Dwight

I use it 50/50 with water. Brush it on with a cheap bristle brush, . . . put enough on to get a simulated lather as you brush. Don't be an artist with the brushing either, . . . sorta like brushing a fence, . . . hit it and get it. Brush left, right, up, down, oblique left, oblique right, . . . NO SWIRLS, . . . just keep brushing until all the little bubbles are gone. Lighten up on the stroke as the bubbles dissapear. Best thing to do, . . . cut a practice piece, . . . dye it half brown, . . . half black, . . . play with the instructions, . . . Yes, . . . you can add coats of the stuff, . . . but there is a point where it becomes so thick that it WILL crack, . . . and you will be unhappy. Yes, . . . you can wax over top of it, . . . just give it 48 hours or so to cure before waxing. For my holsters, wallets, belts, etc. Resolene is the last step, . . . when it's done, . . . I'm done. May God bless, Dwight

Woodyrock, . . . got any pictures you would care to share? I'd personally appreciate it. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

If I make a large sheath for a knife, . . . especially if they want a buckskin or suede one, . . . I line it with rawhide, . . . and like you said, . . . incredibly strong and durable. This pic is my first one, . . . talking about a pain to sew, . . . but I was really glad how it turned out, . . . customer loved it. I also have a set of batwing chaps I have to make some time this summer, . . . will probably use it there. I saw a pair of old chaps on Ebay some time ago, . . . they were batwing / working chaps, . . . used snaps and "D" rings, . . . gonna try a little 2013 re-creation on that pair. May God bless, Dwight

It'll cost you a 20 maybe more, . . . but a good pair of Klein lineman's pliers will chop them babies right now. I used to do electrical work, . . . kept the tools, . . . you don't need to guess what I use. You also may be using them wrong, . . . you need to get that rivet down as far into the cutting slot as you can. Your max pressure is down there. The "ideal" tool is a pair of angled side cutters, . . . also made by Klein, . . . but unlike the pliers, you would only use them for rivets, . . . the pliers would have a few other uses, . . . side cutters, not so. May God bless, Dwight

Stunning, beautiful, well done. May God bless, Dwight

I would not do anything more than one stitch every 10mm, . . . saddle stitch should be fine, . . . if you want to preserve it for an extra long time, . . . take the thinnest leather you have, . . . use it in the inside seam and the outside crease. Personally, . . . I'd use nylon, . . . but that is what I use all the time anyway. May God bless, Dwight

You would be well served to use the search window on this forum, . . . it will give you many more answers to your question, and proably help you more. May God bless, Dwight

Pancho and the US Army together didn't have a rig that good looking. May God bless, Dwight

Texas Jack said it well enough for me. May God bless, Dwight

Resolene is one, . . . Bag Kote is another. I'm not really a big fan of Bag Kote, . . . but I use it occasionally, . . . Resolene is good stuff, . . . can be tricky and aggravating to apply at times, . . . but then so is a BLT with no mayo. A light coat of Resolene will be more satin, . . . two or more coats can approach plastic looking, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Go to my website, . . . go to the belt page, . . . diagram there will give you the best way I have found to measure a belt for a customer. (actually, . . . the customer does the measuring, . . . so if it is off, . . . you are not on the hook for bad measuring) I look at the "client" or at least at the weapon size, hoster design, IWB vs OWB, and I'll add anywhere from 1 to 3 inches depending on the factors I see that make it a requirement. May God bless, Dwight

I tried burning the ends, . . . too often I got a ball of hard crust that would lace you open like a 14 year old with a switchblade. I quit, . . . and I found out that once you apply a good finish onto those stitches, . . . they aren't going anywhere for a looooooong loooooooong time. I cut em as close as I can with my little snippy nosed scissors, . . . and call it a game. I do make sure that the ends are double stitched though, . . . sometimes just going around the project (holster) coming back to the same starting point, . . . doubling the stitches there. Sometimes starting out one direction, . . . doing 3 or 4 stitches, . . . turning and going back over them and finishing out the project at the other end of the stitch line, . . . again doubling my last 3 or 4 stitches (belt). May God bless, Dwight

Hey, friend, . . . congratulations, . . . welcome to the wonderful world of runaway sewing machines. Couple things you will come to understand: You almost never make an extra hole or two where you didn't want it hand stitching, . . . machines do that on any given day you look out the window. You never have to check out the amount of thread on the bobbin when hand stitching. Hand stitching never needs taken apart, . . . cleaned, . . . greased, . . . oiled, . . . put back together, . . . then taken apart again because you put it back together wrong the first time. You never have to send your hand needles back to the factory for calibration, testing, or adjustments: not so with machines. But other than that, . . . machine sewing is fun, . . . quick, . . . and if you are like me, . . . machine stitching tends to look much more "uniform". On my holsters, belts, even wallets, . . . I use 346 thread almost exclusively, . . . 277 only on special projects, . . . never drop down to 207, . . . and have been known to bump up to 406 if the project needs the beefy look of the fatter thread (which is not very often). I get mine from Tandy, . . . it has some kind of coating on it, . . . parrafin I suppose, . . . anyway, it works good. May God bless, Dwight

If you start out leaving about 6 or 8 inches of thread before the first stitch, . . . and end by cutting another 6 or 8 inches, . . . you can then go back with a single needle and hand stitch the ends, . . . wrapping around the outside, . . . giving that appearance. On a personal note, . . . though it is cute, . . . the 4 stitches on those outside edges, . . . they are the 4 stitches that will wear the most, . . . therefore breaking first. I would stop short by one or two stitch lengths, . . . that is what I do. May God bless, Dwight

Our prayers go up for you. Honestly never been there, don't want to ever go there. But it is REALLY heartening to see the positive attitude, . . . An old poster we used to have showed an airplane seeming to struggle as it left the runway. The message on the poster said: "Your attitude determines your altitude". Keeping a good attitude will get you back up. Keep us on your "informed" list as you recover, . . and let us know if there is anything we can do to help. May God bless, Dwight

If I were attempting that, . . . air brush is the only thing I would think of. I'm not really good with it, . . . and there are some folks on this site who do some fantastic stuff, . . . especially holsters, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, guys, for the vinegaroon info, . . . I can definitely see where that could make a dent in my production costs as a lot of the stuff going out my front door is black. I briefly email / chatted with Will on vinegaroon a couple years ago, . . . but just haven't had the time to begin another new process. Just may do that this summer, . . . IF, . . . and that's a big IF, . . . I get my new shop. Looking to relocate the leather work. May God bless, Dwight

Uhh, . . . 9 x 14 aluminum baking pan works real well. Pour the dye into the pan, . . . drag the item through the dye, . . . hang it up to dry, . . . pour whatever is left back into the bottle, . . . I gave up on sponges, brushes, applicators, etc, . . . mainly because I am a bit picky. If I am dyeing something, . . . I want the color to be uniform and predictable. Other than my baking pan, . . . an air brush was all I ever found that would do those two things, . . . and my ability to use it is pretty limited right now, . . . so I dip it. One caution on dipping, though, . . . if you are doing a belt, . . . lay out enough newspapers that you can lay the belt on one edge for the first 1/2 hour of the drying process. If you don't, . . . sometimes, . . . the dye will drift to the bottom end of a belt hung vertically right after dyeing. You wind up with a dark end and a lighter end, . . . UGH ! May God bless, Dwight

Yep, . . . correct assumption. When I first got started, . . . my "mentor" told me to use calf skin, . . . and sew them on, . . . and made it look easy. Because I had previously owned a sewn on one, . . . and didn't like it, . . . I went looking for another process. This process I use makes the loop in the same hole (in and out) which makes it very crowded in there, . . . and actually results in the leather getting "stretched" so to speak, . . . plus as I pull the loop tight, . . . I thumb the bullet left and right, . . . making the leather crease between the layers. I rivet the one end, . . . grab a coffee, . . . take a deep breath, . . . and 10 or 15 minutes of grunting, stretching, and pulling, . . . I'm smacking the other rivet, usually. Then, like I said earlier, . . . let it dry down a bit, . . . but not completely dry, . . . and very gingerly and carefully remove the cartridges. Then let it finish drying. May God bless, Dwight

Fred does that (a friend of mine), . . . his process follows mine (see above) except for the sewing machine part. He gets out his thread, . . . needles, . . . gloves, . . . scissors, . . . wax, . . . coffee, . . . doughnuts, . . . and most important, . . . his wife. Together, they hand sew cowboy action belts. It is about a 4 hour process so he said (I don't have the heart to watch such torture, . . . so I've never seen it). My machine and I are about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour, . . . depending on the, . . . uhh, . . . "girth". Seriously, . . . I suppose if you only cemented them with Weldwood, correctly, . . . they would "probably" stay together for a long time, . . . but in my opinion, . . . it is worthwhile to sew them. I personally would not sell one not sewn, unless the client knew in no uncertain terms up front that he/she was participating in a test lab situation. May God bless, Dwight

Rob, . . . I've never used vinegaroon, . . . what is the total process one has to do to get it right? Thanks, May God bless, Dwight

This is the way I learned to do bullet loops. I've tried sewing (ugh), . . . double punching (they fall out after a while), . . . and I even saw where one guy put a rivet between each loop, . . . I'm not doing that one. Anyway, . . . this is the first way I ever did one, . . . tried others, . . . came back to it, . . . quick, easy, works every time. I use 6/7 oz, . . . wet it pretty good to start, . . . actually use the bullets I'm making it for, . . . and I leave them in the loop after it is made until the leather is just damp. That usually is about a half hour after I finish the lacing. It makes a good solid loop. About that belt: don't worry about the inner piece, . . . cement it on, . . . sand and burnish the edges, . . . stitch gouge it, . . . stitch it, . . . finish it, . . . and wear it. My first one had some tiny little wrinkles in the liner for a while, . . . but my fat carcass (at the time) warmed it up inside, . . . and ironed out all of those wrinkles. It was as pretty inside as it was outside. I was at a gun show later, . . . a guy wanted to buy it, . . . his wife was pestering him for a belt, . . . he bought mine for himself, . . . gave the other one to his wife, . . . or at least that was the story I got. The only thing I do different for my own stuff, . . . I like a 3 inch wide belt, . . . most of those I make for other folks are 2 1/2, . . . they seem to like them better. May God bless, Dwight

I have always looked for a "use and care" sheet with pretty much anything I buy, . . . so I extend that to my customers. A "Thank You" letter, . . . plus a "use and care" sheet of do's and don'ts. May God bless, Dwight

I was in your shoes back about 6 or 7 years ago . . . when I saw my first Tippmann Boss. Cliff notes version: I've had one ever since, . . . love it, . . . and so far, I have not been disappointed in what it will or won't do. True, . . . when I get an order for a 55 inch belt, . . . I wish it had a motor, . . . but otherwise, it does all I want. I am looking for a chap machine, . . . electric, . . . as the Boss is a bit of overkill for chaps and billfolds, . . . but there are very few holsters it won't handle, . . . and pancakes are easy as pie on it. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Stitchwizard, . . . fellow Buckeye here, . . . and I've got a question for you. You list machine stitching of leather goods, . . . I'm in a pickle, . . . I need to add a sewing machine to my shop, . . . and my funds are definitely limited. I only need a machine that will do two things: one sew 4 to 5 stitches per inch (can't have that 6, 8, 10 spi stuff), . . . and it has to go through two layers 3 oz suede, cemented together. I have a machine that will do just short of 6 spi, . . . but it's only good on long runs, . . . I can't coax it slowly around a corner, . . . which is I guess a third requirement. Have you got a recommendation you could throw my way? Thanks, may God bless, Dwight