Dwight

I just googled "concealed carry purse pattern" and got this: http://www.thebagladyoftulsa.com/Gun-Purses.html Got some good lookin' stuff there. May God bless, Dwight

If you send an email to Weaver Leather Co, . . . explain it all to them, . . . they may still be marketing a little tool they had up there a year or so ago. It literally "centered" your punch for you on various widths of belts, straps, whatever. I looked at it, . . . decided that if my eyes ever got bad enough, . . . I'd make me one of them. May God bless, Dwight

I have found that if I want a brown to be consistent, . . . even, . . . etc, . . . the ONLY way for me is to do the dye job first. Pour the dye into the 11 x 14 baking pan, . . . drop in the leather, . . . turn it over, . . . pull it out, . . . lay it flesh side down on newspaper for about a half hour, . . . then grab a corner with a clothes pin on a string over my wood stove or a register (hang in the window for sunlight in the summer), . . . let it dry for at least 24 hours. Lou Alessi told me before he passed on that he always dyed his holsters before he did any of the forming stuff, . . . and it was always dip dyed. I like dip dyeing better than anything else because you get a deep color, . . . tried the air brush and found out it is only a light surface color, . . . not what I personally wanted. YMMV. May God bless, Dwight

This is exactly what I use, . . . I run my belt blanks from right to left, . . . letting the belt "finish" the work on the left edge of the sanding belt, . . . against the metal backing plate, . . . feeding it with my right hand, . . . and using my left hand as the guide for the belt blank. I get beautifully sanded edges, . . . very little work to burnish them smooth, . . . use a # 4 edger just before I burnish, . . . to me it makes a beautiful edge. Yes, . . . there usually is a little flap on the bottom side after the sanding, . . . but that is why I also use the edger, . . . it cleans that off right now. You might take your strap cutter, . . . make a 20 inch or so couple of pieces of leather 1 1/2 wide, . . . glue em together for a belt, . . . practice sanding em off. It won't take long to get the hang of it if your hands are steady at all. May God bless, Dwight

I'd say the problem is here: and then applied a bunch of coats of NO until it was soft. If you wanted a soft belt, you should have used something other than Resolene, . . . BagKote comes to mind, . . . or a bees wax / NO combination. I NEVER do more than a very light coating of neatsfoot oil on any of my projects, . . . and that only to the hair side. ONE coat, . . . no more. May God bless, Dwight

Actually you can get just as good, . . . if not better results with a WOOD burnisher. There are many ways of getting them, . . . but if you use John's basic idea of an electric motor, you can add the wood part on a shaft, . . . on an arbor, . . . or on a ball bearing shaft, . . . The key is to use hard wood, . . . sand it smooth (and I mean SMOOTH, type SMOOTH), . . . dress it with some bee's wax to finish the smoothing process. It will do every bit as well as the wool type, . . . I've had both. But, . . . if you have to have the wool, . . . you can buy a small piece from McMaster-Carr, . . . just Google that name, . . . find it in their on line catalog, . . . call em up, . . . give em your credit card info, . . . you'll be in business in about 48 hours. May God bless, Dwight

Bob, . . . you might try a product called Bag Kote, . . . another Feibings product. It produces a much softer looking and feeling product without all the sheen. I use both Resolene and Bag Kote, . . . resolene 50/50 with water, . . . bag kote is 60/40, bag kote to water. I brush both on with a bristle brush, . . . that 1 inch wide, 49 cent, el cheapo, pure bristle brush, . . . then wash the brush out with soap and water. I lather it on fairly good, . . . making sure that each and every square inch is covered, . . . including the edges, . . . brush it , brush it, brush it, . . . back and forth, . . . up and down, . . . oblique left/down then right/down, . . . and keep brushing until all the bubbles are pretty well brushed out, . . . I then hit it VERY CAREFULLY with my heat gun to dry up any streaks that might try to form, . . . If I want a high gloss finish, . . . using this priocess, . . . I usually have to do multiple coats. I personally shy away from Bag Kote only because the ammonia (or something in it) aggravates my breathing, . . . but it is a good product. With either one, . . . I then hang em up for 24 hours before I get serious about handling them. May God bless, Dwight

hectron, . . . when in doubt, . . . refer to Radar's message. He has the subject well covered. Super sheen is sort of the bottom rung on the finishing ladder. Resolene takes you much further up, . . . gives you UV protection, . . . is almost water proof, . . . leaves a beautiful shine, . . . is easy to work with. It is not a "be all" or "do all" finish, . . . but it is hard to beat for holsters, belts, some purses, bags, boxes, knife sheaths, seats, etc. Mayy God bless, Dwight

Mine looks a bit different, . . . came from Harbor Freight, . . . cost half that price, . . . but it does a great job. Oh, . . . bearings are going out too, . . . musta used it too much. 1 inch by 30 belt, . . . I can edge a 40 inch belt with it in about 4 to 6 minutes. When I use a spindle sander, . . . I can't get the edge to stay straight, . . . gets all wavey and funky lookin, . . . much prefer the belt sander. After sanding, . . . I hit it with the edger, . . . sew it, . . . finish it. May God bless, Dwight

Hope you don't mind, Rick, . . . thought I'd just reserve a space in here too, . . . I'd like to know. I go through 3 each 12 cup pots every day, . . . and if I can turn those grounds into some profit, . . . or less expense, . . . that'd be great. May God bless, Dwight

Sylvia's way works, . . . but if you make the front out of a little thinner leather, . . . line it with another piece of leather, . . . you'll end the problem much quicker, . . . and more permanently. The other thing of course, . . . use a better grade of leather, . . . and be careful where you cut it out of the hide. That is one of the reasons I use double shoulders almost exclusively. I don't REFUSE to make an unlined belt, . . . but I hate to do it, . . . knowing a lined belt is SOOOOOOOOOO much better. May God bless, Dwight

Trojan Rabbit, . . . do yourself a favor and throw that stuff out with Monday's left over fish. Get a bottle of Resolene, . . . like Radar said, . . . it works. I do the exact same thing he spoke of, . . . I have never had one project, . . . one piece bleed through Resolene, . . . May God bless, Dwight

If my customer can't be persuaded to choose my "Cactus" model for IWB, . . . my next choice for them is a pancake. IF I make them an IWB pancake, . . . it is always a "flat backed" pancake. I've found that will make it much harder for the holster to collapse inside the waistband without the hand gun in it. As LOBO pointed out, . . . a standard pancake can collapse like a pin pricked balloon. But then again, . . . almost all of my customers are looking for concealability and comfort, . . . and I make only a few OWB holsters. May God bless, Dwight

When you get going well with that stuff, . . . remember that I also saved $45 on my "blue gun" Ruger LCP, . . . and another $45 on my little "blue gun" Keltec. They're both plywood, . . . and make perfect holsters. I'm making a Judge next. May God bless, Dwight

Going along with Lobo, . . . gun shows in general will usually have at least one table with a bunch of used magazines, . . . they are usually up for grabs. Personally, . . . I have a disc sander, . . . and a chop saw out in my shed. I can make any magazine out there out of scrap wood pieces, . . . in all of about 20 minutes. I did it just last week for a Glock, . . . customer wanted two Glock mags under his arm, . . . back to back, . . . so I made a yellow pine Glock mag, . . . worked like a champ. May God bless, Dwight

You can also use this little trick, . . . it'll take a few minutes to make, . . . but with a couple different ones, . . . you can get differrent looks. May God bless, Dwight

Curved gun belts come in many different iterations: A curved gun belt like Marsahll Matt Dillon wore, . . . you would make it 3 inches wide and the center hole on the tongue would be made 38 inches from the tip of the belt buckle (John Bianchi standard). A curved gun belt like John Wayne wore in True Grit, . . . is 2 1/2 inches wide, . . . and again would be 38 inches, measured like the above belt. A curved gun belt to wear today with your concealed 1911, . . . would be 1 7/16 inches wide, . . . and would have 7 holes (instead of Walmart's standard of 5) and the center hole would be 36 inches from the tip of the belt buckle. You can also go to the "Belt" page of my website, . . . it will show you the proper way to measure for a new belt. May God bless, Dwight

That particular armor is called Lorica Segmentata, . . . and is a pain to build. I have the metal version, . . . which is fairly authentic. That style as leather armor was never really used by anyone back then, . . . but is used today by actors and/or re-enactors. Good luck,.............. May God bless, Dwight

Do you have a picture of the back? I would love to see how that was done, . . . looks like a very interesting design. May God bless, Dwight

You don't say how big the circles are, . . . and that can be the deal breaker, . . . or deal maker. Personally, . . . I hate making repetitious cuts, . . . etc, . . . so I make tools for such things. In this case, . . . say for example I wanted the circles to be about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, . . . and the bar about 2 inches long and about a half inch wide. I'd first find a piece of 1 1/2 inch electrical mettalic tubing (better known as thinwall conduit), . . . cut it off about 9 inches long, . . . lay it up real easy against my sander, . . . sharpen the outside edge of one end of the conduit. I'd then take a grinder and grind off a section a half inch wide and about 3/4 inch deep. I'd then make me a piece of pine wood, . . . 1/2 inch wide, . . . and about 5 inches long. Position the pipe at one end of the board, . . . punch it through the leather with a mallet, . . . move it to the other end of the board, . . . punch it through. Use the board to mark where the sides should be cut with a razor knife, . . . cut em. Done ! Using EMT conduit, . . . your edges will not be perfect, . . . but they will be uniformly imperfect, . . . each one will be the same. The drawing may help illustrate the idea. I use these types of punches for all my repetitive punching work, . . . have quite a number of them built over the years. May God bless, Dwight

I use the paragon shaped knife blades in my strap cutter as well as to do all my leather cutting of patterns, etc. I have a round knife, . . . just do not like the critter. And, . . . yes, . . . I made a strop of a scrap piece of 10 oz leather, . . . little jeweler's rouge, . . . keeps my knife blades all sharpened until I chip em or something that makes em unserviceable. They work much better than straight out of the mfg'r's package. May God bless, Dwight

Good Morning, I'm attaching some drawings for you, shoulder pieces and front and back. I'll send you a paper cut out of the two big pieces if you send me a snail mail address. My original pattern was a "trial and error" cutting of black vinyl from JoAnn Fabrics, I bought a 45 inch by 36 inch piece for $16.99 or so. It is a little flimsy when compared to the leather, . . . but works wonderfully when compared to paper. The leather measures .165 thick, which is 10/11 oz leather. I happened to walk in to a Tandy shop the day they got some "consignment" leather in, which had some sort of finish and pattern on it, . . . I purchased two pieces, . . . something near 40 x 60, . . . and made the armor, shoulder pieces, grieves, cuffs, belt, apron, and still have a few scrap pieces. I use the armor in my persona presentation of the Centurion of Capernaum, Salvatorus Antonio, from the year 35AD. One thing you MUST remember to do with this type of armor if you are going to wear it, . . . make sure the arm holes and neck holes are big enough. If they are not, . . . they will rub you raw, . . . and you run a real risk of infection, . . . Secondarily to that, . . . in your forming process, . . . look real close at mine, there are two wooden blocks forming the "breast plate" projections, as well as a downward curving crescent. The forming process for that was done on a flat table to get the impressions, . . . tough on the thumbs, believe me, . . . and the downward curving crescent was nothing more than a piece of 3/8 inch rubber hose, taped to the table. The blocks were also taped to the table. After you get your details formed, . . . work on rounding your shoulders and the sides, . . . but do the detail stuff first. Soak your leather in the bathtub in water that is as hot as you can stand to work in it, . . . soak it for a good 4 or 5 minutes, . . . you want it really wet, . . . but don't use scalding water. You should be able to keep your hands in the water. Block off about an hour and a half or two hours to do this process. You need to form it, . . . then go back and play with it every few minutes to make sure the shape is not changing. (I actually used a piece of screen wire, rolled into about a 24 inch tube, . . . 6 feet long, . . . suspended in my hallway over a heater register, up about 36 inches from the floor, . . . to finish the rounded forming and drying of the sides. The shoulder straps just hung down over the ends of the tube.) When you get it out of the water, take it immediately to your forming table, . . . do the breast pieces, etc, . . . get that done first. You can then form the rounded parts over a 5 gallon plastic water jug, . . . must be smooth so you don't get inadvertent impressions. BE SURE TO DO THIS: at the neck holes, arm holes, and bottom of both pieces, . . . use your thumbs to form it outward, like the edges of a funnel. Roll the leather out, . . . this gets rid of the sharp edge that will chafe you mercilessly. It also adds tremendous rigidity to the armor. Leave it to dry for at least 36 hours, . . . do not try to force dry it, . . . maybe put a fan on it, . . . but no electric heater or such. I have not done any detail carving on mine yet, . . . but all the Roman statues show wreaths, birds, people, some of their gods, . . . lots of details were put on their armor. That of course was for the Emperor and Legio's, . . . but hey, . . . centurions are a bit vain too, . . . need a bit of "decoration" When I do it, . . . I'll just cut the detail like a carving and then paint the details. Probably going to be an eagle and a wreath, . . . not sure yet. If you have any questions, . . . email me back. May God bless, Dwight

One quick cure, . . . 50/50 mixture of Resolene and water, . . . brush on with a cheap bristle brush. Let it dry for 24 hours. Should end the dye coming out. May God bless, Dwight

What size are you? I'm 6'1" and about 180, . . . would my armor fit you? If so, . . . I can mail you a paper pattern. It is similar to the centurion's armor in the recent movie The Eagle with Channing Tatum. May God bless, Dwight

I only heat dry in the winter time, . . . over the wood stove during the day, . . . above the propane furnace at night. In the warmer months, . . . it all gets hung in the sun to dry. I will probably build a cabinet next fall, . . . but only if I am successful at building business more than it is now. May God bless, Dwight