Dwight

I have an arbor press that I also use for stamping letters, numbers, and designs. I took a piece of 1/2 inch plate steel, . . . placed it across the feet of my press, . . . and it is my bed for stamps, rivets, and when I get the right tool, . . . snaps. The only change I made, . . . I covered it with 2 inch wide masking tape to prevent any discoloration of the leather from the metal. Admittedly, . . . I don't do a lot with 3/4 leather, . . . but mine has come through for me in every case. As far as a "nice crisp stamp" goes, . . . the harder the plate under it, . . . the crisper the stamp, . . . but with 3/4 leather, . . . there is not enough thickness to get a really super looking stamp. AND, . . . forget the clamp idea, . . . bolt that thing down to your bench or whatever you want to use it on. Guaranteed, . . . if you don't, . . . it will move, . . . it will ruin a project, . . . and you WILL be unhappy. Temporary bolts with wing nuts will work if you only want to use it for a while, . . . but you are creating a huge force when you get your hand out on the end of that handle, . . . pulled all the way out, . . . Another thing you will want to do: adjust the handle so it is most comfortable for you to use. Are you left handed? If so, . . . take the collar off the left side of the gear shaft, . . . slide the shaft out the right side, . . . put it back in on the other side, . . . it makes a left handed press. Also, . . . put on your plate, . . . then block up the ram with a piece of wood simulating the length of your stamps, . . . and adjust the arm to be where it is most comfortable for you. I have mine just below horizontal, . . . it allows me to slip the handle onto my shoulder, . . . so I can reposition with both hands if I need to, . . . my shoulder holding the ram just up off the stamp. You adjust it by lowering it onto the block, . . . slide the gear arm out, . . . then slip it back in wherever it most comfortable for you. May God bless, Dwight

Pounder, . . . don't ever allow yourself the luxury of thinking that we are now 2014, . . . so much smarter,. . . better tools, . . . better equipment, . . . and roll that over into thinking that the craftsmen of 100+ years ago were any less craftsmen than we are. If any thing, . . . it has gone down hill. If you wound up in Quack Quack City, Colorado, . . . needing a gun rig, . . . your options were a catalog order that may take several weeks if not months, . . . ride over to another city, . . . or let the local guy do his thing for you. He didn't need to be in a hurry, . . . and he generally had "his own" style to a certain extent, . . . and if you hit the museums, . . . all of us can only hope that some day a piece of our craft my lay near some of those. Use the general idea of the period, . . . but make it "your" way, . . . that is exactly what the old timers did, . . . you will be following in their footsteps boot tracks. Make em proud, . . . by being like them, . . . not copying them. Copy their character, . . . dedication, . . . resourcefulness. As an aside, . . . one of the greatest compliments I ever received, . . . the person didn't know that I'm basically cheap, . . . make my own tools as often as not, . . . especially for a special need. That person related, laughingly, a little factoid about my grandfather, Will Webb, . . . stating that he was never very long waiting for a tool or a wrench. If a wagon came into his blackmith shop with a bolt or nut for which he didn't have a wrench, . . . 1/2 hour to 45 minutes later, . . . after a little forging, cutting, and anvil work, . . . he had the wrench. I think I grew about 3 inches that day, . . . knowing that I had "unknowingly" stepped into a pair of boots that have long been special to me. Good luck, . . . happy pounding. May God bless, Dwight

I think what is says is simple: it is THE bottom end of the price structure for a sewing machine that will sew through 3/4 of an inch of leather. Many folks by them as a starting machine, . . . then choose to graduate to a different machine, . . . especially if what they are doing requires a lot of stitching. When I began my search for a machine, . . . I already had a slight familiarization with the Boss as a local leather store sold them. Therefore, . . . when I saw one of the full time craftsmen of a major holster mfg. here in the US, . . . standing beside his in an advertisement promotion, . . . I immediately recognized the machine. Later as I began to finalize the decision, . . . I guess I figured if my business got so good using a Boss, . . . some day I would be like them, . . . and have a 1 year waiting list for my product. Sometimes volume is better used to describe the output of a radio than a craftsman's shop. And, . . . if volume goes up in a production facility, . . . about 99.95% of the time, . . . quality goes down. May God bless, Dwight

Actually, . . . I never oil before dying, . . . and I only oil after, if I'm convinced that the leather is dry. It will take a looooooooong time for the oil in the leather to dry out, . . . BUT, . . . it is real easy to get too much oil on the project to start with. Most of my products rely on the inherent stiffness of the veggie tan created by wet molding, . . . even the slightest too much oil can ruin that effect. My lifetime rule is we will all err, . . . but it pays to know which side on which to err, . . . in this case, . . . too little oil will come about far less times by not oiling, . . . than too much oil will come about by oiling. Just my thoughts, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Are you using the leather to practice tattooing like for people? May God bless, Dwight

Barlaam, . . . I make pouches to carry M14 magazines in, . . . from 8 oz leather. I do two different models, . . . riveted and sewn. They both are each cut from one piece of leather, . . . wet formed, . . . contact cemented together, . . . and riveted or sewn. Picture shows both procedures, . . . and my machine is a Tippmann Boss. May God bless, Dwight

Anything you can put in an air brush that doesn't have a compressor, . . . . ^ ^ ^ AND, . . . you knew someone was going to say that, . . . I just got there first. Seriously, . . . the nearest thing that will work is Resolene. It has a UV blocker, . . . that keeps sunlight from darkening the leather really bad, really quick. Unfortunately, . . . if it is veggie tan, . . . one of the properties of the product, . . . leave it out in light, . . . it will turn darker. Resolene will slow down the process, . . . but it won't stop it. And it does, itself, turn the leather just a tad darker, . . . but it is kind of a "pink" darker. I've done a few things with it like that, . . . but nothing of a great sort. Honestly, . . . I like it a bit darker. What are you trying to achieve? May God bless, Dwight