Dwight

Ya ought not to be doin' them, benlily, . . . you are going to be the cause of our Seals all sitting down on the job. Can't have that !!!!!!! Seriously, . . . good job as usual, . . . just figgered I'd aggravate you a bit. May God bless, Dwight

Take a dial caliper, . . . go to Walmart, . . . find the kind of item you want to imitate, . . . measure it. For me, . . . my belt, . . . it is 2 pieces, . . . measures 16 oz (.250 inches). The word "standard" means so many different things to so many different people. May God bless, Dwight

Go to the hardware store (or Harbor Freight if they are nearby) ask for a cheap (emphasis on cheap, cheap, cheap) 1 inch bristle brush. HF has them for about 50 cents each, . . . in quantity. Anyway, . . . thin it down 50/50 water and Resolene. Dip the brush in & get a good brush full, . . . start stroking it on the project, . . . add more, . . . add more until as you are brushing left, right, up, down, and crossways, . . . you are developing what looks like a froth, . . . not too deep, . . . just a bit of a froth. Now, quit adding material, . . . brush it out. Make sure you are in a good light, . . . tip it back and forth a bit, . . . make sure you wetted it all down real good. Keep brushing until all the little bubbles are gone. Brush left, right, up, down, crossways, . . . continuously until the bubbles disappear. Use light strokes, . . . you are not painting, . . . you are petting the thing with a paint brush as you finish up. For holsters, . . . I do the inside first, . . . then stick my fingers inside (wearing a latex glove to keep that sticky stuff off my hands) and hold it up to the light as I continue my work. NOW, . . . here's where the fun comes in. I cannot explain how much to use, . . . you'll have to make up a couple sample pieces to test. Make sure you dye them the most used color you run across. Follow the obove instructions, . . . hang it up, . . . let it dry for about 24 hours, . . . THEN, . . . bend the devil out of it. If your topcoat breaks like the chocolate covering on an ice cream bar, . . . you put too much on. Back off a bit. If it is nice and flexible and doesn't break, . . . you did it right. At least that is my method, . . . YMMV. May God bless, Dwight

Whoa, . . . I saw it over on CAS, . . . thought by the time I got here, . . . you would have something done, . . . Seriously, . . . I don't know if I'd ever do it, . . . though I would like to. I found an old Jumbo stock saddle, . . . probably at least as old as I am, . . . I'm most likely going to spend part of the spring "re-juvenating" it, . . . take it to my cousins later on, . . . check it out. Keep us posted on this one, . . . whenever you do something to it, . . . send us pics, . . . I would love to be able to see the progress. May God bless, Dwight

That is it for sure, . . . I could make out the u the m and part of the b in the Jumbo name, . . . but noting clicked until I saw their logo. Now if there were only some way of figuring out what year it came from. it has usable white wool on it that isn't torn or anything, . . . but the leather is dried out pretty bad in a couple of places. One thing for sure, . . . I enjoy it, . . . if it never does anything more than sitting in my shop, . . . adorning the place, . . . it's like a painting for me, . . . I enjoy it. Again, . . . thanks for the suggestion. May God bless, Dwight

Since I last posted above, . . . I went looking, . . . and I found one for me. I'd sure love to get some information on it, . . . but so far it's all been a blank. Anyway, . . . enjoy the pics, . . . the one with my thumb in it shows the makers mark. . . . trouble is it is all but gone. It's an oval, . . . maybe 4 inches tall, . . . some kind of image in the upper 2/3 of it, . . . with a block written name below the image, . . . in the shape of a frown. Anyway, . . . it's a good old saddle as far as I can tell, . . . be taking it to my nephew's to go riding probably in May, . . . maybe earlier if the budget and the weather will allow it. Been thinking about totally re-doing it, . . . been thinking about just enjoying the treasure as it is. Decisions, . . . decisions, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Honestly, . . . you probably should start out using kits, . . . like from Tandy. First, the products will have the right sized leather, right hardware, right directions, and right ideas. Kudos to you for initiative, . . . and E for effort, . . . but for instance, you put on resolene, . . . then added some preservative. In an analogy, . . . that is like first putting on a perfect fitting raincoat, . . . then adding a 50 gallon garbage bag over your head so you don't get wet. The resolene is a FINAL finish product, . . . needs absolutely nothing, . . . and will for all tense and purposes, . . . not allow anything to penetrate it. The only thing one should ever do AFTER resolene is perhaps some neutral shoe polish. Also, . . . the design itself was badly flawed. Go to Walmart, . . . look how their wallets are formed, . . . you will not see the continuous piece of leather you used on the inside of the bill pocket. It will be a piece on the left, one on the right, and a slim one in the middle, . . . that is what allows a commercially produced wallet to easily fold in the middle. If you want, . . . you can continue without proper instruction, . . . and learn all the tricks the hard way, . . . but picking up some leatherworking books at the library, or Tandy's, will save you a lot of frustration, aggravation, time, and money. You will also see a greater improvement, . . . much quicker. May God bless, Dwight

It just depends on how handy you are, . . . I made this punch in all of about a half hour, . . . It's nothing more than a short section of 1 inch galvanized tubing, EMT to be exact, or better known as electrical metallic tubing, conduit. Lay the edge up against a sander, . . . and sharpen the edge first, . . . then flatten it out to suit your taste, . . . mine came out as 1 1/2 inch long, 1/4 inch wide. It makes one really nice continuous slot, . . . with no jagged edges that comes from trying to cut or drill your way. May God bless, Dwight

Take a look at my website, www.dwightsgunleather.com and you will see other things I have crafted. I don't do many wallets, but I do love doing custom items. If you are interested, my regular email address is on the website, you can send drawings or pictures of what you want. May God bless, Dwight

An old carpenter mentor's favorite saying (one of them anyway) was that the expert was NOT the one who did not make mistakes: he was the one who figured out how to do something with it so it didn't look like a mistake. Your black "2nd effort" proved that point. Good job, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Red, . . . this is one of my happier ideas, . . . had originally planned on laying them all flat, . . . just didn't have enough room, . . . so I designed this. I only have the box built so far, . . . and the door (4 x 8 sheet of 1/2 inch OSB on 5 hinges), . . . but the idea is pretty simple. The box is a 2 x 12 thick, . . . 8 feet tall, . . . and about 44 inches wide. There are going to be arms that rotate out, . . . heavy leather to the front, . . . thin stuff to the back. I'm actually doing a smaller version of this with nails on the inside of my leather closet door now. Makes selection so, so, so, so much faster and better. I'll put a small rack on the back side of the door for smaller pieces. May God bless, Dwight

I don't do it very often, . . . but there are times that I do, . . . and yessir, . . . it does work. If I did it a lot, . . . I'd put in a smaller needle, . . . then punch the awl through for the final sewing hole. It makes it look better if you do that, . . . but mostly only leatherworkers will note the difference. May God bless, Dwight

Honestly, . . . if it sews with one, . . . doesn't with the other, . . . I've got to think it is the needle. Check the straightness (the slightest bend will not allow it to be in the right place), . . . check the length, . . . see if the eyes of both needles line up at the same length from the top of the needles, . . . Beyond that, . . . I cannot be much help as the smallest thread I ever use is 277, . . . and if they made 500 and I could get it, . . . I'd try it. I do concealed carry belts, holsters, etc, . . . and for the most part use only 346, . . . with an occasional 400. I buy my thread at Tandy, . . . it is heavily waxed, . . . every now and then have to "de-wax" the Boss, . . . but that is the worst. AND, . . . is your thread waxed??? I bought some non waxed thread some time back, . . . and I would have put it in the stove, . . . all $50 worth if the supplier wouldn't have given me a refund. My Boss will stitch, . . . but it just ain't the same if the thread is unwaxed. Try reeling off a 25 foot piece and run it back and forth a couple times through a cake of parrafin or beeswax. Sorry I couldn't be more help. The other thing you may try, . . . on your lunch time, . . . call Tippmann, . . . tell them you want to talk to Ben, . . . be a bit pushy, . . . don't take the first "NO" for an answer. They're pretty good folks from my experience, . . . and if anyone in the organization can fix your problem, . . . Ben is the man. He's personally bailed me out twice, . . . May God bless, Dwight

1. Go back to the original needle you had in the machine, . . . it's a bit big, . . . but you want to find out if it is the needle that is causing the problem. 2. Needle alignment can be a pain, . . . pain, . . . did I say, pain? I use a very small hand sewing needle that you would use doing button holes in a silk shirt or something like that. Once I have my Boss needle where I think it should go, . . . I put the tip of my little needle in the eye of the Boss needle, . . . and use the little needle to square the Boss needle up where it needs to be. I cannot tell you why, . . . but sometimes the needle can be off really bad, . . . it sews. The next time the needle is practically perfect, . . . wouldn't make a stitch if the angels were watching. Also, make sure your needle has the thread trough on the left side. May God bless, 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