Dwight

That's OK, Jim, . . . thanks for the post, . . . I'm in the process of building a new shop, . . . hope to open it after the first of the year (so far only 90 days behind the original schedule,........), . . . and rivets & snaps will be one of those things I'll be "upgrading" in my way of doing things. I presently do them all by hand, and am "satisfied", . . . just want to do it a bit better. Thanks again, may God bless, Dwight

Very good, Tuan, I cannot say that I have ever seen that design, . . . but I like it. I noticed your location, . . . your weather is certainly warmer than ours. I left your fair city one time, . . . well over 100 degrees at the airport, . . . it was almost zero when we got home. Anyway, . . . may God bless, Dwight

Whatever tool you use, . . . it will have to be cleaned first, . . . no residue, . . . and I would start with water only, . . . If you are using a Dremel, . . . turn your speed down also. Take slow passes, . . . light pressure. I had a similar situation with a pair of pink spur straps a couple of years back. Nerve wracking ! May God bless, Dwight

What can I say, . . . the centurions of that day were a strange lot, . . . just following in the footsteps,................ Actually, . . . I modeled it somewhat after Ceaser Augustus statue, and a couple more I saw here and there. The "up and over" inverted C above the abdomen was a piece of rubber hose I had laying around, . . . needed something there to add a little rigidity, . . . it worked. Anyway, . . . most of the folks are too fascinated with all the other accouterments, . . . the armor gets a pass. May God bless, Dwight

This is where I have gotten all of mine, . . . They have always treated me right, . . . best price I could find too. http://www.letargets.com/estylez_ps.aspx?searchmode=category&searchcatcontext=~080000~080200~080202 May God bless, Dwight

The last holster went out last week, . . . last two belts went out today, . . . I'm left with re-covering 3 bar stools, . . . got two of the bottoms done, . . . should finish it all up tomorrow, . . . will then be able to concentrate on getting the new leather shop finished. Glad to hear I'm not the only one quitting early. I remember my first retail job I worked, . . . 6:00PM on Christmas eve, . . . my boss, Gene, closed the front door, . . . locked it, . . . and said "We're done!". I haven't been in that situation since, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Gloves at Harbor Freight are about $5 a box if you use their cupon, . . . makes em a nickel apiece, . . . and sometimes they can be used several times. They'll keep your hands clean, . . . but as for bottles of dye, . . . pouring, . . . mixing, . . . blending, . . . re-pouring, . . . I have a funnel that keeps all that spilling down to a mild roar, . . . rinse it after every use, . . . sits in a little glass jar when not used. My sink in my dye area is black, green, brown, white, blue, purple, pink, red, . . . and maybe several shades of other colors. It's a plastic sink, . . . some day when it gets so groady that even I cannot stand it, . . . I'll replace it, . . . and work on decorating the next one. They're in the $50 range and change out in an hour or so. I always do my glueing and dying work over that sink, . . . on a piece of cardboard or corregated PVC, . . . which gets hidden beside the sink when not in use. You have to be a clean freak to not have some evidence of dye process in the area, . . . and I'm not against that, . . . I just have higher priorities than all that. May God bless, Dwight

Absolutely, . . . you can dye vegetable tanned leather or you can paint it. I have done both, . . . Depending upon the color you want to finally wind up with, . . . it should not be terribly expensive. One quart of dye is about 30 dollars US, . . . and will easily do the whole armor that Renee did for her husband. You can also buy drum dyed leather if you can find the color you want. That is what I did for my armor. Renee (it looks like) also added different colored strips to both her husband and daughters armor, . . . which is a technique I prefer, rather than trying to make the same piece become different colors. That works very well when you are not doing delicate or intricate designs. What "period" of armor are you attempting to duplicate, . . . or is it just open imagination? May God bless, Dwight

As always, . . . excellent work, . . . excellent execution. But from one who has "visited" your lovely state many times, . . . that weather you have could make someone truly want to develop an indoor hobby. Thanks for posting, . . . always a joy to see them. May God bless, Dwight

Widget, . . . the thinner you want to use is acetone. There may be other things that work, . . . but I can for sure tell you this one does. I keep a can around for that last two or three ounces in the bottom of the can that always tries to thicken up, . . . a capfull of acetone thins it out and makes it work. May God bless, Dwight

Your logic is exactly why I switched over to vacuum forming. I'm in the process of rebuilding my leather shop, . . . when I get it all laid out, . . . I'll get some pics up of the vacuum system. Suffice to say, . . . it works really well. May God bless, Dwight

There is no "science" to my way of doing it, . . . but when I am putting something together with contact cement, . . . I very lightly lay them together at first. I then look real hard, . . . and very detail centered, . . . to be sure it is in the right place. I have had excellent results taking the pieces apart this way if I inadvertently didn't get it right. I then usually have some kind of rolling device, . . . rolling pin, . . . wallpaper seam roller, . . . palms of my hands, . . . that will smooth the two together. Like already said, though, . . . once smooshed together, . . . it's done. One caveat, . . . when gluing flesh side to hair side, . . . take a small brass or steel wire brush and scuff up the part on the hair side, . . . makes the bond ever so much better. Without the scuffing, . . . it can come apart. May God bless, Dwight

I seriously doubt there is anything on the open market that is better than regular Weldwood. If you are having a problem with it, . . . quite frankly the problem probably is you, . . . not the cement. I've used it since the late 60's, . . . or thereabouts, . . . and like Jackd, . . . I come from a woodworking background, . . . learned to use it doing kitchen cabinet tops, . . . the only other thing I will use is regular carpenter's glue, . . . but it takes so long to dry, . . . and does not bond as strongly. May God bless, Dwight

bydeniss, . . . I somehow got farther along in your picture album and saw some of your other work. You do really beautiful work, . . . keep it up, . . . a pleasure just to see that level of accomplishment. May God bless, Dwight

I follow Camano Ridge's idea, . . . but with a twist. I hate, detest, dislike, abhor, and in general don't want to do ANY hand stitching at all. Hands are for hamburgers, . . . machines are for stitching. BUT, . . . when I have to, . . . I pull off at least 4 feet too much thread just for this purpose, . . . if the thread is to be white. That way, . . . the first 24 inches of the thread on each needle, . . . picks up the wayward dye, oil, sweat, or whatever other contaminant there is to make my stitches "un-white". May God bless, Dwight

I used vegetable tanned leather for my armor, . . . made to look like the statue of Agustus Caesar (I believe it is in Rome???). It is about 4mm thick, . . . and I paid about seven dollars US per square foot for it. The wonderful thing about this type of leather, . . . it is easily worked, . . . cut, . . . sewn, . . . all that working stuff, . . . until you are ready to finish it. Then you dunk the whole thing in very warm water (around 130 deg F), . . . then mold it to the shape you want it, . . . let it dry, . . . and it will dry fairly hard. I made a mold of my upper body, . . . and did the above process, . . . and now I have my alter ego: Centurion Salvatorus Antonio, Centurion of Capernaum, of the Sixth Legion. May God bless, Dwight

I have since switched to vacuum forming my holsters, . . . but for a while, . . . I did them on a press. This dude did the 8 ton jack magic, . . . never skipped a beat, . . . even though Rube Goldberg looks all dressed up compared to this. May God bless, Dwight

DJole, . . . thank you ! As a pastor, I hear all kinds of comments about the manger scene: for it, against it, not correct, too correct, yadda, yadda, yadda. The Lord Jesus is the same to every one, . . . but each person perceives Him differently. I really enjoyed your "rendition". May God bless, Dwight

I don't mind sharing, . . . cause I'm basically a cheap old coot, . . . if I can make it, . . . I do it. Here's some of my "creations". All pretty much out of EMT (electrical conduit). Back Row, Left to right: 1 1/4 strap end rounder, 1 inch strap end rounder, specialty punch for making a strap end to hold the hammer down on a single action. Middle row: 3/4 inch strap end punch, special belt ending punch, corner rounder, 3/4 inch strap end punch, 3/4 inch round punch, 1 1/4 bag punch Front row: 1/2 inch round punch, 3/4 bag punch, 5/8 bag punch, couple of old dull bag punches, . . . dremel tools made from dowels with drill bits used as metal shaft. I probably have a total $$ investment of $5 in all you see there. May God bless, Dwight

Every time I see an article on elephant hide, . . . I remember my elephant hide wallet I bought in Vietnam in '66 or '67. Brought it home, . . . used it till I got tired of it, . . . bought a leather one, . . . wore it out, . . . got out the elephant and used it again till I got tired of it, . . . bought another leather one, . . . wore it out, . . . This went on for almost 25 years, . . . and the elephant billfold is still somewhere in the upstairs, . . . still useable I would suspect. Eagle Crest, . . . I hope your customer has as good fortune as I had. I probably wouldn't use it now as it didn't have slots for credit cards, licenses, etc. . . . but I jusst may go see. May God bless, Dwight

I've made several of these, . . . many smaller handguns lend themselves very well to this design. This is for a friend, . . . it's a Keltec .380. I enjoy knocking these out. May God bless, Dwight

You too, . . . have fun with the sheath. Do you have a machine, . . . awl, . . . plus the stuff to do this? May God bless, Dwight

Mike, . . . This is just a basic sheath. Use 4/5 oz vegetable tanned leather, . . . cut it out kind of in the proportions you see in the drawing: knife vs leather. The top tang folds over at dotted arrow line, . . . rivets below the two slots and forms a belt loop. The piece with two yellow dots is the keeper, with a snap, holds the knife in place. The long kinda "J" curved piece goes along the sharp edge of the knife, . . . it's sewn in between the back and the front, . . . keeps you from cutting the sewing threads every time you pull out the kife. Cut it out, . . . fold over and rivet the belt loop, . . . fold over and sew the edge, . . . glue all parts together before you sew them, . . . I use weldwood contact cement. Take your time, . . . knife sheaths are fun to make. May God bless, Dwight

A "true to form" Wild Bunch rig will not be a buscadero, hanging below the belt, . . . but will rather be a holster that allows the belt to go through a large loop in it. If you form your loop very closely to the holster, . . . and not make it any wider than enough to get in on the belt, . . . you should not have a lot of holster movement once it is strapped on. But if you want to make it unmoveable, . . . a Chicago screw through the back portion of the loop and through the belt, . . . it really ain't gonna move. May God bless, Dwight

I have done a few, . . . and personally, . . . I don't like it. The suede tends to be sticky when you try to put the belt through the loops, . . . grabby, . . . I do not have as good success on edging a veggie tan/suede edge as I do a veggie tan/veggie tan edge of two pieces of leather. Others will chime in, I'm sure with different ideas, . . . these are just my thoughts. I vastly prefer veggie tan liners. May God bless, Dwight