Dwight

If you are doing only small stuff, . . . a 1 ton arbor press from Harbor Freight is only $50. I use it for everything from my maker's stamp down to my 1/2 inch lettering. The best part is that it gives me a "uniform" look across the lettering or stamping, . . . something I could not get with my mallet / hammer / sledge / hatchet / etc. May God bless, Dwight

ShortBBL, . . . I'm one who makes first, . . . dyes later. I've done the drum dyed, . . . won't be going back there, . . . don't like the leather. I've also dyed then assembled, . . . but most of the time, . . . it is assemble, . . . they dye. Lou Alessi was the other way around, . . . cut, dye, assemble. Dyeing is not an art, . . . but it can make you pull your hair out trying to get just the right effect. I'm working on a single holster western rig right now that I want to do in a light grey color, . . . I got the color I want, . . . but all top coats I've tried have altered the color. I'll just keep messing with it until I get it. I'm also in the process of building a spray booth, . . . got the gun & compressor, . . . gotta have a booth, . . . then the dyeing will get to be fun. Or maybe I'll really be bald, . . . whatever. May God bless, Dwight

The main most thing I have a problem with, . . . is watching my left hand. I'm naturally right handed, . . . eat, type, shoot, throw, shift, . . . do it all righty. Every time I pick my head knife up, . . . I make a mental note to watch that left hand, . . . because if it is in the way and I slip, . . . it is in trouble. That is also the reason that I use a drywall knife for most of my cutting. May God bless, Dwight

You may also like to try Feibings Ox Blood and USMC Black, . . . about a 2 to 1 ratio, . . . I've used that and been satisfied with the results. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, hivemind, . . . I'm working on a late 1880's style SAA rig, . . . part of the "Set" is an antler handled knife that would double as a short sword, . . . never made one, . . . like the idea of the buttcap. Keep up the good work. May God bless, Dwight

FWIW, . . . I contacted Galco a couple years ago, . . . wanted to make myself another paddle, . . . their rep said they would sell me their plastic part for ten or twelve bucks. I thought about it, . . . decided against it. You may want to contact them. Stay away from the $20 jobs you find at cheap gun stores, gun shows, and flea markets. They break at the drop of a flea's hat. May God bless, Dwight

Spurs, . . . enclosed is the notes I give out/use for a class I teach on making a pancake. Take your time, . . . visualize each step, . . . PM me if you have any questions. May God bless, Dwight

I was thinking earlier today about a knife with an antler handle, . . . lo and behold, . . . here it is. Now for the $64,000 question: how do you lock the antler onto the handle without a rivet or pin showing? I can see a pin on yours, but on others I've seen I am at a loss as to how to do it. Thanks, . . . and both are some good looking work as far as I can see. May God bless, Dwight

What kind of holster do you want to make for it? May God bless, Dwight

Another thing you can do, . . . thin down some of the buckskin to about an 80/20 thinner to dye ratio in a small bottle. Just touch it with their yellow, adding drops with an eye dropper one at a time, . . . mixing, . . . spotting on a scrap piece of leather and quick drying with a hair dryer. You will probably come real close that way, . . . and when you find the combination that works good, . . . if you have access to an air brush, . . . try using it on some scrap leather pieces. The trick is to mix up the dye a bit lighter than you really want it to end up, . . . that way you can add successive coats and it will darken. Tricks learned after 30 years in a paint plant, . . . making automotive refinish paint, . . . but applicable to this operation also. May God bless, Dwight

FWIW, . . . I had several email discussions years ago with Lou Alessi on holsters. His professional process was to cut and then dye them. It was the second step in his process, . . . and considering that his business made thousands and thousands of holsters, . . . I worked out for him. I personally don't like to do it that way, . . . but then again, . . . I do a lot of things differently from accepted ways. May God bless, Dwight

All of the belts I sell on my website are double layer: I start out with the front piece, . . . hit it with calipers, . . . then go looking for the back liner. 8 oz is supposed to be .125 thick, . . . but often times will run much thicker, . . . and what I am looking for is a total of .118 to .124, . . . which my experience has shown me is just about perfect for carrying a handgun, ammo, etc. As mentioned, . . . cemented & sewn, . . . although I do have one out there I did not stitch, . . . it is a "trial" that has been going on for over 4 years now, . . . no complaints. May God bless, Dwight

I laughinly tell many of my (face to face & CHL) customers that the best way to get their holster to fit them and their gun: find a really good restaurant about 2 hours drive from home. Put on the holster, put in the gun, get in the car, turn on the heater, buckle up, . . . go get a meal at that restaurant. When you get home and get out of the car, . . . it will be fitting you like a glove. It takes a little body heat, . . . time, . . . etc. So far they have all laughed, . . . I don't know how many have done it, . . . but they haven't come back complaining either. The next step is to have him put the handgun in a baggy, . . . put on the holster with the handgun, . . . and wear it around the house for a day or two, . . . especially seated, . . . maybe watching a movie or two. Again, . . . the body heat will take care of it if there is any taking care of it to be done. It may be that you will have to remake it, . . . but so far I've been pretty much able to avoid that. May God bless, Dwight

We may be doing a "word play" thing here: but I have always called the black plastic thing that uses an actual razor blade a box cutter. They start out sharp, but are only good for about one belt, and the blade is wobbly and thin. I have x-acto knives gathering dust because they also are too wobbly and thin. I have three drywall knives that use a blade that is shaped like a trapezoid. The blades change by pushing a button at the blade end of the knife body, and as Bison mentioned, they need to be stropped well to stay sharp. On the average, I can cut 2 or 3 full belts out without having to stop and strop the blade. Having 3 knives allows me to also just pick up another knife and keep cutting. Sharpening each end of all 3 blades can take a half hour of time to do (also sipping a spot of tea or some coffee along the way) but it is well worth the effort when you see the final results. Doing only straight cuts in 6 oz leather, . . . you will love the drywall knife. May God bless, Dwight

I am the newbie on the block when we talk air brushing, . . . but I bought my stuff from Harbor Freight (there's a www.com version) and if you only want one gun and one bottle, you can get started for $15. You will need a compressed air source to go with it. One idea I had but discarded, was to use a small 12 volt compressor we carry around in our cars to blow up low tires. With a very small tank, and a cheap regulator, you could pump it up while you are doing the leather work, and then use the air out of the tank. Just a thought. Some garden sprayers also pump up pretty good pressure also, use the hose from it to go to your air brush. If I didn't have my compressor, . . . I'd probably try that one. May God bless, Dwight

I don't have a Glock 26, . . . but of the others I do have, . . . I have never had that problem. The only issue I ever had was with a Springfleld 1911, an older stainless model, . . . the slide was definitely bigger than my mold, . . . and definitely bigger than a "standard" 1911. It was the only one I ever encountered, . . . but it did happen. Put some duct tape on that puppy and build it up. May God bless, Dwight

I have two old 9 x 13 baking pans, . . . one is for browns, . . . one is for black. Pour in the dye, . . . "dip" the leather, . . . hang up the leather, . . . pour dye back into bottle, using funnel. Depending on the color, . . . I've found some work even better if I cut it somewhat with the thinner. It seems to be more even then. It is really the only way I can successfully dye a belt and get the color I really want. May God bless, Dwight

The words amazing and awesome seem to be too shallow to describe your work. Thank you for sharing, . . . as previously mentioned, . . . it gives us pause to think about how well we do our work. May God bless, Dwight

The important piece of information is missing: What do you want to do? Purses, . . . military pouches, . . . holsters, . . . masks, . . . armor, . . . bottles, . . . bags, . . . boxes, . . . ??????? They each require different approaches, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Normow, . . . PM me with your snail mail address, . . . I'll send you some help. I teach this particular holster class at a local Tandy shop in Columbus, Ohio. May God bless, Dwight

Just a tip, . . . contact my supplier for all your blue guns. I shopped the I-net for a couple of days, a few years back to get the best prices. These are the folks with the best. They have even had the stuff drop shipped from their supplier, saving me money on the shipping. And because they don't have it today, . . . doesn't mean that they cannot get it shipped to you tomorrow. They are a 1st class organization in my book. May God bless, Dwight Contact: www.letargets.com

Thank you, Bondo Bob, . . . thought for a while I was alone I have one exception to the above, . . . it is a special color I cannot (haven't figured it out yet, truthfully), . . . get using Pro Oil dyes. Other than that, . . . Pro is my only dye for all my projects. May God bless, Dwight

Now I'm probably not going to say what you want to hear, . . . but here it comes anyway: Do you have cable or satellite TV? Do you smoke? Do you drink occasionally? Do you do a couple of Starbucks Latte's each week? Do you buy a handful of lottery tickets every week? If you answered yes to any two of the above, . . . you can afford a brand spanking new, . . . warranty and all, . . . Tippmann Boss stitcher. $1195 was the price the other day if I am not badly mistaken. Then you can honestly begin to turn out one extra belt every week (an absolute PAIN if you have to hand stitch a 52 inch belt), . . . or an extra holster per week, . . . and once you start doing that, . . . you can go back to your bad habits that you gave up to get the Boss in the first place. OR, . . . maybe you will be quit of the bad habit, . . . and can save the cash for a better machine farther down the road. Seriously, . . . I hand stitched for a while, . . . and I really am not sure I would go back to it if I could not use a machine. I love working leather, . . . but maybe I would find stuff that didn't need to be sewn, ................. Anyway, . . . may God bless, Dwight

If it were my project, . . . I'd go straight to a local shop that engraved plastic desk sets, name badges, etc. They use a 2 or 3 ply plastic, . . . engrave off the top portion and it reveals the center color, . . . in this case, engrave off the red, . . . the white will show through. A good craftsman could make the "guts" for your project in litle or no time, . . . all you would have to do then is fabricate the black pieces and stitch them around the plastic, . . . The plastic I used to use, . . . it was only 1/16th of an inch thick, . . . my Tippmann Boss would sew that without any trouble at all I am sure. May God bless, Dwight

Arda, . . . an old fashioned, . . . but very useable knife sheath is two parts: the inside is rawhide, hard, ugly, hard to work, but endearingly tough and long lasting. The outside is whatever you want to use to decorate it. If you look on my website www.dwightsgunleather.com and go to the sample page, . . . down in the bottom left corner is a fringed knife sheath for a knife that overall was about a half meter (20 inches) in length. It has a deer anter for it's handle. It and the gun bag in the opposite corner went to the same customer, . . . if I said he was happy, . . . I'm not even close. He was much closer to ecstatic. The key to making it work is working out just the right size, . . . too big and it is floppy and noisy, . . . too small and you'll cut it apart getting the knife in and out. This site will give you some good information, . . . just keep asking the questions. May God bless, Dwight