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

Looking at the knob, . . . you'll have to watch your speed with that thing. The bigger the tool rotating, . . . the faster the edge speed becomes, . . . one of those annoying laws of physics, you know. Also make sure you take some beeswax and break it in using some scrap leather, . . . work it till you get a smooth patina on the knob, . . . Looks like you hit a winner, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I only do dog collars when the customer supplies me with an old one that the dog wore and was the proper size. I measure the "most obviously used" hole in the old collar, . . . make the new one with 5 holes, . . . that measurement I did is for the center hole, . . . and I give them two holes on each side 1 inch apart. I'm not a dog person, . . . so I can't tell anyone how to measure a dog for a collar. But I also haven't had one come back yet. May God bless, Dwight

If you have anyone at all who is even half baked handy with tools they are very easy to make. You will need a 1/8th inch (3mm) drill bit (get a package of 5 or so) and a 1/2 inch or 13mm hardwood dowel. Put the drill bit in the Dremel, . . . put the dowel in a vice, . . . drill into the center of the dowel for about an inch. Fill the hole with epoxy or just good glue, . . . push the drill bit into it and let it dry. Cut the dowel off so you have a piece of wood about 2 inches (50 mm) long, . . . put it into the Dremel, . . . and with files and sandpaper, . . . shape the tool as you want it to be. The picture included here shows mine when they were first made a number of years ago. Sand em as smooth as you can, . . . then beeswax em real good, . . . and turn the dremel up to about 4000 rpm, . . . and burn the wax just a smidgen, . . . that will give you a good base to work with. May God bless, Dwight PS: PM me if you have any issues, . . . I'll try to walk you through it.

Thank you, my friend, . . . but they only make thread up to 277, . . . the smallest I use is 346, . . . and I'd really like to stay there. I like the way it works, and the way it looks. I tried others, . . . maybe I'm too picky, . . . But, again, thanks for the heads up. May God bless, Dwight

Take it into a NAPA store, . . . they should have some type of liquid metal, . . . epoxy, . . . bondo, . . . or other product you could rebuild the thing with, . . . build a little ring around it with wood or plastic or heavy aluminum foil, . . . pour the well full, . . . let it set, . . . you will be good to go. I dropped my 40 year old, . . . aluminum handled, . . . Porter-Cable power saw several years ago, . . . snapped both handles off. Good old liquid metal epoxy, . . . I've used it ever since. May God bless, Dwight

I'll add a second vote for the arbor press, fence, one letter at a time, . . . etc. BUT, . . . if for some reason I have to use a mallet, . . . mine is not very large, . . . not really heavy, . . . and I do a lot of "tap, tap, tap" in stead of "WHACK". Several lighter blows always does a much better job for me than whaling the thing. And I don't have any problem with the mallet, . . . when I'm "carpentering", . . . 16 coated sinkers go in flush on the 3rd hammer stroke, . . . with my 28 oz Estwing. But I digress, . . . Tree Reaper's setup is really good, . . . make one similar for the arbor press, . . . VOILA. May God bless, Dwight

I have presently (leather shop still under construction) two "C" clamps. One clamps the Boss to my work table, . . . the other clamps my little home made table extension that goes around the little table area of the Boss, . . . allowing me to sew flat things much easier. My new table in the shop will allow every thing coming off the Boss to go straight away from the needle on a flat surface, . . . making especially chaps and long gun bags and suspenders even easier to do. Now belts, . . . that's a can of worms with a Boss, . . . May God bless, Dwight

You may want to google Carjacker, . . . look at that style. This is the type I do for those who need a crossdraw. May God bless, Dwight

Thank you, . . . 50yl, . . . sure hope all is well. May God bless, Dwight