Dwight

Ya did good, . . . my first pair was much more plain Jane, . . . when it comes to tooling, . . . I'm far more at home with a chain saw or a ratchet set. Just really don't have the patience for it, . . . so biggest majority of my stuff is bland. Keep up the good work. May God bless, Dwight

On a 1911 w/thumb break, . . . I put the strap dead across the back of the slide, . . . in front of the hammer. If it was me, . . . I'd make it just a "good" fit for the single safety weapon, . . . and he can stretch it over for the others. He can take the biggest one, . . . snap it over on it, . . . leave it over night, . . . it should stretch, . . . and if you did the normal amount of leather on the holster, . . . I would not think there would be any kind of problem. May God bless, Dwight

If you use a good slot punch, . . . the sanding needed is incredibly minimal. 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

Seems like River City took a page out of my play book. Generally, . . . I put a coat on both pieces, . . . and as soon as I get it all smoothed out, . . . no puddles, . . . out comes the heat gun, . . . on LOW, . . . warm up the whole thing wherever the Weldwood is, . . . as soon as it is dry to the touch (abt 90 seconds usually), . . . stick em together for eternity. Belts, . . . sheaths, . . . holsters, . . . cell cases, . . . no problems with it. May God bless, Dwight

Actually, . . . I very, very seldom do more than the one coat. The process that I use has never let me down. From the sound of things I would be tempted to say it was dyed with a cheap water based dye, . . . and before I did anything else with that leather, . . . I'd give it a good water soaking to leach out as much of the dye as I could.Oil based, good quality dyes do not do that for the most part. May God bless, Dwight

Assuming the edge guide and stitching post / stool come with it, . . . as well as it's age, . . . if I needed it, . . . and IF (this is the big one) it sewed to suit me, . . . I'd probably be talked into $1000 for it. I'd make it sew a full 30 inches with no hiccups in 277, 346, and 400 thread though before any serious discussion would be under way from me. I have the aluminum version, . . . and it works great for me, . . . I don't see how an older one in cast iron would be any kind of improvement. May God bless, Dwight

Not meaning to sound harsh, . . . but if you are having trouble with Resolene, . . . you are not doing something right. First, . . . after the dying process, . . . it must be dry, . . . DRY, . . . no fudging here. Then you have to polish off all the excess pigment, . . . use an old washcloth or piece of a bath towel, . . . rub & polish until no more pigment comes off. Mix resolend 50/50 with water, . . . cold tap water, . . . NOT HOT water. Next, . . . get a cheap 1 inch bristle brush, . . . dip it in the resolene and start brushing it on, . . . you want enough to throroughly saturate both sides of the belt and the edges. Brush it on until you build a slight lather like accumulation of bubbles. Then quit adding material, . . . start brushing out the bubbles, . . . brush left, right, up, down, crossways, . . . until the bubbles disappear, . . . hang up to dry and leave it alone for 24 hours or so. I've absolutely never, . . . not once, . . . had any dye bleed through after this process. May God bless, Dwight

I agree, Shooter, . . . but there are politicians out there who are of a different mind set. I made (pardon my humility here for a moment) a gorgeous left hand IWB for a policeman several years ago. I was absolutely and seriously proud of that little rascal as I put it in the box and sent it to him. You know, . . . sometimes you do a good job, . . . and sometimes the thing just turns out WOW, . . . this was one of those. Anyway, . . . not a year later, . . . I get an email, . . . gotta replace the holster. My heart kinda sank, . . . thinking I somehow screwed it up, . . . or my policeman customer did something wrong. Turned out one of his fellow officers somehow "lost" his weapon in some kind of a situation. Long and short, . . . the brass upstairs passed the edict, . . . from now on, all holsters will have retention devices, . . . IWB, . . . OWB, . . . shoulder, . . . no exceptions. I never did figure out if it also covered pocket holsters. That would be a special trick putting a thumb break on a pocket holster. But anyway, . . . in answer to your question, . . . I only do it when the customer insists. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Sooper, . . . I just finished up a cross draw for a customer, . . . used a pic I got off the net as the rudimentary pattern. That same pic might be what you need, . . . so here it is. One thing to be careful with on cross draw holsters, . . . the angle of the gun handle. If you notice in this one, . . . the bottom angle of the grip is roughly parallel to the belt line. If you aren't careful, . . . and if you get that angle a bit severe, . . . it becomes a real trick to grab the gun in some cases, . . . depending upon where the weapon is placed on the person, . . . and how much, . . . uhhh, . . . body, . . . protrudes out from under the belt . A second thing with this design, . . . the flatter the back is, . . . generally the more comfortable the person is with it, . . . especially if they are fairly thin. Anyway, . . . just some thoughts from an old codger. May God bless, Dwight

Slicking only glues down the "hair". What you want to do is cut the hair off, . . . if you do not want to ever have to deal with it again. Take a short piece of 2 x 4 and staple sandpaper to it, . . . and sand the back of the belt. Take your time, . . . you can make it smooooooooooth. AND, . . . there won't be any "hair" to deal with ever again. May God bless, Dwight

Use Weldwood Contact cement on every joint, . . . then sew it. Airtight, . . . water tight, . . . heck, it's even bug tight, . . . :-) May God bless, Dwight

Rundogdave, . . . something else you might do, . . . is get a ream of paper and put it into your lazer printer, . . . then Google up "Holster: leather, IWB". Spend an hour a day or so looking at the styles you see there, . . . and do a good old "copy / paste" onto the paper, . . . make up a folder and hang onto the pics of the different holsters. I did this (and still do this for some I like but don't have) and it has given me many, many good ideas. As you look at the different styles, . . . think about the info Lobo gave you, . . . and think about the importance to you of the different aspects. Once you determine your own personal needs / desires, . . . it is much easier to help someone else find their optimum holster. Take for example, . . . the folks who work for Brinks Armored, . . . at the bank where I used to work, . . . they came in with revolvers in an open, loose fitting holster with no retention at all other than gravity keeping it in the holster. You might even call it more of a bag than a holster, it was so used and out of shape. On the other hand there is a shoulder holster I made for a policeman twice (white model and a black model, . . . summer wear and winter wear) which was a band around his chest and an armpit holster with thumb break for a sub-compact Glock (?). The one extreme offered zero concealment, . . . but instant access (Brinks), . . . while the other offered 99.9% concealment, . . . but he had to rip the buttons off the front of his shirt, . . . hit the thumb break, . . . before accessing his back up firearm. The rest of us fall somewhere in the middle. My avatar shows my signature model IWB that is very comfortable, . . . can be tucked, . . . and is my favorite of all holsters, . . . as it MEETS MY needs, . . . but others may not like it as well. You can pretty well sum up a list using 2 main criteria: Concealability VS Accessability from least concealed / most accessable to most concealed / least accessabie as looking something like this - OWB holster, no retention OWB holster, thumb break OWB holster, suicide strap IWB holster, no retention IWB holster, thumb break Shoulder holster, clamp retention Shoulder holster, thumb break retention Shoulder holster, suicide strap retention Belly band / deep concealment, no retention Belly band / deep concealment, thumb break Of course this is not cut in stone, . . . but a general rule of thumb. And of course, . . . all of these can qualify for a concealed holster if you simply add a cover garment. Hope this helps your search. May God bless, Dwight

camano ridge gave you a really good answer, . . . not much to add to what he said. The other thing of course, . . . beveling a flat / squared edge, . . . and maintaining a flat / squared edge, is probably a pretty good trick all in itself, . . . unless you are laying down mulitple layers of 10 oz or greater. May God bless, Dwight

My sewing comes first, . . . unless the piece is destined for WHITE stitching, . . . in which case I'll do a "pre-burnish" which is just enough to lay the fibers down good. It then goes through the dye process, . . . then the sewing, . . . and a final burnishing. Just my way of doing things, . . . works for me. May God bless, Dwight

Wishful, . . . see PM I just sent May God bless, Dwight

If you want to start out with an easier one, . . . take a look at this Clint Eastwood takeoff I did some time back. The belt is especially simple to do, . . . makes a good first time cartridge belt, . . . gives you experience, . . . without a lot of hassle. The belt is full width, 2 1/2 inches . . . but when you get to the tongue and buckle, . . . you cut the edges down, . . . use a 1 1/2 inch buckle. May God bless, Dwight

Very good looking, . . . I have always preferred the "plain Jane" look and you pulled it off really well. Simple, plain, but by those two, . . . also elegant. May God bless, Dwight

Would someone be kind enough to describe or show a picture of the "roper wallet"? Honestly, . . . I've seen roper boots (have em), . . . roper saddles, . . . but a roper wallet is a new one for me. Thanks. May God bless, Dwight

I use both liquid and gel Weldwood contact cement. I apply it with acid brushes bought from Harbor Freight for about 3 or 4 cents each, . . . use and pitch. I only buy pint cans, . . . so I never have to worry about it drying out. After applying the cement, . . . I go back over it and flatten any puddles, . . . then grab the heat gun, . . . low setting, . . . about 30 seconds later, . . . I'm ready to put them together and continue on with the project. I like doing it that way as it keeps me focused on the project I am on, . . . without a lot of extra "down time" waiting. I've tried Tandy's contact cement (ugh !), . . . water based contact cement (doesn't hold as well), . . . white glue (messy), . . . yellow glue (takes too long to dry), . . . but always come back to Weldwood. Been using it for a few decades, . . . I like it. May God bless, Dwight

The second thing Katsass mentioned is the second thing you did (IMHO) wrong. The liner was way too thin. I use at least 4/5 as a liner when I don't use suede. I also always sew in any and all liners, . . . burnish the edge real good. That thin stuff will get beat up all too fast, . . . then your customer gets a case of attitude, . . . But you can also take a heat gun to the Weldwood, . . . I do it all the time with holsters, . . . otherwise I'd be sitting doing nothing most of the time. It'll dry that stuff really quick, . . . put it together and sew it. May God bless, Dwight

Mike, . . . when you clicked on the reply box, . . . your mouse also hit the underlined "U" and if you mouse click that box again, . . . it'll go away. Most of the time, my mouse hits the Italic "I" box. You got a good start there Southernbeau, . . . why not just add a third stitch line closer to the edge of the gun? Like previously said, . . . it'll loosen up really soon and quick, . . . and the last thing you want is your shootin' iron doing the clickety clang tap dance across the tile floor at Krogers, . . . when you bend over for something. May God bless, Dwight

At the very least you are going to need: a really good, but small awl a good pair of leather cutting scissors a good pair of cloth cutting scissors (believe me they are not the same, . . . you need 2 pair) bees wax (wax your thread as you go along, . . . it'll help keep the stitches you just made, uniform and tight) needles and thread a really good straight edge (stainless steel with a cork back work well with leather) a large wheel rotary razor cutter (I think mine is like 2 1/4 inches in diameter) a cutting board made for the rotary wheel razor cutter a very sharp and slim razor knife (the kind with replaceable razor tips, used by hobbyists) Weldwood contact cement stitch wheel strop drywall cutting knife and blades, . . . buy the more expensive blades, they are sharper. Strop that blade point every now and then Your garment should have all glued seams that are then sewn. You will have to be very careful taking the seams apart, . . . cut a thread, . . . pull the glue apart, . . . cut another thread, . . . pull the glue apart, . . . ad infinitim. Depending on the style, . . . you may be able to undo the side seams and take off a little to tighten that up, . . . and the back seams of the sleeves. You are really taking on a project, . . . but if you take your time it'll work out. Hobby Lobby is a good place for most of the stuff you need, . . . Tandy will have the rest. A salses person will try to sell you the little 1 inch or 1 1/4 inch rotary razor cutter, . . . don't buy it. Get the big one, . . . it stays sharper longer, . . . doesn't weave and wobble, . . . and by and large, for leather, is easier to use. Good luck, may God bless, Dwight

Personally, . . . instead of spending a handful of money on tools and maybe winding up with a "less than steller" job, . . . I'd just pay someone to fix it. Someone with a leather shop doing chaps and other garments should be able to do it for not much more than the price of the tools you need to do that work. May God bless, Dwight

The concept that the liner needs to be shorter is a false concept. I cut my liner by using my outside, finish side, as the exact pattern. All liners need to be glued or contact cemented to the other piece of the belt. THEN, . . . you start punching holes or stitching. I personally (as well as others on these forums) prefer weldwood contact cement, . . . the stuff sold in lumber yards for counter tops. Works like a champ, . . . but there is a little learning curve. Put on an EVEN coat, . . . let it DRY to the touch of your hand. Not sticky, . . . no gummy, . . . dry. Lay the one piece onto the other, . . . knowing it is a one shot deal. Where you drop it, . . . it stays. Then roll the whole thing with a rolling pin, . . . seam roller, . . . etc. It's now one piece. May God bless, Dwight

Most of my western style cartridge belts are in the 2 1/2 range, . . . as it is a tad more comfortable than the 3". Again, though, . . . the cartridge may dictate the width. For basic44's and 45's, . . . I'd do the 2 1/2. May God bless, Dwight