Dwight

The 2 part epoxy is probably stronger than Weldwood contact cement, . . . but my experience is that if you try to take apart two pieces of leather that have been properly joined with Weldwood, . . . you literally rip one or both of the pieces of leather. So, . . . long and short,.........the Weldwood held, . . . the leather separated. I'd try Weldwood first on a test piece. Just remember that if you are using it on the hair side, . . . you have to seriously rough that up with a wire brush or something. May God bless, Dwight

Some of us have produced some of the best looking offsets imaginable to the confused mind of man. Of course, . . . we called them mistakes, . . . and trashed the holster. Seriously, . . . just make sure you put the gun into the wet leather for molding, . . . crooked. It'll mold crooked and offset from the body just as easy as it will mold tightly conforming to the body, . . . no need for some plastic insert. May God bless, Dwight

We're considering the possibility of a 200 pound dog tearing up a 1 1/2 inch wide collar,........... c'mon guys. Ever seen horse harness??? Two or three or four horses, . . . 1000 pounds each, . . . pulling on a simple doubled leather strap, . . . most of the time just sewn together, . . . pulling plows, . . . discs, . . . wagons. The main thing when making a strap that will be used for pulling, . . . NEVER sew across the strap. It makes a perforation line, . . . and that IS THE PLACE where the strap will some day break. May God bless, Dwight

Depending on how precise you have to have that one inch hole, . . . I have made a number of tools and punches out of electrical contuit (in the trade it's called EMT, . . . Electro Metallic Tubing). That 1 inch EMT if cut off to a piece about 9 inches long, . . . taken to a sander, . . . and the outside edge laid up against the sander, . . . so a sharpened edge is created on the interior edge, . . . you will have wonderful punch that is very close to 1 inch in diameter. You DO NOT whack it to make the hole, . . . you tap, tap, tap it around the top edge, . . . holding the punch firmly down on the leather. You can do the same for 1/2, 3/4, 1 1/4, 1 1/2, and 2 inch. Just be careful and not burn the edge as you sharpen it, . . . that will seriously weaken that section of the edge, . . . and it will become very dull, . . . very quick. Some folks who have seen these punches of mine complain that you have to sharpen them more than the "professional" ones, . . . but when your punch costs fifty cents instead of 75 dollars, . . . yeah, . . . I can sharpen it a bit more often. May God bless, Dwight

Quite honestly, . . . I have found that the market will work with you to help you price something, . . . no matter what it is. It also does not matter how much time you have put in on a certain project. The buyer will have an idea of what he will pay, . . . and while the first few you sell, . . . you may not do as well as you want, . . . you'll get a feel for the market. Take em to a gun show, . . . plunk down the table price, . . . lay em out there with a price tag on em, . . . if they sell right away, . . . they were too cheap. If they are still there at the end of the day, . . . most likely you missed a couple of buyers who would have bought if it were just a bit less. May God bless, Dwight

How about two envelopes, . . . one for the front flap, . . . one for the back flap, . . . tie them together with a leather lace that runs through the spiral itself. I'd use maybe 5/6 oz on the front and back for tooling, . . . pigskin or thin veggie tan for the inside. She can simply untie the lace and move the envelopes to another notebook, . . . and it will never be a problem opening. May God bless, Dwight

I've seen in older books where they used very thin fabric, . . . and tucked it under for about a 1/4 inch all the way around. Of course they angle cut the corners, . . . and I would suppose that they took it all to an ironing board first, . . . then glued the edges together, . . . then glued the whole thing into the book. At least that is how I would try it. I don't have any book experience, . . . but I have done a few pouches, . . . and that is my proceedure, . . . which of course I copied from what I saw in the books. I use weldwood contact cement for mine. May God bless, Dwight

One little thing I forgot to add, . . . this makes a punch that is exactly 1 1/2 inches long if you did it my way. Belt slots often need to be closer to 1 3/4 or so. When you have to enlarge the slot (make it longer), . . . put one end of the punch down in the slot you already made, . . . and rock it forward against the area you need to elongate. Now, . . . take your time and tap, . . . tap, . . . tap, . . . tap the end of the slot punch through making the elongation. With a little practice, . . . you can make 2 or 2 1/2 inch slots with this punch, . . . and it will look like you did it all in one whack. May God bless, Dwight

My leather work for the most part is a product of my company motto: Affordable Gunleather For Those Who Can’t Afford To Be Without Their Gunleather I simply cannot afford to offer the gunleather I offer if I have to hand stitch the holsters and belts. Not that I do not occasionally do that, . . . but I only do it when it has to be done, . . . and is VERY infrequent. My customers safety, . . . comfort, . . . and budget comes before something as esoteric as "hand made", . . "hand stitched", . . . etc. That does not say that no one else should do it, . . . by all means if there is a niche market out there for hand stitched goods, . . . go for it. May God bless, Dwight

After screwing up 3 or 4 good belts, . . . I learned to very carefully cut the very end of my belt to go into the tip. The tip is designed to be the same size as the belt, . . . so since there is metal there, . . . you have to cut away leather to make way for the metal. Also, . . . I don't do 1 1/2 belts, . . . I do 1 7/16, . . . because all of mine are double layer, . . . and if you do a double layer 8 oz, . . . you can run into belt loop difficulties, . . . which isn't fun. Cut a strip of scrap leather, . . . 1 1/2 wide, . . . and outline the tip on the end of the strip. Cut that, . . . then begin by taking 1/16 off each side the length of the tip. A dremel tool with a sander also is a super help, . . . or a 1 inch belt sander, . . . you just have to be really careful with sanding. I prefer to cut, . . . Eventually you get what you need to make it work, . . . outline it on a piece of manila folder, . . . and you have a pattern for the next one you do. Final tip, . . . after you set the little screw(s) in the back of the tip, . . . rub your finger over them to make sure there are no burrs, . . . sand em off if there are. Those little burrs will ruin the face of the belt the first time the guy uses it, . . . and he WILL BE angry with you. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, guys, . . . you're welcome, . . . I'm just one of those stingy old coots you hear about from time to time. I just try to make things easy on myself, . . . and this was one of the easier ones I've done. You can see in one of the pics that it is getting a bit dull, . . . I touch up the outside edge with the little belt sander I have, . . . and use a very fine round file just to clean off the burrs on the inside, . . . keeping that inside edge straight. Being able to fabricate your own tools can save you a bunch of $$$$ sometimes, . . . this is one of them. May God bless, Dwight

OK, . . . you asked for it, . . . I used galvanized 1 inch conduit, . . . actually measures 1.200 OD with my calipers. I took a piece of 1/4 inch flat stock and ground a taper on it from about 1 inch to about 1 3/4 or something like that, . . . and rounded the sides with a full half radius the full length of the two sides (its about 3 inches long). You first take the cut piece of conduit to a sander and sharpen that outside edge so you could use it to punch out a perfect round washer of leather. Then you begin to flatten the end of it, . . . keeping the piece of flat stock in that end, . . . so it doesn't ever get a chance to fully collapse. Just keep hammering until it gets nice and flat on the edges, . . . pull out the flat stock piece, . . . VOILA, . . . a punch. May God bless, 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