Dwight

I have never had a complaint of dye rubbing off when I used Resolene as my final finish, . . . even USMC black. I normally use Pro Oil black and cowboy tan, . . . with no trouble with them either. My "budd" down at Tandy swears up and down that their new water base dyes WILL NOT rub off, . . . but I cannot vouch for it yet. Honestly haven't had a job where I could use it, . . . but I'm looking. May God bless, Dwight

This is one of those "sore spots" for me. Couple of years ago, . . . went yard saleing with a buddy, . . . stopped at one where the guy was moving across country after just finishing their new house and selling it (one of those job transfer deals). There were two beautiful mahogany colored 30 inch by 4 feet pieces of "scrap" there on the side. I saw it, . . . recognized it, . . . put it in the back of my mind to grab on the way out, . . . just flat out forgot, . . . they were mine just for loading them up and hauling them away. Yeah, . . . UGH ! May God bless, Dwight

Using Bob Klenda's pattern, this is the first pair of chinks I've made, . . . hopefully they'll be worn in her parade this weekend. They definitely are a lot more work than appears just looking. May God bless, Dwight

The easy way is to find out what other folks used, . . . go to a "meet" where they are, . . . take a set of calipers with you, . . . ask some of the participants if you could measure the thickness of their armor. Leather is measured in ounces, . . . 1 ounce = 1/64th of an inch, . . . or .0156 inches. 4 oz = .0625 8 oz = .1250 etc. My armor for the Salvatorus Antonio, Centurion of Capernaum, of the 6th Legion of Rome is about 10 oz, . . . but is only used for costume, . . . no war games. Use vegetable tanned, . . . buy it from Tandy for the better price, . . . it is kind of a waste to use good leather on armor, . . . IMHO. When wetted, veggie tan can be molded just about any way you want to do it, within reason, . . . and armor looks good made from leather. May God bless, Dwight

I used to teach holster making, . . . and I always told them, . . . "Hands are for hamburgers, . . . machines are for stitching". Then I would produce my Tippmann, . . . and part of the class would be giving them the opportunity to try the machine. If they didn't want to do it, . . . I would sew their holster for them, . . . but they did the cutting, edging, burnishing, patterning, etc. Truthfully, . . . If I had to hand stitch everything that goes out of this shop, . . . I'd probably go into the coaster business. But that is my opinion, and there are others of a totally different take on the subject. May God bless, Dwight

I use only clear or "almost clear" plastic for my images. I place that image on the wetted leather, . . . it may not have dried to the point it would be called "cased", . . . but you most surely can call it wet. I use the pointed end of a stylus tool that rubbs the plastic but doesn't cut it, . . . transferring a drawn image to the wetted leather. I use those impressions in the wetted leather as my pattern, . . . and the image can be used over, over, and over again. I got a really good deal some years back on some 8 1/2 x 11 transparency sheets used for computer printing. I'm still working on that box, . . . but almost any thin, clear plastic will work. AND, . . . if the leather is WET instead of just CASED, . . . the plastic will lay down and not move on the leather while you are tracing your image onto the leather. May God bless, Dwight

Let me be one that re-recommends the Tippman Boss, . . . I have one, . . . later model, . . . aluminum case, . . . and while you cannot say I jump up and down every morning at the prospect of using it, . . . I do enjoy using it. 1: it is faster and easier on your body than hand stitching, . . . and YOU determine where and when each and every stitch is placed. 2: it is manufactured in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, . . . very near US 30 on the East Side. They are very accomodating people, . . . back their product to the hilt, . . . I have called up on a Tuesday morning, . . . Ben said to give him 2 hours to clean off his other work on his bench, . . . bring it up to him. He personally has "fixed" my machine for me twice. 3: occasionally, . . . you will find one on Ebay for sale for a decent price. There was one on here a few weeks ago. Anyway, . . . it may not work for you, . . . just offering some info. May God bless, Dwight

From an old sailor turned pastor, . . . good work ! It is uplifting to both disciplines. May God bless, Dwight

When I started this several years ago, . . . it was knowing I was retiring from the "factory" and would like to stay active doing something I liked to do. I became an avid fan of leather work as a teenager in the late 50's. Now, . . . yes, . . . it is a business, . . . I pay my taxes, file my forms, keeping the "gubment" at arms length, . . . have a website (very basic), . . . have sold on Ebay, Gunbroker, etc. I try to satisfy my $$ requirements as well as my customers desires, . . . but also pay homage to the fact that I haven't done like many of my friends who left the "factory" and now are either passed on or vegitating in place. That alone allows me the luxury to offer a quality product at a decent price, . . . and I constantly ask myself if I were the customer: "Would you pay that much????" I have to be able to say yes, . . . or the price comes down. I take my business model idea from my grandfather, Will Webb, who was a pastor like myself, but also was a farmer and a blacksmith. May God bless, Dwight

My own personal cowboy rig, . . . and any rig I make for someone wanting it close to period looking and feeling, . . . I use a 50/50 concoction of beeswax and neatsfoot oil (weigh each ingredient, . . . it is 50/50 by weight). Cook it up in a jar in a crock pot, . . . pour it out into muffin papers in a muffin pan, . . . makes nice little patties that are easy to use. It is a little harder than regular shoe polish, . . . but it goes on similar, . . . on your rig, I'd put it on with a cloth and stroke it carefully with a heat gun to get the wax to melt and the oil to soak in better. Give it a half hour or so to dry, . . . buff with an old diaper, . . . you'll like it. Take a scrap piece, . . . diddle a little bit of stamping and tooling on it, . . . try it, . . . you might just like it. Not only is it simple to make and use, . . . it is also bunches cheaper than almost any other finish. If you stay with it long enough, . . . you can make it real shiney, . . . but not plastic shiney. I use it front, back, edges, inside, outside, . . . the whole thing. May God bless, Dwight

And here are the ones I was trying to design the other day when I saw your post, . . . May God bless, Dwight

You are a credit to the profession. May God bless, Dwight

Go to my website, . . . on the sample page, . . . bottom center. It is actually my favorite of all I have ever made. May God bless, Dwight

Like above, I don't do a lot of these, . . . but I have done several. I make the tip fit snug, type snug, . . . as oposed to loose type snug. It has to be forced in with both hands. I use my razor knives, . . . a belt sander, . . . and skiving tool to get it this way. The key I have found is in the trimming, . . . take your time, . . . be very careful how you cut the tip so it goes in and fits as near perfect as possible. The one thing that will destroy your good job is if the tip is loose. Then it'll wiggle and wrangle till it comes off. I don't drill mine, . . . I just tighten tht screw down as tight as I can with my small tipped screwdriver, . . . then use my Dremel tool to flatten the back and remove any burrs that could scratch the front of the belt. It's worked so far. May God bless, Dwight

I would think that Will would be proud of your iteration of his pattern. I only saw one place where I would have done any serious changing, . . . In the picture of the buckle, . . . the belt keeper that goes in back was fastened with 4 copper rivets. I always actually sew mine into the belt itself, because I only make lined belts. The top of the keeper is sewn in with my machine about an inch after I make that turn from end to main run on the belt, . . . and I machine sew all the way around to the other end of the keeper. The second end is hand sewn. The keeper is sewn in between the two layers of the belt. Not to sound overly critical, . . . just pointing out a way to make your final product look a bit cleaner. But all in all, . . . from what my 68 year old eyes could make out, . . . looks good. May God bless, Dwight

If you have any trouble putting them together, . . . just holler. I kinda laughed earlier today when I saw your post, . . . I was in the middle of trying to come up with a "different" design for a new pair of straps for that one pair of boots. I have one of them made, It is sitting on my sewing table right now, . . . gotta take and trim the edges tomorrow, . . . made it out of two pieces of 3/4 oz all contact cemented together and sewn. They're kinda blingy, . . . spots, a diamond, and a Tx star all are part of the design. I'm also taking a page out of an old Western I once read, . . . cowboy drilled out two silver dollars, . . . used them for the rowels in his spurs, . . . I'm going to do the same, . . . but I'm using the sandwiched dollars, . . . I'd have to sit up and guard em if they were real "silver" dollar rowels. Anyway, . . . have fun, . . . this is one of the items I do really enjoy making. I guess it is because they are done so quickly, . . . don't have a chance to sit and fret about "did I do it right????" May God bless, Dwight

If John Wayne would have seen it, . . . he'd a probably said, . . . "Ya done good, pilgrim". May God bless, Dwight

This is my version of a pattern I use. Full size, . . . for my boots, . . . this needs to be printed on an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. It will then be full size, . . . no needing to tweek it. You will have to cut this out, . . . and play with it to see if the off side strap is long enough for your boots. I do have one pair of Red Wings that this pattern will not fit. May God bless, Dwight

JWP, . . . for your pictures, . . . resize them to something like 800 x 600, . . . save them as a jpg not a jpeg. That should work. May God bless, Dwight

I needed that rounding effect on my holsters and belts, . . . so necessity being the mother of invention, . . . I "fixed" my edger. First, . . . it is a #4 edger, purchased at Tandy's. Second, . . . I took a piece of (I think 3/16ths) round wooden dowel and impregnated it with valve grinding compound. Using very small nails only at each end, . . . I nailed it to a larger piece of 1 x 4. Third, . . . I pulled that edger across that dowel a couple hundred times (seemed like it any way). It rounded the underside of my edger. Fourth, . . . I made a board with a piece of leather and "edged" it with my newly reformed edger. The leather sticks up between two pieces of wood about 3/16ths of an inch, . . . and is heavily impregnated with jeweler's rouge. Fifth, . . . I use that board & leather to resharpen my "rounded" edger. Anyway, . . . that's how I did it. May God bless, Dwight

Looks good from here, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Seadog, . . . I have two machines, . . . and seem to have some of your same problems. One machine (Tippmann Boss) is hand operated, . . . so it can never speed away from me, . . . but it simply will not do some of the intricate, thin leather things I would sometimes like to mess with. Others may be different, . . . but mine just doesn't like thin leather work. OTOH, . . . my little Singer electric (have no idea of model number) will sew the thin stuff, . . . but you need to be awful careful with the foot switch. Just one sneeze or cough at the wrong time, . . . you've got a stitch line right down the middle of your project. I have been fully tempted though, . . . to try out the walking foot machine they have at Harbor Freight. It was in the $750 range last time I looked, . . . and the manager of my local store told me he'd order it, . . . I could take it home, . . . use it for up to 30 days, . . . if I couldn't get it to do what I wanted, . . . he would take it back. I would be very much interested if any of our associates have used the Harbor Freight machine, . . . and how it worked out for them. May God bless, Dwight

That looks like one of those "winter projects" for when one just has to do a little welding, cutting, woodworking, . . . just to keep in touch. May God bless, Dwight

The vinyl is to use to make the bag. Fold it in half like the drawing, . . . after you have a 2 inch wide path of weldwood contact cement down each long side. Their vinly I think was 45 inches wide, . . . I bought a 2/3 of a yard piece (24 inches wide) when the bag was folded and made, . . . it was basically a 23 by 24 bag. The $15 was for the bag valve, . . . I cannot tell you the number of times I've used mine, . . . no problems so far. Forgot to tell you there is one problem, . . . getting the pump adapted to the hose for the bag can be a headache. I needed mine to turn 90 degrees off the pump and be able to come apart readily, . . . the brass fittings cost me more than the bag did. Anyway, . . . make your bag, . . . have fun. May God bless, Dwight

Sounds like a good one to me, . . . my press, the ram comes out the front with 4 screws, . . . would be neat to have the flat foot on one end, . . . drill chuck on the other. Drill one end, . . . tap it for the threaded stud to hold your chuck, . . . you're good to go. May God bless, Dwight