Dwight

If your resolene is cracking . . . you are doing it wrong. It needs to be diluted 1 to 1 with a good . . . clean . . . water. Mix it well. Then use a little 1 inch bristle brush and brush it on like it was a cheap paint. As you brush . . . you should have enough liquid to form a sort of bubbling foam . . . and you just brush that foam out . . . left, right, up, down, left sideways, right sideways . . . brush it until you have a semi dry surface. Do that on both sides of the belt . . . wait 24 hours . . . and if you want . . . Aussie wax will make it shine. There will be no rub off if you do it this way . . . and do it right. I've made and sold belts for 20 years this way . . . no problems so far. May God bless, Dwight

Late last year my standard sewing machine for very light leather and all materials just decided to roll over and quit. I shopped around and got a Singer 6800C . . . and I'm super happy with it. You have full control of the mschine at all times . . . and it will sew up to two layers of 3/4 oz veggie tan . . . plus all sorts of other thin leather. I use only carpet thread with it . . . a standard needle . . . and it's a great machine for me. On the side note . . . it also does all sorts of fancy quilting / stitching . . . options that are there but I don't use them. May God bless, Dwight

I did a special holster for a Marine . . . White paint was bought at Tandy . . . not sure of the name. Top coat is 50/50 Resolene and water . . . put on with a bristle brush. No problems for me. May God bless, Dwight

How heavy did you put it on? Did you dilute it before applying? How did you apply it? I've never had that problem . . . but I don't use a bunch of paint. May God bless, Dwight

That'll be a pain in the butt to replace . . . Just hope if it happens that Tandy picks up a decent line of dyes May God bless, Dwight

Looks good to me . . . I'm just not a fan of the scucide strap . . . much prefer putting a thumb break on a holster to help keep the weapon inside. Wish I had the skill to do the basketweave you did . . . my basketweave looks more like a basket explosion . . . lol May God bless, Dwight

Good job . . . I keep telling myself I need one of those pistols . . . and so far I keep losing the argument. Gonna be in the right place one day . . . and the price is gonna be right . . . and it'll come home with me Then I'll look back at this again and check out the holster . . . May God bless, Dwight

I do the same with Glocks and 1911's Had to kinda giggle though . . . you are the first one I've seen post something like it here. Good job . . . May God bless, Dwight

Yep . . . really good looking. I'm personally a big fan of what would be called "minimalist" stamping. You brought that out perfect for my taste. May God bless, Dwight

Generally speaking . . . a really good process is: Mark pattern and cut . . . dampen and mold . . . let dry . . . stitch / rivet / lace (as applicable) . . . OIL (real neatsfoot oil only . . . wet coat on the hair side only of the leather project . . . let dry for about 24 hours) . . . dye (let dry for 24 hours) . . . apply final coat of Resolene or other finish coating. Resolene is not only a sealer . . . it does not allow anything else to get in and do anything . . . at least for the first year or so. Have fun . . . may God bless, Dwight

I don't do masks . . . I'm ugly enough as it is . . . lol But I do do holsters . . . and I'm often tossed with "Can you make me a holster for ...........................??" My usual answer is "Yes" . . . they leave the gun or knife or ax or whatever . . . and I "make the model" I use two different mediums to create my pattern . . . manila folders . . . marine vinyl. The folders of course come from any office supply store or Walmart . . . but the thick and heavy vinyl I can only find at Joann Fabric shop. Fortunately for me . . . if you sign up with Joann . . . they'll send you their 40 or 50 or 60 percent off deal this week on certain stuff or maybe just one item of your choice. I grab the one item . . . buy two yards of the vinyl . . . which comes to a piece 72 inches long and I think 45 inches wide. LOTS of material to make models with. I just take a shot in the dark as to what I think something should look like . . . or I use my thumbs and literally "form" the manila folder around a gun or knife . . . take the scissors . . . cut out the rough shape . . . go from there. Either medium can be taped on the back to add where you cut off too much . . . then re-cut to the right shape. Hope this helps. May God bless, Dwight

Jump on up to 346 and you can forget all them there worries. I did. May God bless, Dwight

Grampa Joel . . . you figured out how to turn on your computer . . . get to a search engine . . . call up Leatherworker.net . . . Believe me . . . you are well on your way to being tech savvy enough to run a laser thingy. I got one for 50 bucks . . . long story . . . it is basically only for decorating wood and leather . . . will not cut out patterns . . . make wood projects . . . etc. All you have to do download LaserGRBL . . . free software . . . and basically anything you can turn into a *.jpg . . . you can put on the leather. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 . . . another free program . . . make it all there . . . copy / paste to another "Laser" file . . . and I've got it. The two things you have to understand is the power you are telling the laser to use . . . and the speed you want it to go. When I have something I think "might" be what I want . . . I toss a piece of flat cardboard (the kind they make bigger boxes out of) . . . and engrave it first. It'll show me if I'm too powerful . . . too slow . . . whatever. There is a bit of a learning curve there . . . but after a couple days (laser burning takes forever) . . . you'll get a feel for it . . . and it's fun. Amazon and Ebay have em out there starting at 150 bucks or so . . . which is what mine was originally I think. You have to watch one thing for sure when purchasing one . . . sellers lie to you . . . tell you the machine is 40 watt or 50 watt or something like that . . . when they are in effect telling you that it consumes that power. What you need to see is the OUTPUT power . . . and while mine is small . . . my next one will be in the 5 to 7.5 watt output. That will be a bunch faster I'm told. Anyway . . . think about it . . . but don't ponder forever. While you were pondering . . . you coulda been playing. May God bless, Dwight

What I would do is match the number of students with the number of prepared pieces. Say you are doing a coin purse . . . 3 inches by 3 inches. Have a block of leather you can cut the pieces from. Show them how to punch the stitching holes or lacing holes. Allow them to wet the front so they can add a few stampings . . . (you have determined what the stamping will look like . . . everyone is the same) Allow them to stamp the pieces . . . Gather up the dampened and stamped pieces . . . put them in a freezer plastic bag. Out of another freezer plastic bag . . . take out the now dried out front pieces done by your last class . . . 2 weeks before or so. Help them stitch the edges or lace the edges. Edge and burnish the edges once stitched. Antique the pieces and rub until dry enough to go into a pocket. Send the kids home with their projects. You also now have the stamped and dampened fronts that will be dried before you start with the next bunch. May God bless, Dwight

If I could make a suggestion . . . that type machine was not really intended for that thin of thread. Kinda like a Cadillac Escalade carrying coal for a coal stove. Move up to at least 207 or 277 thread . . . you'll find you will be getting much better results most likely. May God bless, Dwight

It actually was not painful . . . felt as though I had a piece stuck on my tooth . . . went to the mirror to see . . . chunk of the tooth was gone . . . Doc put a corral around the tooth . . . filled it with his magic potion . . . let it dry . . . sanded and ground it down to where it was needed . . . told me to see the receptionist . . . she handed me the bill. THAT WAS the painful part May God bless, Dwight

Best I can describe it . . . there was a white . . . waxy feel to the thread itself. And if I did a cowboy belt on my Boss . . . there would be a white residue on the needle by the time I got doe with sewing the belt. It would gather on the left edge of the needle . . . and I'd have to take my finger and thumb . . . kinda "milk" the glob off into my hand and then into the trash basket. Things I liked the most about it was it never moved . . . once sewed . . . it was done . . . and there was no frayed little wisps of thread like I occasionally find with the present thread I'm using. May God bless, Dwight

How do you use one of those? I believe one came with my Cowboy 4500 . . . some kind of a pot like thing that sits up on top . . . never saw any directions or anything on how to use it . . . Maybe you could give me a clue??? May God bless, Dwight

When I first bought my Tippmann Boss from Tandy . . . I bought and used a waxed 346 white thread that I loved . . . One day they did not supply it any more . . . new stuff was not waxed. Since bought a Cowboy 4500 . . . and while it sews OK . . . no problems there . . . would like to get back to that waxed thread look I used to make. Tried every search angle I can find . . . Ebay . . . Amazon . . . Google . . . Hoping someone on here can point me to some. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

Last bout with popcorn cost me 382 bucks . . . and a solid hour in one of them there dentist chairs. And it was the soft stuff . . . no kernals. Sticking to Doritos Nachos . . . May God bless, Dwight

The newer drywall knife . . . utility knife . . . is the greatest tool I've ever used. Round knives simply scare me . . . Fixed blades need to be sharpened too often This does exactly what is needed . . . pretty darn safe to use . . . flip the blade when the first half gets dull . . . and not that expensive. I just don't hardly ever use anything else . . . been that way for over 20 years . . . May God bless, Dwight

No argument with much of what you said . . . just one to mention . . . I bought the jacket from Pakistan . . . simply because it was the only place I could find that had the style jacket I wanted . . . AND . . . would make the alterations I wanted. I happen to be one of those long legged, long armed hillbillys that's hard to fit in anything mass produced. I simply could not find one here in the states . . . at any price point. So in that case it is you do what ya gotta do to get what you want. My main gripe was the advertisement of "leather goods" in the stores I visited . . . and a huge bunch of it was vinyl/cloth leather look alike. The leather jackets they were offering did not have an origin tag . . . but they were sloppy made . . . positively ugly . . . and there was no one there to say "how can we get you what you want" . . . it was more "thats what we got . . . buy it or leave" . . . The belts were imitation hand made . . . I would not have worn one to a dog fight . . . and like I said . . . there were many of the ones made from glued and pressed leather remnants . . . started at 26 bucks and they went up from there. I think they were trying to interest the "wanna be" cowboy / cowgirl crowd . . . as some of them were just audacious in their design . . . And I am . . . halfway between a hobbyist and making a living . . . it's a part time job where I make custom holsters, belts, knife sheaths, ax sheaths, and other stuff. I've repaired saddles, made halters, made chinks and chaps, even made a USMC style hat from leather. It is a one man operation . . . but if I had started this a number of years back . . . I can see myself with 2 or 3 or 4 trusted employees . . . earning a living with leather . . . together. And you are totally correct in the description you gave of that gambit . . . tough sledding for sure. But in the end . . . big company or small . . . one man or many . . . giving the customer a product that could possibly go down to his grandchildren . . .because it was well designed . . .. well made . . . etc. . . . that's my goal in leatherwork. Two holsters went out of here Saturday . . . I have no doubt that at least children will inherit them . . . and they could easily be passed on to the grandchildren. Another one and a belt to match will go out sometime this week . . . with the same perceived destination. May God bless, Dwight

I won't give the location . . . but I was in two different "leather" shops last week . . . Much of it was vinyl glued to fabric to stiffen it . . . Leather coats were absolute junk . . . my Pakistan cafe racer jacket I paid a hundred and a half for . . . was three times the quality of that junk . . . and they wanted twice my Pakistan price. Belts looked like that pressed together and glued stuff from China . . . single layer . . . with buckle . . . no design . . . 26 bucks each and up I was almost ashamed to mention in that company I work in leather . . . afraid someone would mistake me for them . . . May God bless, Dwight

Weaver's and others will make them. Maybe try Tipmann in Ft. Wayne . . . they make some . . . IIRC Ching chong chinamen will also make it . . . look on Ebay for them . . . May God bless, Dwight

Or over the phone the customer repeats the name of his son Ephan . . . E P H A N You confirm . . . yes . . . E P H A N Customer comes to pick up order . . . That name is misspelled . . . its E T HAN Still have a little black belt . . . about a 28 inch . . . waiting for EPHAN to show up needing a belt. May God bless, Dwight