Dwight

As one with foot issues . . . thank you for selecting them . . . look forward to seeing more here. May God bless, Dwight

Have you ever researched the way the Romans of Roman Empire days did their sandals for their troops? I have a full Roman centurion rig I use in church for plays . . . etc. They made their sandals out of a sole . . . then a piece that became the toe, heel, and side, . . . and then an inner sole above it. All together . . . 3 layers of leather . . . and I made mine to complete the uniform. Some day when I have nothing better to do . . . I'm going to make another pair which will be for me to actually wear . . . and I'll probably make them "high top" . . . as I have neuropathy in both feet . . . cannot stand a boot or anything that rubs my ankles . . . but I want something to keep the feet warmer than the Sketcher low cut athletic shoes. May God bless, Dwight https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligae

Harbor freight sells a half ton or one ton arbor press . . . a tad heavy . . . will need bolted to a table top or something . . . but with a larger flat surface . . . and a piece of 2 by 6 that you fashion to slip into the straps and lay flat along the top piece . . . you can put some serious "quiet" pressure on the thing. If you've never used one . . . that little round table comes off . . . giving you a place to lay a piece of 2 x 6 . . . add the sandal bottom . . . slip in the formed piece for the top . . . pull down on the handle . . . voila . . . done. https://www.harborfreight.com/1-ton-arbor-press-59766.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiMTcyMDQ4MTIiLCJza3UiOiI1OTc2NiIsImlzIjoiNjIuOTkifQ%3D%3D&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=20737678297&campaignid=20737678297&utm_content=156191151498&adsetid=156191151498&product=59766&store=3113&gclid=CjwKCAjw15eqBhBZEiwAbDomEobTEjJnQG46i4KEr6GpH-siVkskQNeWXaUPPHRZdlGB2RDMXPCI8RoCYrcQAvD_BwE May God bless, Dwight

Just be careful what leather you use. Veggie tan is the preferred leather . . . some of the chrome tans and others just might be a problem. I would not trust them. PLUS . . . it is a good idea to make sure the sheath is not damp or wet . . . THAT can be a problem as well. May God bless, Dwight

This is my "hot box" sits on the wall outside my leather shop . . . has a thermometer up near the top so I know what the temp is up there. I hang everything on strings . . . usually 1/4 or 1/3 of the way down. Never has hurt anything I've put in there . . . and IT DOES harden em up. May God bless, Dwight

140 deg F is the max temperature you want to go with hardening leather . . . and we're talking about veggie tanned leather. Wet it . . . form it . . . and hang it in the 140 deg hot box . . . When it is fully . . . fully dry . . . dunk it again . . . let it soak up the water pretty good . . . not sopping sloppy wet . . . just wet . . . put it back in. It WILL BE hard when you are done. Paint is an unknown to me . . . never put it in the heat. May God bless, Dwight

Why the suicide strap on it . . . ?? Absolute PITB to release . . . especially when seconds or split seconds mean the difference between life and death. Unless of course it is an unloaded gun carried in a gun free zone . . . and only for show. May God bless, Dwight

They make beautiful buckskin jackets and vests . . . Think Davy Crockett and Dan'l Boone . . . May God bless, Dwight

OR . . . get in the designated "right turn only" lane . . . and use it so they can gun their engine and pull out ahead of you . . . cutting you off . . . In a town nearby . . . they have that mess up dead in front of city hall . . . and if you are in the thru lane . . . just be careful. May God bless, Dwight

Quite honestly . . . a hand piece that you strike with a mallet . . . works mostly for me. I did move up and get a hand press . . . but it does not look anything like what you have. And I only went up with the press because I'm having neuropathy problems with my hands . . . not bad yet . . . but getting there. This is the Tandy tool set . . . https://www.amazon.com/Tandy-Leather-Snap-All-Setter-8108-10/dp/B003A64ASE/ref=sr_1_1_mod_primary_new?keywords=tandy+leather+snap+setter&qid=1697940024&s=arts-crafts&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sr=1-1 May God bless, Dwight

I could not find my book . . . but this one would probably suffice . . . it's called loom beading . . . what I do . . . and what maggielj did. You make a loom of strings . . . had a place in Columbus a few years back . . . and when I went in to get info . . . first thing the first lady said to me . . . "never use string . . . always use dental floss for your beading" . . . and I have. You make a loom that holds the strings . . . I used a spring for a screen door on each end . . . and between each of the coils I stretched a string. For something that would be say 10 beads tall . . . you use 11 strings (11 pieces of dental floss. . . lol) . . . that is called the "warp". One string is above the top bead . . . one string is below the bottom bead. One string goes between each bead in the up and downUSMC_BEST.xls You start at the left end . . . tie a "woof" string to the top warp string . . . and put the colored beads of the left "up and down" then you weave the beads on there . . . put the next up and down string . . . and so forth. And you really have to make a pattern. Don't laugh . . . I use Microsoft Excel . . . and by changing the color of the square . . . I can set up what I want . . . how I want it. The USMC icon was woven left to right . . . the other two woven top to bottom. It's a bit more complicated than I've said . . . but this might help: Loom Beading Patterns & Techniques: Patterns, techniques, finishing, and more for the novice or accomplished loomer Paperback – April 26, 2021 Its a book on Amazon . . . May God bless, Dwight USMC_BEST.xls

Would love to see the whole thing stretched out flat . . . What kind of background material did you use ?? I use only dental floss. Here is my favorite piece I've ever done . . . for a USMC guy. May God bless, Dwight

We have a facebook marketplace here . . . Chris had 2 of them on there . . . his wife wanted to "go bigger and better" . . . and seeing as it is her hobby . . . he was all set. There are a bunch of them on the market here . . . so he was getting no movement . . . I came along and asked him for his best price . . . got it for 400. He still has another one there. May God bless, Dwight

If you really ONLY want the outline . . . and you are doing a bunch of stuff on and off . . . You may want to look into a laser engraver. I have two of them now . . . one is simply for putting "stuff" on leather . . . and the other one I'll be devoting mostly to cutting out patterns. There are units out there like my little one . . . will do a 14 inch square piece without moving the feet . . . (or you could decorate the whole side of a cow hide just by moving the unit on the taped down leather hide) . . . It will take any *.jpg I want to give it . . . thru LaserGRBL . . . and I can scale it up or down at my pleasure. You can make the lines as dark or as light as you want. Draw out what you want . . . take a picture of it . . . send it to your computer . . . move it to LaserGRBL . . . tell it to do it's thing. Depending on what you are wanting . . . I've had pieces take up to a half hour to duplicate . . . but when it is done . . . yahooo . . . it's what I wanted. This one is very similar to my little one . . . https://www.ebay.com/itm/305103253109?hash=item4709922e75%3Ag%3AfAcAAOSwiethOa4z&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4F2Kls0UH2Gr9qi8vzR9JYyij83n6Gk9FxlYGcYs56MuEMY9qlKfH8fY2im9ml5NHodhj0uHTtnVaw%2B8Ao25ZQUzZy06VJsp%2FEWIjP7w2iF016Gk78DFa%2BqZ6u1wsNUqVurN22kMCjoFvL%2FYDMRR6NFp%2BpAbZlJN4%2B9SgYc%2FBaEBUeDLYbkDu4yukKUj4MqX%2FFQRWJKn7AdQMJlv8dRv7NHkMxYABlLeifXb1Y%2FRITokYLB3DThmiTkgJO2GbL7IZc%2FvKNOQkHd%2FHY8PKy6mtkKpyTPBM%2F2inBBM%2FhH0D9WH|tkp%3ABk9SR5KBiujpYg&LH_BIN=1&LH_ItemCondition=3 May God bless, Dwight

Neatsfoot oil is about as good as it gets for your needs. Buy a pint of it . . . do not get the "neatsfoot oil COMPOUND" . . . get the genuine stuff . . . leather shops will have it . . . maybe a hardware store or hobby shop. Buy a little 20mm wide . . . pig hair or other bristle brush . . . they are the cheapest ones made usually . . . and use it to apply a light coat ONLY to the hair side of the leather. That is the shiny or slick side . . . the flesh side will be rougher . . . kind of like suede leather. Let it dry for 24 hours . . . if that didn't work . . . add another coat. Keep going until you get it where you want it . . . 24 hours between coats . . . but I don't think you'll need more than 3 or 4 coats at the most. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks Arkie . . . she showed me some of the stuff she had cut . . . and I'm wondering if I can't do it in a couple passes at the most . . . if nothing else . . . if it only leaves a thin bottom thickness . . . might just do that with a scalpel knife. I'm having to do something with the thick cutting . . . 78 yr old hands are rebelling against it. But if most of it is cut in a couple passes . . . me and the scalpel can do the rest. I'm really excited too because he basically threw in the air assist . . . which is supposed to make the cuts much cleaner. I'm gonna start with the pattern a tad big . . . glue it . . . sand it . . . and sew it . . . but will work my way down as I go . . . hopefully one day have them to just a light sanding. Anyway . . . I truly think you are right in that it will be a game changer. And if my wife figures out what I spent . . . oh, well . . . May God bless, Dwight

Went today and picked up a Ortur Laser Master 3 engraver . . . a 10 watt machine. It came with the air assist . . . and for lack of a better description . . . a bottle roller . . . it'll do glasses, bottles, other round stuff. Got it mostly for cutting my blank leather pieces for sheaths and holsters. Hands have given me fits lately as I try to cut pieces with a razor knife . . . This may not work as good as I want it to . . . but if it even comes close . . . I'll be some kind of happy. Plus I've got a little 3000 mw machine that I really like for engraving leather. Will use it to do the "pretty" work . . . the other one will be a work horse. Next thing I got to do though is make an enclosure for each . . . burning leather is one nasty stink. May God bless, Dwight

Nate . . . there is a thing called a Boss . . . made by Tippmann company in Indiana . . . I've owned one for 20+ years . . . made belts . . . holsters . . . knife / bayonet sheaths . . . purses . . . and some other stuff with it. Yes . . . it will sew 3/4 inch thick . . . but what I did with it when I needed to do that . . . I used it to punch the holes . . . then hand sewed the piece . . . as it gave me a neater looking piece. And no . . . did not do a bunch of them. 5/8 should be OK for you. A brand new one is a grand . . . it bolts to your table edge (I've always used a C clamp) . . . and each pull of the handle down and push back up will give you one stitch. BUT . . . the one really great feature . . . you can absolutely put that stitch where you want it. Takes a lot more "practice" to do that with an electric machine. I've done some small stuff like you are talking about . . . and for me . . . the Boss would be the best. There are a few out there that are used . . . they usually get a good price because they just don't wear out . . . and if something breaks . . . or screws up . . . Tippmann stands behind them almost as good as the Zippo lighter people used to do. PM me if you have any questions . . . be more than happy to help you out. ----------- EDIT (go to the bottom of the forum . . . sewing machinery for sale . . . used . . . there is a Boss for sale there . . . guy wants 1100 for it . . . they are sold brand new for 1000 . . . been sitting on his desk it seems . . . might get a deal from him) May God bless, Dwight

OK . . . go out into the shop . . . get the longest . . . skinniest screw driver you can find . . . OR . . . if you have something with a plastic handle and has a long hard rod coming out of it . . . Turn on the motor at it's slowest speed . . . put the metal end of the screwdriver or whatever else you have . . . and put the handle end up to the little flap that covers your ear canal . . . push that flap against your head . . . and listen. You want to stick the end of that screwdriver (or other tool) just above where the shaft comes out of the motor . . . and on the backside at the approximate same place. In the Navy . . . this is how we tested every bearing on the ship . . . and how we found out if one was failing. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say you have a good bearing . . . but it was not greased from the factory . . . something that happens from time to time . . . and when they run dry . . . they make a very similar sound. Just wish I had a dollar for every bearing I've listened to since I started that back in 1964 . . . May God bless, Dwight

I don't know if Lowes still does it . . . but they used to sell a half pint of "sample" paint of your color for like a buck apiece. Bought bunches of them for small church projects like Sunday school, etc . . . May God bless, Dwight

I found something similar on Ebay a number of years ago . . . about 25 pieces . . . 12 inches by 30 inches . . . different thicknesses . . . colors . . . paid 50 bucks . . . and have used them for all kinds of stuff. One of these days . . . I may make myself a "coat of many colors" out of them . . .

I would try https://www.tolindsewmach.com/ first . . . they are wonderful people to deal with . . . and I have no doubt they can fix your dilemma . . . May God bless, Dwight

If I can . . . let me toss a suggestion . . . Hang your leather. All of mine is hanging on a finishing nail thru one hole punched in the most unuseable spot I could find in that piece . . . really near the edge. I have it all in a 4 x 8 ft box . . . 1 ft deep . . . with a 4 x 8 door . . . allowing me to get in. I bring a double shoulder or a side home . . . punch it and hang it as soon as the one it is replacing gets used up. They straighten out in a couple days . . . and are so much easier to use than those I used to keep rolled up. You can see the 1 x 4's with nails in them . . . they swing out so I can access the panel behind it. These were taken shortly after I made the vault. Picture 1 shows the door, 3 shows the bars they hang on, 4 shows the swinging arms, 5 shows an assortment I have there, and 8 shows some "stuff" stored on the bottom of the vault. 8 also shows that the vault is basically a 2 x 12 box with a 4 x 8 OSB panel on the front and one on the back. It is much more full today . . . as these pictures were made right after I first put it into operation. May God bless, Dwight

Definitely a lot of us who think that way . . . Thanks, Sup May God bless, Dwight