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

Made me tired just wandering through it. Think I'll take a nap. Good job, by the way. May God bless, Dwight

Just as long as you don't try to tag www.dwightsgunleather.com as the financial sponsor. May God bless, Dwight

My nemesis: "and involved a few unpicking sessions to get things right before stitching up again! " There are not words to describe how I hate that. I usually set and fume long enough that I could have been done with it, . . . before I get started. But, you did good. They should be happy with those. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you too. May God bless, Dwight

I use Resolene on just about everything I do, . . . have never had a customer complain about dye disappearing. I generally thin my dye somewhat (one is a 50/50 dye/thinner ) and for BLACK, blacks, . . . I use USMC black. You WILL have to rub it hard and long to get rid of the extra pigment, . . . but it is the best black dye I have ever used. The water base dyes just do not work for me, . . . I've had some biker friends over the years, . . . and most of them were of the bodily size that would wear the finish off a marble slab, . . . and then some would complain about it. I simply refuse to do work for those guys. Another angle you may look at: buy only pre-dyed leather. I have some drum dyed black leather I bought a couple years ago, . . . it is black, through and through. I've never cut a piece of it and found any of it where the dye did not fully penetrate. It's harder to work, . . . and I did not have any of it rub off on anything. May God bless, Dwight

They will for leatherwork purposes pull pretty much the same. This is a slightly technical answer: The maximum "inches of vacuum" would be roughly equal to the barometric pressure outside, around 29.92 inches for a typical day (1 atmosphere here on Earth). This would be, for example, how far the mercury would rise if you pull air out of the top of a tube whose lower end is in a pool of mercury. If you are in HVAC work, . . . the bigger one will be quicker to evacuate a larger system, . . . saving man hours, . . . yadda, yadda, yadda. For us, . . . sucking the air out of a bag and collapsing it on some ole dead cow hide, . . . either will do the job adequately, . . . the bigger one would probably work faster if you were making shoulder holsters for Ma Duces or Barret .50 cals. May God bless, Dwight

I hope you don't get a compressor, . . . but rather a vacuum pump. I bought their cheaper one (I'm kinda like that, y'know) and have been seriously happy with it. It's done all I have asked of it so far, . . . and I think it was $99 when I bought it a couple years back. Just be sure to go to a local auto parts store and get a quart of compressor oil (or an AC/Refrig supply store). A quart will last a long time, . . . but if you run her dry, . . . you may have to buy her sister to get back in business, . . . and it only takes once. May God bless, Dwight

AND, . . . if you happen to get very close, most of the time I find that the last few stitches will be grubby, dirty, frayed, or otherwise "not good looking" and the reason is those first few inches get all the hard traffic and wear making the stitches. As he said, . . . thread is cheap, . . . compared to even the time it takes to rip out a too short piece and re-sew the right size. May God bless, Dwight

Dirtclod's answer (cork backed s/s rulers) is about 60% of the answer to your problem. These rulers (I have an 18 and a 48) are worth their weight in gold for the leather worker. The other 40% is the knife. Personally, . . . the carpenter's utility knife is my favorite for anything above 4 oz leather, . . . a 50mm rotary cutter does the 4 and below stuff very nicely, . . . especially any fringe I want to cut. Every brand new blade right out of the package first goes to my strop before it ever touches leather. Then strop it every time before you use it. Leather demands either sharp tools or blood sacrifice on your part, . . . and it is your choice. Dull blades will get you the blood sacrifice. For absolutely square pieces, . . . you need a table with a flat & square edge, . . . and a triangular "rafter" square, . . . it looks like a 6 inch by 6 inch aluminum triangle with a lip on one side, . . . lay the leather along the edge of the desk, . . . put the square on it, . . . cut the perpindicular edge, . . . voila, . . . exact squares. Final tip, . . . you cannot cut leather well when you are sitting on your duff. Stand up, . . . look straight down on what you are cutting, . . . and give it your total concentration. And again, . . . I cannot emphatically urge you too much to make sure your blades are SHARP !!! May God bless, Dwight

Some folks doing Western holsters (especially buscadero rigs) will attach a thick piece of leather on the back side of the holster just on the other side of the gun itself. It can't be seen normally, . . . but that piece of leather bumps into the buscadero loop and doesn't allow the holster to be pulled up through that loop. You can also put a similar piece on a Mexican loop or even a slim Jim, . . . but you have to place it correctly so it lays just under the bottom edge of the belt. Personally, . . . I make very few buscadero rigs, . . . most use a fold over holster with at loop holding it onto the belt, . . . and I mold them tight enough that the waist pressure keeps the holster from moving. May God bless, Dwight

If you are basically "hard labor challenged" (a euphemism for lazy), . . . you can wrap it around, . . . mark it, . . . cut it, . . . then try it to be sure it fits. Use a marking wheel to set you stitch placement, . . . punch and lace the two pieces together like a high top tennis shoe, . . . but leave the laces loose. Slip the dowel rod in, . . . tighten up the laces, . . . tie it off, . . . you're done. May God bless, Dwight

Just a curious question, Jack, . . . what weight leather are you using for those two holsters? They both are really nice, . . . and a thumbs up on the JB weld. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

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Once again, . . . many thanks, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Brazos, . . . I got a sneaking hunch one of these will be popping up in the near future at my shop. I made one similar a number of years ago, . . . but not as nice as these. Now, . . . do you have the cartridge box pattern to go with it, . . . lol, . . .??? May God bless, Dwight

Bob's method is no doubt top quality, . . . but sometimes for a less expensive rig, . . . pocket holster, . . . something that doesn't have to pass admiral's inspection, . . . there is a quicker and easier way. FIRST, . . . use a sander of some sort (I use both a Dremel and a 1 inch wide belt sander) to even up all the layers so they lay perfectly flat together. SECOND, . . . bevel the edges with a SHARP beveler. I cannot overstate this point. Third, . . . a little water and a couple of home made tools in the end of a Dremel, at about 1500 rpm's, . . . light pressure, . . . side to side, . . . apply until you get the finish you want. Look in the picture, . . . both are nothing more than hardwood dowel rod, . . . a 1/8th inch drill bit run up through the center and glued in place, . . . and grooves cut with a file and sandpaper, . . . all while rotating the tool in the Dremel. The grooved one works for straps and single layers, . . . the one with only one shelf looking groove is the one I use the most. I can edge up a holster in all of about 10 minutes with it, . . . which I do twice, . . . before dyeing and just before final finishing. Sometimes I'll come back and "polish" it after final finish just to make it look a tad better. May God bless, Dwight (another Ky product, . . . Olive Hill area)

If you want to see one in action, try a local Bible book store. They usually have one. May God bless, Dwight

I had to laugh when I saw the picture, . . . I couldn't figure out how he would wear it. Then I looked again, . . . southpaw. I've also got a nephew who is a policeman, . . . he's also left handed, . . . made his holster and ranger belt a few years back. Good job, George, . . . hope he likes it as well as we do. May God bless, Dwight

IF, . . . IF, . . . you have access to an arbor press, . . . that might be the ticket. I've had good fortune using mine on my projects, . . . used to do it with a mallet, . . . and there were some that just DID NOT turn out like I wanted them to do. The arbor press allows you to try, . . . look, . . . and try again, . . . until you get the impression you want. Personally, . . . I'd pass on the stamp, . . . that is what I do if a piece gets away from me in the process. May God bless, Dwight

My personal commitment to not producing them is simple, . . . I do not want to put something out there that I believe is inherently dangerous. Given today's penchant for Glocks and similar weaponry having no safety and a 6 oz trigger, . . . those who do make them will one day be appraised that a product they made was worn by a person who while "re-holstering", . . . inadvertently flung a round out the rear facing holster. They may also be invited to sit at the defendant's table during a long and bloody civil suit. I'd just as soon not get involved. I also do not make SOB holsters, . . . people who wear them are one slip and fall accident away from a permanent wheelchair, . . . and again, . . . I don't plan on contributing to the program. But, . . . that's just old geezer me, . . . doin my own thing, . . . have been for the last 69 years. May God bless, Dwight PS: George, . . . sorry, . . . looks like I failed to put in the drawings in the other post, . . . here they are this time.