Dwight

I'm going to have to go off script here . . . and say that you did a good job with all of your work. Somewhere however . . . you missed the boat on your research. Now, mind you . . . I'm not an expert . . . but I have made some . . . and have never had any complaints. The front of yours is all wrong . . . would never be worn that way. Look at the enclosed picture . . . you will see a small belt pulls the fronts together . . . with a definite opening between the two pieces. Using your design . . . on a western saddle . . . if your horst bucks you . . . tosses you forward over the horn . . . and it catches under your chaps . . . you will go to a hospital for a long stay. OTOH . . . if you have the little belt . . . always made out of lighter leather exactly for this purpose . . . it will break . . . you will be thrown off probably . . . but you can probably dust yourself off . . . hobble off on a twisted ankle . . . and be well in a couple of days. Cut those laces . . . round the front two pieces somewhat . . . add the belt . . . and you will be far more esthetically correct. And yours would be absolutely a pain to wear on a 20 km ride. that front piece will come up and rub your gut . . . blisters will form . . . and you WILL take em off. That is the reason that what you see below is all of the guys have theirs with a wide opening between the tops of each leg. May God bless, Dwight

When you put that new needle in . . . your eyes may be not good enough to tell if it is in the exact right position. I put a regular sewing needle in the eye of my 4500 needle and use it to determine if that eye is centered 90 degrees to the travel of the material. Even the slightest couple of degrees off can mess up your whole day. May God bless, Dwight

Loosen up your belt . . . grab the wheel . . . turn it with your hands. I've had the same thing . . . worked right out with no problem. May God bless, Dwight

Get him to bring you an example . . . that will be far more informative for you than most anything you can get here. Measure it . . . height, width and most importantly . . . thickness. Measure it with a caliper . . . and use that same thickness when you carve an illustrate his info on them. I can do that kind of work . . . but I really find it a bit too tedious for me . . . patience wears thin for me on that kind of project. Also why I don't do basket weave unless I have to. May God bless, Dwiight

Go to Joanns fabric store . . . take their 40% off coupon that is mostly always available on the internet . . . buy a yard of their marine vinyl . . . works as a beautiful pattern material . . . can be sewn to whatever style you need. Your cost about 12 to 15 bucks God a big piece of it in the shop right now . . . will wind up mostly as such. May God bless, Dwight

I recently bought a Singer 6800C heavy duty sewing machine that will sew a total of about 9 oz leather . . . maybe not quite that much. But it really likes this thread . . . will sew up to 6 SPI . . . and I don't know one man alive who can rip these stitches. I've sewn down to about 10 maybe 12 SPI with it . . . all sorts of colors . . . sews as easy as regular thread used for curtains and dresses. I really like it. May God bless, Dwight

google english shotgun slip cases . . . first one I saw was from England . . . should be what you are looking for. Looks really simple to make . . . and that couple hundred dollar one didn't even have burnished edges . . . but it's English May God bless, Dwight

I have neuropathy in my hands . . . have trouble hanging on to things . . . so when I got my Samsung Galaxy S22 phone . . . I put it in a rubber like outside of an Otterbox . . . which added about 1/2 inch to the width and height. CANNOT carry that thing in a pocket . . . and my Note 8 carrier was too small. So . . . this one came up out of 6/7 oz and the tongue goes in with the phone . . . as velcro is a pain sometimes. It will not bounce out while mowing 3 or 4 acres on a zero turn . . . The belt loop originally had rivets . . . cut them off and installed snaps . . . works better . . . Only downside is it almost looks like I'm carrying a gun . . . May God bless, Dwight

I didn't see the word "ladder" when I first read your post . . . and yeah . . . for ladder work, a holster is much better than the clip. I can say that I would not like that holster at all . . . toss the strap over the top . . . just make the sides taller so the drill goes down deeper in it. And I would not carry that one on my left side . . . always on my right . . . and I definitely would drop that angle back a bit. But that's just my taste. If you make a simple wrap around holster to start with . . . sew the edge . . . you can then go to the back side of it . . . use chicago screws to attach . . . put blue loctite on the screws . . . and if it needs adjusting some time . . . a pair of pliers on one end . . . screwriver on the other . . . you can take it apart to adjust. My holster for my big drill is either 3 or 4 pieces of leather because it started out for this drill that got replaced by that drill (remodeled for that drill) and then replace for "nother drill and the holster got remodeled for the 'nother drill. Have fun with it . . . may God bless, Dwight

As an electrician . . . I'm with ya Geezer . . . love them little clips. Got a little yellow/black drill on the left side and impact on the right side . . . with just enough of a tool pouch to carry what I need to do my "job". Was putting in a small service panel . . . pulling wire . . . fixing conduit . . . installing ground rod . . . etc. today . . . drill clip worked perfect for what I needed it for. Only holster I had on today was for my 9mm. May God bless, Dwight

It would be easier to answer your question if you were to list 3 or 4 of the things you might be looking for. We could then look it up and give you websites to look at. One example though . . . I recently purchased a sheep leather jacket . . . cafe racer style . . . off Ebay . . . 100 USD. May God bless, Dwight

Go to the app store . . . ask for flashlight . . . when it gets done loading . . . the icon will be on your phone . . . hold your finger on it till the window comes up "move to home screen" . . . tap that . . . flashlight will be on the opening screen . . . just tap it . . . lights on. May God bless, Dwight

Mine today is on my cell phone . . . not the best flashlight . . . but it got one thing out of my pocket or off my belt . . . for what I need . . . it is the hunky dory thingamabob. May God bless, Dwight

I use 50/50 for all of my dyes . . . and it works fine. What I also did do . . . I settled on a certain batch of colors . . . some light . . . some dark . . . and black of course . . . but those are the only ones I normally offer. Someone has to twist my arm to get another color out of me . . . as it is just too expensive to have a large choice. Mine is 5 choices . . . and so far I've only had 2 folks want something different . . . fortunately it was the same color they wanted . . . and were within a couple months of each other . . . May God bless, Dwight

Given all there was on that holster . . . I don't think I would have done anything differently . . . If I did anything different . . . I would have gone with a piece of velcro instead of the snap . . . but I would have given him the choice of which he wanted. May God bless, Dwight

I'm not an expert on the Boss . . . but I found a trick that I always use when I'm changing needles . . . and doing it . . . mine doesn't skip stitches. First . . . make sure that the needle will slide easily back and forth on a piece of your thread about 18 to 24 inches long. Hold the string . . . one end in each hand . . . and tilt the string by moving one hand up or down . . . that needle should not hesitate . . . but slip down the slanted string like the state highway patrol was after it. THEN . . . put your needle up in the slot . . . again making sure the long slot is to your left . . . away from the main part of the machine. LAST . . . take a regular sewing needle . . . one you would sew a button back on your shirt with . . . put the tip of it in the thread hole of the Boss needle . . . and make sure it points exactly 180 degrees away from the main machine body. My vision has not always let me see how I have my needle by itself . . . so I devised this little trick . . . works EVERY time . . . if I do it right. If that does not work . . . send an email to Tippmann . . . and tell them to give it to Ben . . . I've taken my machine up to him . . . he has sat it on his desk . . . and it works like a super champ every time when he gets done with it. May God bless, Dwight

Isopropal alcohol is I believe what some folks here use . . . personally I use a dedicated thinner made by Feibings . . . because I use their dye exclusively. The key is to find a line of products that you like and that works for YOU . . . you may have to do some experimentation to get it down . . . but once you find the good thing . . . mark it down and then don't deviate from it. Your products will then be uniform . . . and easier to duplicate when the need arises. Just be careful you don't wind up like the English man of a couple hundred years ago . . . traveled to the Orient and became infatuated with a pure white cup he saw. He asked the maker how to duplicate it . . . the maker would not tell him. He went back to England . . . started experimenting . . . weeks led to months . . .which led to years . . . and became his greatest pursuit . . . and then ONE DAY . . . he achieved his goal . . . the cup came out of the oven . . . beautiful pure white. UNFORTUNATELY he had not written down how he mixed this product before putting it in the oven. The rest of his life he was never able to duplicate. Long story . . . but one that all who make individual items for other persons needs to remember. May God bless, Dwight

Any and all oil should be applied either before cutting the leather . . . or to the completed project before any dyeing or finishing is done. Otherwise . . . it may not go in . . . and it certainly won't do the job you bought it for. Second . . . don't apply your dye directly from the bottle or can . . . all I've ever used needed to be thinned first . . . usually equal parts dye and thinner. Then when you find the formula that works for your project . . . always use that same formula to get the same color time after time. The best application is dip dying . . . dip it in . . . pull it out . . . use paper towels to sponge off the extra . . . if it is a belt, or long something . . . lay it on it's side . . . or the dye will migrate and be darker at the bottom end . . . lighter at the top. May God bless, Dwight

All holsters I've ever run across will have at least a short piece above the gun that keeps it from rubbing the flesh of the wearer. Up near the top of that . . . around the hammer area . . . six stitches will hold a suicide strap with no problems. Do them in a box pattern 2 down each side . . . one at the top . . . one at the bottom . . . Also all holster I've ever run across will have a place . . . usually just in front of . . . the trigger guard . . . where there is no weapon . . . but there is some room there between the front and back of the holster. Find a wood piece you can shove in there . . . keep it tight . . . and punch the hole for the snap. You then muscle in the male piece for the inside part of the snap . . . up thru the hole . . . and take that same piece of wood . . . covered this time with a piece of steel . . . shove it down tight so the snap part won't move . . . add the other part of the snap . . . punch it down . . . and hit it a couple extra times . . . and you can make that inside piece flat enough to look like skin on the inside of the holster. Add the female part of the snap to the suicide strap . . . call your customer to come get his holster. If you don't want to use a snap . . . use fredk's same principle to sew a round piece of leather that will allow you to first attach the male part of a snap . . . then sew it into place . . . after you have contact cemented in place. A but tedious . . . but it works. If he's a friend . . . good customer . . . no charge . . . May God bless, Dwight

There is a simple answer to this one kcenderjim . . . don't use pre dyed leather . . . especially black. You can see what you are doing on any light color . . . and best if it is not dyed at all. Dyeing is an easy process . . . and dollar for dollar . . . it is about the same price to let them do it . . . or DIY. The ease of dyeing is only complicated a little bit sometimes by the dye choice. USMC black is one you want to stay away from like it is the plague . . . distributed under the Feibing name. May God bless, Dwight

This is done as a finishing step . . . or "corrective" step. Either way . . . finished, dry, ready to be used . . . just a little tight until you do this. May God bless, Dwight

Yessir . . . what he ^^^^^^ said. May God bless, Dwight

One thing always remember with knife sheaths . . . holsters . . . mag carriers . . . and a few other items. If when you make it . . . it's a tad tighter than you want it . . . simply stuff the gun, mag, knife, etc . . . into a thick freezer bag. Then stuff that down into the sheath, mag carrier, holster . . . leave it over night. Get up the next morning . . . take the gun, knife, mag out . . . remove the bag . . . try the fit now. It will always be a tad lighter . . . And that is how I'll fit just about every holster I make. Works every time. And I'm sure it would work super on this one if it needed a little less retention. May God bless, Dwight

Your imagination is your only limitation on that question. And the word "best" only defines that idea in the mind of the one who will be wearing them. I made mine out of suede . . . loved em. If you go to google and call up "rodeo chaps for sale" you will see a plethora of different ideas. May God bless, Dwight

Well, Kenny . . . I'm a "nothing ventured . . . nothing gained" type of guy. And for sure the only guaranteed way to fail . . . is to not try. That said . . . I've never messed with a lot of re-dyeing projects . . . But you just need to ask yourself if it is worth the $10 worth of dye and thinner and time . . . OR . . . you might carefully sand the outside . . . scrub it with a wire brush . . . take another piece of leather and just re-cover the whole thing . . . OR . . .cut out heart / flower / cartoon, etc. shapes and glue them over the worst parts. There are cures for those things that are just plain ugly . . . and the cosmetic counters at Walmart and other places are living proof May God bless, Dwight