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

Go to the "How do I do that?" section, . . . check out the sticky, . . . "Wet formed bag tutorial" It should answer just about all your questions. May God bless, Dwight

Later last night, out on Ebay, there is a DVD from John Bianchi, . . . a little over $50, . . . I don't know if it is the same as the first one I saw, . . . but he is a very effective teacher, I think. May God bless, Dwight

For most folks who have a background in leather working, . . . the VHS tapes I saw by John Bianchi are a bit of overkill, . . . but he is fully thorough in his treatment of the subject. A person could start from knowing virtually nothing, . . . and build a really nice rig from those videos. There are three to the set. I don't remember the name, sorry, but a Goggle or two ought to find it. May God bless, Dwight

I cannot comment on what you have, . . . it sounds like some kind of polish or something. Beeswax used for leatherwork is beeswax plus nothing. Hard, honey smelling, dark yellow, .............. It is not very expensive, get a small cake of it, you will probably find the other "wax" is nothing like the real stuff. Mine comes from the honey bee hotel I maintain out in the back yard. May God bless, Dwight

Some time back a poster said they dipped their products and then used an air hose to lightly blow off any extra liquid. I have experimented with it, . . . and I like the effect it gives, . . . which is a very light coating of finish. For my IWB holsters, and my carry belts (the most of my business) I prefer to use a brush and a 50/50 mix of Resolene and water. But, . . . I'm working on using an air brush, . . . just have to wait and see where that takes me. May God bless, Dwight

Thomas, . . . get a can of Weldwood Contact Cement, . . . if you have the choice, . . . buy the jelled rather than the liquid. Get a handfull of acid brushes from a local plumber's supply, . . . they're cheap, . . . throw it after you use it. Put a coating on each piece, . . . flash dry it with a hair dryer or electric heat gun, . . . you can be stitching in 5 minutes. It is flexible, . . . super strong, . . . and a little bit of it goes a long way. It's only drawback is if you get any on a place you didn't want it, the dye will not penetrate that area. Just being careful takes care of that. For punching holes, . . . follow Rawhide's advice. It works. May God bless, Dwight

I use molds for my magazine carriers, . . . and I have a hydraulic press for some holsters. Neither one gets more than 1 full minute of mold time or press time. If the leather isn't stretched where I want it by then, . . . it ain't gonna stretch. But after molding, . . . I look for flaws, . . . maybe a piece of exterrranious junk made an erronious impression, . . . I'll smooth that out. They come out easy while the piece is still wet. Then I hang up to dry, . . . when they get rock hard, desert dry, . . . I go back to work on them. That is usually no less than 24 hours, . . . May God bless, Dwight

For what little white leather I have done, . . . I just buy white leather. Saves the mess and what little hair I still have. May God bless, Dwight

Like the answer to most questions: It depends. I'll look at any project I sew, . . . I really do like the look of stitches being down level in the groove, . . . not up on top of the leather. If it is a "doable" piece, . . . I'll stitch groove both sides, . . . as I use a Boss also, . . . and no matter what you do, . . . the back side never will look as "pretty" as the front, but having the groove there, . . . AND, . . . working the stitches after sewing, . . . makes to me a better looking product. Particle is very much correct though, there are sometimes when it just is not worth the gamble of ruining a project. Grooving on the backside can only work, . . . AFTER, . . . the edges have been very meticulously done. And it would do you well to save scraps of leather and practice edging and grooving and stitching. Whole lot easier to throw away two scraps than an otherwise nice product you messed up sewing. EDITED: Another thing that will definitely help though, . . . buy or make yourself a little table for the Boss. Mine is nothing more than a 12 in square of high density poly plastic, screwed to some 3/4 in plywood slab legs, with a hole drilled in the end to accept the bobbin area of the machine. It gives me a perfectly flat area to manipulat the piece being sewn, . . . and makes a world of difference in the ease of sewing. It'll also help out if you grooved the back side. May God bless, Dwight

I just wanted to say thank you all three for your comments, . . . artistic "stuff" has never been a long suit for me. I can cut, sand, drill, turn, burn, weld, with all sorts of confidence and capability, . . . but the "sweet touch" I never was able to cultivate. I'm just now beginning to try and get into more of the decorative touches in my leather work, photography, etc., . . . so it really helps when I can get this kind of help. The design is almost a direct copy off a Tandy leatherworking book. May God bless, Dwight

If I were doing this, . . . I would use a heavier string, . . . nylon for sure, . . . and would tie it off in the middle. Cut the ends with a very sharp pair of scissors, . . . hit the ends with a propane lighter or fire stick, . . . should work like a champ. See the little drawing. May God bless, Dwight PS: If you get over to the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane, . . . just wave at it for me, . . . no one there will remember me, . . . but I'll never forget Australia.