Dwight

Did 5 belts for a lady at church . . . another 5 for a veteran's group . . . and a couple more for regular customers. Gotta put buckles on em later today . . . they'll be ready for pickup May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, everyone . . . I had a hunch that might be the ticket . . . but asking the question can make one more sure . . . and I am now. May God bless, Dwight

I have always used Feibings dye reducer with my dyes . . . But if I had to do a small batch . . . trying for a custom color . . . I don't want to open a new bottle. What would be a good substitute for diluting only Feibings dyes? I don't use anything else. Thanks for any help you can send my way. May God bless, Dwight

I sometimes have the same "problem" with pancake holsters. I learned a long time ago . . . use enough leather so there is at least a quarter to 3/8 inch "extra" all the way around . . . and if it is a larger handgun . . . I'll go for 1/2 to 3/4 inch waste all the way around. I wet mold both pieces . . . let em dry . . . lay the handgun in the back side . . . apply contact cement around the edges . . . to within 1/8 of an inch of the gun . . . then take the front side . . . lay the handgun in it . . . and apply contact cement to it. Let the cement dry . . . (you can force dry with a heat gun) . . . put the halves together with the handgun inside the holster. I use a small Harbor freight belt sander tro even up the edges . . . with a little wooden jig to space it out wherever I want it. Picture below shows it. May God bless, Dwight

I am trying to gravitate off to belts from mostly holsters . . . and that design is just one I have. I make all my own templates . . . using wood . . . and it is really easy to lay down a piece of leather . . . dampen it lightly . . . get my little wooden pattern maker . . . a scribe . . . and mark it. But all of you hand stitchers never have to worry about me getting into your business . . . I ONLY hand stitch when I goof up and have to re- do a section or something. Mom introduced me to the sewing machine some 72 or so years ago . . . and I still like it better than the needle . . . pliers and thimble. May God bless, Dwight

Neither . . . Feibing sells their own reducer . . . I wouldn't use anything else. Others get away with it (or say they do) . . . using other stuff . . . THIS works . . . first time . . . every time May God bless, Dwight

I use Feibing oil dye and pro dye . . . exclusively . . . only 4 colors . . . always 50 /50 diluted. That keeps the expected results always predictable . . . or reasonably so anyway. May God bless, Dwight

First thing . . . ALWAYS dilute feibings dyes . . . at least 2 dye to 1 thinner. Preferably . . . 50 / 50 . . . has always worked great for me. Second . . . you are wasting good money putting the red on first. Forget that step . . . unless it is some kind of a two tone effect you are trying to achieve. If you want straight black . . . then dye black . . . period. Third . . . let it FULLY . . . FULLY . . . dry . . . 24 hours does it pretty good usually. 4th . . . buff with a dry cloth . . . alcohol should NOT be involved . . . best cloth is an old tee shirt . . . or an old bath towel. Buff until you do not get any more rub off. That is the way not to get any rub off later. I do not get any rub off whatsoever using the above technique . . . and I finish with one or two light coats of resolene . . . cut 50 / 50 with water. May God bless, Dwight

I am sure I could personally conjure up a pair of moccasins that I could wear. I need more than that. With my neuropathy in my feet . . . any shoe I have ever worn . . . begins to hurt my feet after 4 or 5 hours . . . they HAVE TO come off. I want to make a pair of mocassins that will stand maybe "short" cowboy boot height . . . maybe 4 inches above my ankle If you have such an animal . . . I'd love to see it. May God bless, Dwight

Honestly . . . I have no idea of what size needle I've always used in my boss (20 yrs) . . . as I'm still on the bunch I got with it originally. Don't recall where I saw it . . . but I saw a video that said "this is the way to size your needle for your thread" Cut off a piece of string about 36 inches long . . . thread it thru the needle. Grasp the thread in your two hands . . . wrapping it so you can hold it tight. Slide the needle up against your right hand thumb. Hold the string level and tight . . . lift your right hand while you lower your left hand. The needle should slide all the way down (fairly quickly as well) to your left hand long before you are holding the thread at a 45 degree angle. If it hesitates . . . go up one needle size and try that again. So far it had worked for me virtually every time. May God bless, Dwight

I did not read all the other posts . . . but I'll comment my thoughts. #1 . . . I made and sold belts . . . holsters . . . western gun rigs . . . knife sheaths . . . billfolds . . . and whatever with a Boss for 18 years . . . using 346 thread almost exclusively. Never had any problem except that at 6 stitches per inch . . . they way I make a 40 inch belt . . . puts me at just about 600 stitches total. 600 pulls on the handle . . . and 600 pushes up on the handle. Generally that was about a 20 minute endeavor. #2 . . . I would still be using it had not a good samaritan not reached out and helped me buy my 4500 electric. #3 . . . I would not sell you my Boss (its 24 yrs old) . . . for anything less than 750 dollars. Go from there my friend. May God bless, Dwight

Trash can would already have happened for me. I'm of the opinion that I'm not going to let 10 bucks worth of raw material destroy 50 dollars or more of material and labor . . . I'll pitch it first. May God bless Dwight

Yeah . . . I don't like pocket ammo either . . . My fix is a bit different . . . quicker too . . . lol May God bless, Dwight

In a one word answer . . . no . . . It doesn't. But then again . . . this is laced on there TIGHT . . . TIGHT Plus . . . if it moved it would have to move forward . . . and mine is designed to end at that skinny part of the stock . . . so it would have to jump over the hand grip . . . ain't gonna happen. May God bless, Dwight

I have relatively high cheek bones . . . when I want a cheek weld . . . I want it hooked on that riser. My M14 . . . with my 50 mm scope . . . and my cheek riser. Decoration is the logo for Destroyer Squadron 7 out of San Diego . . . I rode two ships in that group. I have sold a number of these . . . mostly one guy sees it . . . wants one. I make em in basically any height . . . this one is one of my higher ones. May God bless, Dwight

Go to Lowes . . . in their metal aisle . . . you will find aluminum and steel angle iron. Buy their 1/2 inch aluminum . . . cut it down to maybe 12 inch pieces (2) . . . Put masking tape on the bottom of each . . . and trim it with a razor knife. Aluminum can mark damp or wet leather . . . the tape stops that. Put your stamps in a row in the order you need them . . . and tape around the angle iron . . . For 1/4 and 3/8 stamps . . . forget the press . . . use a small mallet . . . Tape the angle iron down on the leather where you want it . . . stamp it . . . you're done. Small stamps like those do not need a press of any size. May God bless, Dwight

If it were me . . . the horse's head itself would stand out . . . Eyes, mane, nostrils and outline would be depressed . . . and if your machine is that good . . . all lines that show the outline of the head . . . should taper away from it . . . But that is just my opinion . . . and if it were really me . . . I would laser engrave them . . . much more detailed, once you get it dialed in . . . and totally 100% uniform. PLUS . . . you could cut out the fobs . . . dress the sides . . . and set up your engraver right there at the show . . . and you could hand it to them . . . and they would enjoy it more knowing it was done on the spot. At least that was my experience at shows I used to do. May God bless, Dwight

It was not a good picture . . . so I could not tell if it was a single layer or double layer collar. For a single layer collar . . . a rotating punch . . . mallet . . . razor knife . . . bag of brass rivets . . . and a piece of 1/4 inch steel . . . about 4 inches square . . . and a cork back ruler either 18 or 24 inches long . . . and a rivet stamping tool. And you can do double layer collars by adding a quart of Weldwood contact cement and a bag of acid brushes from Harbor Freight. Instead of sewing the layers together . . . brass rivets will put them together in fine fashion . . . but if your sewing machine will sew 5/32 of an inch of leather . . . that is two 5 ounce layers . . . or one 10 ounce layer . . . which is good for all but the German Shepherd and larger dogs. May God bless, Dwight

You do not say what kind of gun is going in this holster . . . which is THE deciding factor on the thickness. I would never do a double thick IWB for a S&W Shield . . . but I might do it for a full size Kimber 1911. Most of my IWB holsters are 6 to 8 oz . . . and like AIZilla said . . . works out fine . . . my signature holster is in my avatar . . . a long eared pancake . . . Ii call a cactus. The added piece on the front of it makes it very stable . . . without needing to be double thick. My carry holster is almost 20 yrs old . . . gets used at least once a week . . . May God bless, Dwight

I mix white resolene with water 50/50 . . . and put it on with a 1 inch . . . cheap . . . bristle brush. I put on enough so that as I scrub the brush around it creates a little bubbly lather . . . then I just keep brushing . . . left right up down etc . . . until the bubbles are all gone. For just getting it "rub off proof" . . . one coat is plenty. Successive coats will make the product stiff . . . but 2 to 3 coats makes it darn near waterproof . . . I use it on holsters . . . and belts . . . have never had a "ruboff" complaint. Just be a tad careful going over any antiquing . . . make sure it is 100% fully and positively dry . . . then use a bit of care like I said. It can dissolve some antiquing . . . but won't if you are careful. May God bless, Dwight

On all my work shoes / boots . . . I have laces just like "normal" guys wear. But I put those lace up zippers in them . . . and they can be made as tight or loose as you want them. Pull the boot on . . . pull the zipper up . . . you're good to go . Bought em off ebay . . . search for "lace in boot zipper" May God bless, Dwight

Ya got a lot more patience than me . . . good job though May God bless, Dwight

Years ago I bought all my thread from Tandy . . . they sold a white thread and I don't know if it was poly or nylon . . . I think it was nylon . . . At any rate . . . I was using a Tippmann Boss then (that I still have) . . . and together they worked great. The thread was waxed . . . and at times it did kind of clog up the enterprise . . . but a quick cleaning and we were back in business. I'd love to find that again . . . I only use size 346 May God bless, Dwight

Putting on the oil and deglazing with alcohol . . . an analogy would be taking a bath then rolling in a mud puddle. The alcohol will screw up the oil . . . and the leather probably would have been better off had you done neither. The NFO simply replaces some of the natural oil in the skin . . . that was removed in the tanning process. Far as I'm concerned . . . the deglazing products were developed for a problem that does not exist . . . kind of like you and I taking a supplement to keep our bald eagle feathers from falling out of our heads. I'd lost a couple of projects when I was earlier in leather . . . taken raw leather . . . made a project . . . especially had wet molded it . . . then dyed it . . . and when I went to bend a part for a buckle or something . . . the outside hair layer cracked and broke. Once I started oiling everything before dying it . . . that problem pretty much went away. May God bless, Dwight

I use a brush so I don't get it on my hands . . . no other reason. I've done leather for over 20 years . . . never found a reason to deglaze anything . . . other than when I'm gluing the hair side to something . . . then I seriously "deglaze" with a wire brush and some elbow grease. Far as I'm concerned . . . deglazing products were invented to sell a product that fulfills an imaginary need. Kind of like selling blinker fluid. May God bless, Dwight