Dwight

I make holsters, belts, knife sheaths, and gun bags. Whenever I "get in a rut" so to speak . . . I just go braid a billfold . . . or make a billfold. It usually cures any bad feeling I had earlier . . . then I toss the billfold and I feel better. Seriously . . . I enjoy what I do . . . with some added stuff. . . I do a little bit of bead work here and there . . . or paint an image on a holster . . . or just make a new type/style of holster. May God bless, Dwight

I'm thinking that is the route I'm going to have to go . . . I looked at adding the extra layer . . . but it won't be like the sibling's belts . . . and that just one way or another may start a family fight . . . and like you said . . . lose the customer. First of the week I'll get back to it (church yard sale going on now . . . and I'm the grill cook . . . lol) May God bless, Dwight

I have zero experience with the cowboy . . . but comparing them side by side . . . to me it looks like a cheap . . . sorry . . . imitation. OTOH . . . 20 yrs + with the Boss . . . it's still carrying on . . . doing what it was intended to do . . . it has had excellent support from the mfg staff . . . I now own a cowboy 4500 . . . but am keeping the boss for backup. May God bless, Dwight

Ohio travel bag specializes it stuff like that . . . take a look . . . https://ohiotravelbag.com/ AND . . . they are really great people to work with . . . May God bless, Dwight

Blanka . . . just "sort of" across the border from you in Toledo Ohio . . . https://www.tolindsewmach.com/parts.html . . . is "the" man for a Cowboy sewing machine. The 3200 is about $2400 . . . the 4500 is about $3300 . . . the 32 will sew up to I think 1/2 inch . . . the 45 will go up to 3/4 inch. I can attest to the 3/4 . . . as I went up to buy the 3200 and wound up with the 4500 . . . which I am absolutely satisfied with. I do belts, holsters, sheaths, gun bags . . . and when the fancy strikes me up the side of the head . . . a wallet or purse. Take a day . . . go see him . . . (call in advance) . . . he has a boat load of used machines . . . is easy to deal with . . . and will do you good. You're basically 600 miles from him . . . so yeah . . . maybe 2 days . . . but I truly believe you will find the trip worth it. Yeah . . . and you can tell him Dwight sent you . . . May God bless, Dwight

Just made 4 belts . . . for 4 children of a friend. One black . . . two saddle tan . . . one medium brown . . . all are 2 layer . . . bonded with Weldwood contact cement . . . stitched. My problem??? One of them did something I've never seen before . . . the leather at the buckle end (about 8 inches of leather where it folds over . . . buckle goes in . . . 2 chicago screws . . . and belt keeper . . . the usual way of making a belt. That 8 inches of belt went to hell in a hand basket . . . after it dried from the dying process . . . it is flimly, wrinkled, flattened out wider in the middle . . . and just looks like hades warmed over. I want to cut that 8 inches off . . . and re-sew that end . . . and I know someone has done that in the past and made it really look good . . . I'm sitting here like a dumbkin trying to figure a way to make it look good. Rescue me guys . . . I need to get this order out. May God bless, Dwight PS: after making belts for over 20 years . . . this is the one and only that has ever done this to me.

Beautiful belt . . . beautiful work . . . But I did have to giggle . . . that pattern of buckle and hardware was hanging on a Tandy wall about 15 or so years ago. . . . and I became enamored with it . . . grabbed it and took it home. Decided to create my gun holster and belt . . . and adorn it with that buckle group. Being a pastor . . . my holster and belt were just plain . . . the buckle being the adornment to the whole piece. Imagine my surprise when I found out the name of that group is "El Diablo" . . . The Devil. But I wear it anyway. May God bless, Dwight

I had my heart set on one of those earlier this year . . . and was about 2 weeks away from going up to get it in Toledo Ohio . . . Was talking to a friend . . . one who knew I did leather . . . we got to talking about it . . . Thanks to that conversation . . . I was later given a "gift" amount to help me get the thing . . . and when I went up there . . . fell in love with the 4500 . . . got it and never looked back. I'll be in debt to my friends for years . . . but it was so much fun . . . sewing 4 belts the other day . . . and not doing them on a Tippmann Boss. May God bless, Dwight

OK guys . . . I'm impressed as I can be . . . and about equally confused. Honestly I'm looking to laser engrave the back of billfolds . . . some belts . . . purses . . . etc. Would like also to be able to do some on metal . . . like initials on a belt buckle . . . etc . I'm thinkng looking at some of the models offered on Ebay . . . they do 400 by 500 mm or so . . . was thinking of doing the first 400 mm of the belt . . . move the leather and have the laser pick up where it left off by some imaginative designs. Thinking of deer hunting scenes . . . deer . . trees . . . meadow . . . etc. How powerful a machine would I need to only do stuff like this? AND . . . will I have to buy special software . . . or can they take my "picture" or drawing and do it from there??? Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

I built a 22 by 14 dedicated craft / reloading / computer / lounge / etc . . . room. My wife has never said "thank you" . . . but she was happy to see all that stuff get out of her house . . . May God bless, Dwight

Glad to see you got it under control . . . Nice looking bag . . . May God bless, Dwight

I did similar to a shoulder holster one time. After messing with it for way too long . . . It went into the trash . . . garbage man carried it away . . . along with the trouble it would have continued to cause me. May God bless, Dwight

If you give it a good coat of Resolene . . . you don't have to go thru all that. Never had a dye rub off after I had rubbed it down and given it one coat of resolene. May God bless, Dwight

20 some odd years ago . . . I made a .45 ACP magazine former . . . the knife was snug . . . but it worked. Cut a piece of leather . . . get it wet . . . lay it over the make part . . . force the female part down on to it . . . smack the ends so that it is snug . . . put 3 "C" clamps on it for about 20 minutes . . . take off the clamps . . . hang up to dry . . . Cut out the piece you want tomorrow and pitch the rest. Sew it up . . . you are done. May God bless, Dwight

I like it . . . My knife would be mad at me if I tried to put her anyplace but my right front pocket . . . but you did a great job with that. Happy "Boss" working . . . mine has seen some 20 plus years of work May God bless, Dwight

It's definitely beautiful work . . . but I got lost in trying to figure out what it is for. At first I thought it was a wallet . . . then a book cover . . . now I just don't know. May God bless, Dwight

Here is the rest of it.

I did this one for a fellow in Tx . . . instead of a double radio like the black and white picture . . . he got one radio and a place for a cellphone and a notebook. May God bless, Dwight

The best possible way to keep rivets from damaging a knife or gun . . . don't use em. My boyscout leader back in '57 or 58 totally discouraged their use. I've been doing that ever since. May God bless, Dwight

If you do not want your liner to wrinkle . . . Tool first . . . LET IT DRY . . . LET IT DRY . . . LET IT DRY Make up the inside piece . . . cut it about 1/2 inch too big all the way around . . . Bend your outside piece by rolling it on a tee shirt with a 3/4 inch or so dowel . . . bend it around the dowel . . . and by rolling it back and forth several times will cause it to take a curve. Once you get the curve built into it . . . lay your liner inside it . . . take an ink pen and trace around the outside onto the liner . . . glue up the liner . . . glue up the outer shell . . . let them dry (using contact cement) until they just get past "tacky" dry . . . Lay the outside piece on some thing that will hold it steady with both sides pointing up . . . Bend the liner in the middle . . . push it down into the center . . . taking your fingers on one hand . . . pinch it onto the sides of the outside piece . . . check your outside lines on the liner you marked . . . make sure you are down in where you should be . . . Use that same 3/4 inch dowel to roll the liner up against the outside piece by rolling it as you did earlier. Trim . . . edge . . . bevel . . . sew . . . and admire your handiwork. May God bless, Dwight

I "sorta" had the same problem early on with Resolene . . . found out if I cut it 50/50 with water . . . it looks a lot better. But I have to admit . . . I had a bottle of it once . . . could not get it to do what I wanted . . . it's gone. Got a bottle of tan kote a month or two back . . . gonna play with that a bit . . . but I am a dyed in the wool Resolene and Aussie wax user. May God bless, Dwight

I made a sheath for a fellow once . . . lined it with rawhide . . . put it together with weldwood contact cement . . . that was several years ago . . . have not heard any negative comments since. He made the knife . . . I put the fold in the back . . . so he could pull it out without cutting the stitches . . . he was big time tickled with it. Did a matching bag for his rolling block 47-70 . . . with the attached EGA (EGA had 2400 beads in it) . . . May God bless, Dwight

LatigoAmigo . . . and Lobo . . . Thanks for your information . . . I was also looking at "prices" and was swallowing hard after I saw some of them. And I know there will not be a large market for the services . . . like Lobo mentioned . . . but I do have one call . . . one project . . . and kicked it around a bit to see if I wanted to go further into it. Since I very seldom cut anything at all as thin as 4/5 oz . . . even the cutting idea looks like a bust. But again . . . thanks for the information . . . May God bless, Dwight

Kinda thinking about "maybe" getting into laser engraving of leather. Then maybe stepping up to laser cutting out of parts. Would definitely appreciate any first hand good news on both. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight