Dwight

A pair I had was not particularly expensive, . . . and the heels were simply nailed on down through the heel. I assume they were also glued, . . . but they got to the point that it was hard to tell much at all about em before they went bye bye. I'd probably use veggie tan, . . . contact cemented together as a stack, . . . put in a carpenter vice for 24 hours, . . . and sanded down to the shape you want. Just be sure to bevel out a place in the heel for your heel on your foot, . . . I do know that the old heel was coutoured down in and not flat. May God bless, Dwight

I have a case I made for my I-pad mini, . . . I call it my "shoulder holster" for it, . . . as I detest carrying things in my hands. BUT I digress, . . . It is made of black, drum dyed, 8/9 oz leather, . . . and it more than adequately protects it, . . . and of course it slides in and out real easy. Being veggie tan leather, . . . I made it the "right" size, . . . got it wet, . . . and forced a wooden mockup of my I-pad into it to shape it. The mockup was very slightly over sized so the case would be slightly over sized. Really easy construction, . . . top / bottom / stacked leather pieces around 3 sides to add rigidity as did the video. Contact cement the pieces together, . . . sew, . . . burnish the edges, . . . done. May God bless, Dwight

I have some closed cell polyethylene foam that would be just wonderful for that project. I have used it for so many different things in the past 20 years that it beggars description for all of its uses. On "leatherworking" use for it, . . . it holds all my leather working tools. It does not flake off like styrene foam, . . . floats, . . . is readily cut with a razor knife, . . . and is virtually silent in about all it's uses. May God bless, Dwight

Surely not, . . . forgetting something as basic and needful, . . . I wish I had a jar and had put a dollar in it everytime I've had to pull something apart, . . . remove a part, . . . or disassemble something because I forgot a step. I'd buy me something nice with all that cash. May God bless, Dwight

Right now, I'm basically shut down, . . . remodeling the shop, . . . and only doing "what has to be done". But generally, I look at my calendar (having programmed everything I'm doing out to a last date on the last project) and add whatever time is needed for that piece. Belts I'll add usually 1 day to my schedule, . . . IWB or pancake is 2 days, . . . western gunfighter is 3 or 4 days. So far it has worked out fairly well for me, . . . and I know not everyone has my problem, . . . but if I cannot viually interpret it, . . . see it on the wall in a calendar, . . . wellllllllllllllllll, . . . it may as well not exist. My calendar is my scheduler, . . . can't live without it. Learned that in a factory I worked for 30+ years. May God bless, Dwight

You are over thinking this project. They are all sewn flat, . . . then dunked, . . . twisted, folded, bent, formed, . . . or whatever is needed. Don't think about it, . . . just sew it and do it. May God bless, Dwight

Put the thing in front of a fan, . . . and leave it for 24 hours, . . . alone, . . . Your answer will be sitting there then, . . . and in all honesty, . . . it's probably scrap, . . . but you might get lucky. Pictures would help. Lesson learned, . . . always let the project get DRY before trying to finish it, . . . and use thin coats. May God bless, Dwight

A lot of military badges, awards, etc use that arrangement to be worn on the uniform. If I was going to do that, . . . my first thought would be to ask him if I could just increase the size a bit, . . . then carve / stamp the design into the stiffener, . . . and appropriately paint it so it seriously copies the original design. I saw a holster picture a few years ago where a guy did that for a policeman in Alaska, . . . and it was really sharp. The "Badge / Shield" was very faithfully carved into the leather, . . . painted, . . . buffed, . . . it almost looked like a real badge. But if you have to have the "real thing", . . . JB weld or some other epoxy and the Chicago screw would be my choice too. May God bless, Dwight

Uhhh, . . . that's some kind of misunderstanding, . . . when Dwight uses neatsfoot oil on a project, . . . the first thing is he determines that something in the process may have displaced the original oil, . . . OR, . . . the leather seems dryer than usual. He then uses a small brush, . . . and very lightly adds a coat of oil to the HAIR side of the leather. May God bless, Dwight

Truthfully, . . . the jury is still out on whether an addition of neatsfoot oil is needed after making something of veggie tanned leather: by cutting, forming, sewing, and dying the project. Some do, . . . some don't, . . . some do some times. Personally, I'm wearing a double layer belt that I have worn now for right at 5 years. It has never seen neatsfoot oil, . . . was dyed with Feibings British tan diluted 50/50 with solvent and finished in Resolene. It's been worn to cut the grass, dig post holes, put down roof shingles, preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, bake pies, and a host of other things we do in our lives. It is not cracked, dried out, or falling apart, . . . and is still quite firm though supple as a proper belt should be. The addition of neatsfoot oil is in my opinion over rated by those selling it, . . . and mostly over done by those using it. Lobo is a contributor here, . . . and his technique is the only one I use, . . . when I use it at all, . . . which is a quick once over on the hair side only, . . . after dying and before final finishing. May God bless, Dwight

If I understand what I am seeing, . . . everything except most likely, attaching the handles is done and then finally, . . . the bottom is sewn onto the rest of the bag. It seems to lay over the sides and ends as opposed to being a "folded together" seam. I would either have to hand stitch it (ain't gonna happen either), . . . or turn it inside out, . . . slip one side under the foot of my sewing machine, . . . and looking down inside the bag, . . . sew the bottom onto the rest of the bag. It would be a real trick with my stitcher, . . . and someone would pay some serious coin to get me to do that May God bless, Dwight

If you use a good slot punch, . . . the slots are easy to make, I got sick and tired of bad looking belt slots, . . . built a punch out of a piece of conduit, . . . sharpened the edge on an electric sander, . . . pounded it down to a 5/16 by almost 1 1/2 inch slot, . . . I've used it for 5 years, . . . looks ugly, . . . but it works. May God bless, Dwight

Most of my leather items are belts, holsters, wallets, knife sheaths, magazine carriers, and a very occasional wallet or purse. I use Feibings oil dye on almost all of them. I use Resolene as the final finish, again, on almost all of them. The exception is usually a period piece, deemed to look like it is much older, . . . on it I will use a blend of beeswax and neatsfoot oil. The Resolene is always mixed with water in a 50/50 concentration, . . . applied with a cheap little bristle brush. Hope this helps. May God bless, Dwight

Many people put them in plastic "freezer" bags, . . . I don't have that problem, because once I start, . . . I don't quit until it's done. Probably a big part of why I don't do a lot of tooling. May God bless, Dwight

May God bless, Dwight

A strong belt is the first thing I would look at, . . . mine are 1 7/16 wide, . . . and anywhere between .180 and .250 thick, . . . depending on several factors I take into account in the belt process. Secondly though, . . . will be a serious critique of the holster design. Quite frankly, I would consider it a bad, poorly thought out design. Your holster should come up (on the top of the slide) to the front of the rear sight at least. For a VERY secure holster, . . . cover the rear sight also. It should also come up almost to the grip, . . . covering the trigger guard. I realize that you are trying to stay clear of the mag release, . . . and that can be handily done with some interior work. Personally, . . . I would not carry a pistol in a holster of that design. The center of gravity for the weapon is way too high, . . . it WILL flop back and forth, . . . and it will come out, . . . and if Murphy gets in there, it will come out when you least need it to do that. Making that style for a full size all steel weapon would be in my opinion, and exercise in futility. And the reason I feel confident in my opinion, . . . I envisioned a similar style holster some years back, . . . and after some wasted leather and effort, . . . I said to heck with it, . . . went back to what works. May God bless, Dwight

It's a lot better than my first IWB, . . . Keep up the good work. May God bless, Dwight

I used a press for some time, . . . then got to getting a lot of plastic fantastic shooters, . . . got afraid I'd over press one, . . . bust it, . . . so I went to a vacuum system. I made my own bag from some vinyl bought at JoAn's fabric shop, . . . and it works great. Actually, I like it better than what I got with the press. May God bless, Dwight

Two things will limit this, . . . but I have never found anything to totally prevent this: As paperhangr said, . . . use Feibings pro oil dye Get an older (really soft, . . . like almost worn out) wash cloth, . . . and buff the piece until no more pigment comes off. What is happening in reality is there are little gidget sized pieces of pigment laying on the surface of your product. Buffing can remove "most" of them. Finishing will sometimes also remove some, . . . and they wind up in your brush, . . . and are transferred into your beaker containing the finish. I keep a beaker of "black" resolene, . . . and one for "browns". It is the answer that works for me. But I also buff until the product shines before I top coat it. May God bless, Dwight

If something has to be an "exact" duplicate of another, . . . generally I follow Matt T's idea, especially on the straight pieces part. I also use a strap cutter for a lot more than just straps. But the key to "my" achieving exact duplication is my belt sander. I overcut the size just a bit, . . . maybe 1/16 to 1/8 sometimes, . . . glue the rascal together, . . . then go to the sander. It takes just enough off by careful maniuplation, . . . that I can darn near make them identical, . . . or at least visually so. May God bless, Dwight

Good looking rig, . . . but we expected that from Lobo, . . . Most of my guys are all too happy to just get a holster, . . . not too picky on the style. May God bless, Dwight

You can also get a quart of dye and a quart of thinner, . . . when you pour them together, . . . you have a half gallon. Get a darker brown, as it will lighten up because of the diluted state of the dye, . . . but if you lay it out flat, . . . get some gloves and a big piece of sheeps hide, . . . it should come out pretty even. And like dirtclod said, . . . I'd cut em out and then dye them. I'm going to have to do the same thing for my chaps next spring, . . . my hide is a biggin, . . . but the price was right, . . . even if I don't like the color. Using an air sprayer will do it, . . . but that big means a spray booth, . . . or outdoors, . . . and a lot of wasted dye with overspray, . . . to say nothing about sprayed on dye not penetrating as well as mopped on dye. Making chaps, . . . I'd want the mopped on myself. Good luck, may God bless, Dwight

I certainly am no an expert on the various tanning processes, . . . but from experience at Tandy's, . . . I can tell you that they sell many options for a motorcycle jacket besides veggie tan, . . . and I for one would probably take a much different tack on it. Lamb skin for one will make you one super jacket (my wife owns a jacket, . . . myself a vest), . . . deer, . . . elk, . . . and even the fake deer or elk would be superior in my opinion. But then again, . . . just an opinion. May God bless, Dwight

^ ^ ^ ^ What electrathon said works really good for me too,........... May God bless, Dwight

Personally, . . . I would put the pieces together like Electrathon said, . . . making em a little bigger than the finished pruduct I wanted. I would then put them together on the knife shaft with Weldwood contact cement, . . . but first be sure to scuff up each piece on the hair side so the cement has something to bond to real good. Once all the pieces are in place, . . . I'd take it to my little belt sander and rough out the shape, . . . put the blade in a vice and finsh sanding the shape with long strips of plumbers sandpaper (it comes in a 1 inch wide or so strip). I would be very careful and sponge on or daub on any dye I wanted using Feibings oil dye, . . . followed with two or three light coats of neatsfoot oil, . . . and end up by rubbing the outside with beeswax and going over it very lightly with a low setting heat gun to melt the beeswax into the fibers. You need the oil in there first to protect and help waterproof it, . . . then the wax to add another layer of waterproof plus add some rigidity to the exterior layers of the leather and make it a bit more solid. Don't forgt to post pictures when it is done, . . . those are really good looking when done right. May God bless, Dwight