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

Cheek pieces . . . slings . . . sample holsters . . . zippered up rifle carry bags . . . knife sheaths . . . AND . . . when you make these . . . personalize them . . . stamp them . . . let it be known that all kinds of decorations and personalized work can be done as well . . . I make money on the "plain jane" stuff I sell . . . but I MAKE money on the pieces that are personalized. One of the favorites that happens a lot is the USMC logo for the Marine Corps . . . lots of guys were jar heads . . . are proud of it . . . same for USN, Navy . . . And what ever you do . . . make sure you go over it with a fine tooth comb . . . no shortcuts . . . no mistakes. Those are display items . . . folks will spot a mistake or wrong doing in a NY heart beat . . . send only your best work over there. May God bless, Dwight

I cannot see from the picture the kind of detail I would like to see . . . And when I first looked at it I thought it was a belt . . . turns out to be a bracelet from the above posts. You can have a similar effect with a piece of leather say 24 inches long . . . with two cuts in it that are 22 inches long . . . and of course neither one goes out the end. The ends are left whole. Make the strips even in width . . . and by lifting one strand . . . putting the end under it and pulling it semi tight (still able to lay flat) and then lifting the other strand . . . pulling the end under it . . . and so forth all the way thru . . . you wind up with a 3 strand braided belt that is really quite pretty and also useful. Practice with it and have fun May God bless, Dwight

And if that conditioner rubs against the steel parts of a beautiful gun . . . in short order . . . you will be doing whatever you have to do to get rid of the RUST the conditioner caused on your gun. Conditioner is for handbags . . . shoes . . . boots . . . and sometimes belts. NEVER for a holster. May God bless, Dwight

32 caliber is twice the size of .22 long rifles. You don't need measurements for making bullet loops . . . you punch a hole in your belt . . . an oval slot . . . pull a piece of leather thru the slot . . . around the bullet . . . then back thru the same slot . . . leather needs to be wet . . . use 3/4 oz . . . when it gets mostly dry . . . pull the bullet out and let it finish drying. Making bullet loops is very easy. May God bless, Dwight

Saddlemaker I once knew . . . went to an auction . . . there was a little hand crank splitter like the one you have . . . got it for 65 bucks. That was several years back. But it is the best info I've got I'd give a hundred for the small one . . . not bat an eye doing it. May God bless, Dwight

OK . . . I'll get in this fray . . . What makes Eddington thread any better than someone else's thread? Just curious . . . because Tandy used to sell a brand of leather that had something like a wax coating on it . . . and I really loved it. They changed suppliers and the thread they sell now is dry as asphalt on a sunny July afternoon. Would like to go back at the coated thread. May God bless, Dwight

I'm simply gonna go out on a limb . . . and say you need to learn how to set rivets. I've used a hammer . . . a standard setting tool . . . (cheap one at that) . . . and a little steel plate . . . or the reverse setting tool (depending on the effect I wanted) and NEVER have any problems with the rivets I buy from Tandy. NOW . . . I do like their all brass rivets better . . . truth be known . . . but the other ones work . . . never had a customer holler at me about his rivets popping off . . . been almost 25 years since I got involved in this. May God bless, Dwight

An old boy scout teacher . . . told us never to put rivets in hatchet sheaths or knife sheaths . . . UNLESS . . . the blade especially is protected by a substantial welt. As the leather gets older . . . it will always loosen up . . . allowing the blade to come into contact with the rivets . . . which will dull the blade in a NY minute. That advice is more or less 65 years old . . . I still do it that way. May God bless, Dwight

Never be ashamed of "missing something" . . . that's just life throwing you a curve to see if you can hit it. Sometimes we need a coach. I just purchased 1k$ worth of drone and accessories . . . am in the process of learning to use it. Bought an Ipad to control it . . . knowing that there are a small few of them that will not operate with an Ipad. After 13 days of trying unsuccessfully I was all set to return the Ipad the next day when my 14 day return policy would die. My youth pastor at church took a look at it . . . asked me if I had tried using both of my normal email addresses . . . and of course the answer was yes. Funny thing . . . when he tried the other one . . . drone started working. I simply must have mis spelled it or something. Feel dumb?? Sure did . . . happy I asked for help?? Sure was . . . but never ashamed of it . . . he and I hit that curve ball out of the park. May God bless, Dwight

OK . . . with baited breath . . . we ask the eternal question . . . Is it fixed? May God bless, Dwight

I have one about that size . . . USMC . . . and the only way I get a good impression on that is with my 6 ton press . . . going around it a bit at a time. A 1 ton arbor would probably only do very light impressions . . . unless they were very sharp edged . . . and I'd wonder about it even then. May God bless, Dwight

Good job . . . May God bless, Dwight

That's good looking work . . . May God bless, Dwight

And if you do that . . . it will leach out to the outside of the holster . . . making it soft as well. Besides that . . . conditioners will also shove moisture up against a metal weapon . . . rust and corrosion are then the problem. May God bless, Dwight

Excellent . . . lots of things I can do . . . that stamping ain't one of em . . . ya did great. May God bless, Dwight

Sand off the "big" pieces . . . then make sure the interior also gets a good coat of Resolene . . . Works for me. May God bless, Dwight

Some 25 years ago when I started in this "hobby" . . . I was given the advice to dilute both 50/50 . . . by men who have by now been in this for well over 50 years . . . or retired. I tried both full strength . . . did not like the results with either. Having said that . . . I dip dye gun holsters . . .belts . . . cell phone cases . . . knife sheaths . . . rifle slings . . . rifle scabbards . . . and everything else I do. Nothing is "brush" dyed . . . Everything will have at least one square foot or more of leather . . . and needs to be finished in an even looking manner. Having said that . . . I also add a coat of neatsfoot oil 24 hours before dying . . . and my dye jobs come out even from one end of a 3 inch wide . . . double layer . . . 56 inch western gun belt . . . all the way to the other end. That cannot be done with a brush . . . piece of wool . . . dauber . . . or any other way . . . other than an air spray gun . . . which lays a couple thousandths of an inch of dye on the surface that is scratched thru the first time the item gets any hard use. So in effect . . . I'm talking from hard won experience. May God bless, Dwight

I'm with you . . . veg tan is where I would go. I would probably buy a 7/8 oz hide . . . and make the whole thing out of it. AND . . . I would be very tempted to make a form and wet form the front of the front pouch . . . perhaps 2 inches dep . . . formed over a rounded over 2 x 10 or something thereabouts. As for the pistol . . . use a flat piece of leather for the back . . . fitted to that carrier portion . . . and form fit the pistol to it on the front of that piece . . . set in the direction you want it to be should you have to grab it in a hurry . . . use the hair side to touch the gun on both sides . . . you DO NOT want a full size 1911 flopping around in a loose pocket . . . it needs to be held down . . . and a really well formed holster like that will fix you right up. Looks like a neat project . . . make sure you pop some pics for us when it is done. May God bless, Dwight

To start with . . . you should never use Feibings dye straight 100% as it is in the bottle . . . always thin it down . . . most do a 50 / 50 dye and thinner. Second . . . apply neatsfoot oil before you dye the project . . . and dip dying is far superior to brush or dauber or sponge or any other way. Third . . . if you are using Resolene . . . give it a once over quick rub off . . . apply Resolene (also a 50 /50 mixture with water) . . . and go on with life. Rub off will not come thru Resolene if it is applied right. Basically you did a lot of work for nothing. May God bless, Dwight

This may sound funny . . . but I go to Harbor Freight . . . they sell little 1 inch wide boar hair brushes . . . that are absolutely perfect for Resolene jobs . . . big or small. You cut the Resolene 50 / 50 with water first . . . stir it up good . . . then just dip the boar brush in it . . . and swirl it around on the project . . . making sure you "bubble up" the liquid . . . and then brush it all down. Never have had a problem with doing it this way . . . brushes will last thru 5 or 6 projects . . . more if you rinse them out real good after each project. May God bless, Dwight

I did that once . . . had just dyed I think 6 belts for a show . . . 5 of the 6 were very dark at the bottom and lighter at the top where I hung them. Ever since . . . I lay the belt on the top for about 5 minutes after I "dunk" dye the belt . . . I then flip it over . . . allowing it to finish drying laying on the bottom edge of the belt. Have never had any problem doing my belts that way . . . all are "dunk" dyed . . . and I only use a certain set of colors . . . works really great for me. I have sat the belts in the garage . . . wood shop . . . leather shop . . . just wherever I have time and place to put them for the night. All my dying is done just before bed time . . . and are dry by the next evening. May God bless, Dwight

Toledo Sewing Machine . . . He's one of he sponsors here. May God bless, Dwight

Obviously it was done "by" or "for" AR . . . and quite honestly . . . my guess is out of a 1 to 10 scale (1 beginner . . . 10 top expert) . . . this maker was at best a 5. The loops were not professionally done. The stamping and tooling was very inexperienced at best . . . Lacing was probably the most well done . . . Something some guy made in his basement over a winter. May God bless, Dwight