Dwight

Let me ride this rodeo out of town . . . and start a new one. You obviously have a computer . . . and if you have ANY photo program . . . you can take a photo of ANY SHAPE you want . . . fill in the shape with black . . . and go to your 300 dollar 10 watt laser engraver. It may take two 30 second passes to cut out your shape . . . but it will cut up to 8 oz in two passes. The neat part is you never EVER have to get another clicker die. They are a thing of the past with a laser engraver. I use mine to cut small stuff any time I want an EXACT shape . . . the engraver and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (5 dollar program on Ebay) . . . are all I need. My bed is about 14 inches by 14 inches . . . so I can cut anything that size . . . and as many exact copies I want providing I have the leather. You do have to rig up a fan to take the burnt leather stink away . . . but that is the worst . . . and it is not hard at all. AND THE BEST PART . . . When you get done with cutting stuff out with the laser engraver . . . you can then waste a couple days . . . and as much corrugated brown cardboard as you can scrounge up . . . learning how to do roses . . . buildings . . . automobiles . . . horses . . . any shape you want . . . for any drawing you want . . . on your laser engraver. The cardboard mimics leather fairly well . . . so you can get a good idea of your settings needed . . . then do a small check piece of leather . . . then do a large picture or drawing or whatever your heart desires. If you really take your time . . . you can do photographs . . . army patches . . . custom book marks . . . billfolds . . . purses . . . and if you let your daughter play with it for a while . . . she might teach your wife how to use it . . . they can make the decorated front of the purses . . . you can do the rest . . . and you have a whole brand new product line. Or you can just put names on the key fobs . . . that'll work too. May God bless, Dwight

Hey Roger . . . look on Ebay . . . most of the time you can pick up a CD with the program Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 . . . for 4 or 5 bucks US . . . or even a later dated one. There are some serious picture "help out" tools on there. My phone for example . . . usually takes pictures at anywhere from 5 to 12 megabytes . . . and those won't send for the most part. Sometimes they are dark . . . especially a Glock gun in a black holster. And the camera puts them out in a huge size . . . maybe 3000 by 4000 or so. There is a little ditty in there that allows me to correct all this . . . I can enhance the photo with a little "fill flash" . . . I can make the picture a lot smaller . . . Plus I can cut down on the picture from 12 megs to maybe 600 kb . . . which I can send to anyone. The enclosed example I did in about 10 minutes . . . and it would have been only 2 minutes . . . except I had to hand cut the shadows out of it. And putting pics on the internet . . . or saving to your computer . . . it is a snap. May God bless, Dwight

You can add just one tiny thing to make the whole rig just a bit sharper looking. Whether you use rivets or chicago screws . . . put them thru the outside piece of the leather for attaching the little belt around the holster . Doing that will get rid of the unsightly screw heads and rivet heads on the back side of the holster. Not a serious critique . . . just one of those things that will separate sellers . . . especially if you are at a show or something . . . where others there are showing their wares. You can show that your holster is "cleaner" looking . . . which can result in an extra sale . . . and a slightly higher selling price. Also if you use a buckle . . . put a keeper on the little belt . . . or use a closed buckle . . . makes it look more realistic . . . and again . . . just one of those things that sets you apart from the run of the mill makers and sellers. Always remember that even the slightest "upscale" idea can push your wares out if front of the crowd. John Bianchi here in the states was the guy who perfected that idea. He could almost have designed a cardboard box to carry your gun in . . . and would have had 100 sales sight unseen. May God bless, Dwight

Years ago I never paid any attention . . . but the producer and / or director of Bonanza and a few others . . . must have been anti gun people. None of them carry even one extra bullet . . . blank belts all the way around. Didn't notice it until I got into holster making . . . then started watching . . . goofy if you ask me. May God bless, Dwight

I've been watching some old Gunsmoke shows . . . and two things came to mind. One . . . just about all of us teen guys were in love with Miss Kitty . . . and I really doubt if any of us knew her age. She turned 30 . . . same year I turned 15 . . . and I never had a clue until just a couple years ago. But # 2 . . . I really got a chance to take a good look at that "Marshall Dillon" gun rig . . . and was surprised at the number of bullets he had on that rig. I'm not sure I could keep my pants up with that weight trying to pull me down. The more I've seen it . . . the more I'm probably just gonna make me one. I'll wear it in a parade or two . . . then put it on Ebay . . . and get a reasonable price for a "used" rig. May God bless, Dwight

Good job . . . and that will be comfortable as well. May God bless, Dwight

If you go to google . . . search video: concho belt you can watch videos for the next several hours May God bless, Dwight

Good lookin work . . . but how in the world did you manage to hang on to a 1911 when your government played bad boy and burned all the guns??? May God bless, Dwight

There are times I have to do suspenders . . . hate em . . . but whatever. I took some of my shirts with tails on em . . . laid em down and cut the tails off square . . . put a hem in em . . . and wear em Hawaiian style . . . suspenders inside over my tee shirt. Works pretty good for me May God bless, Dwight

This is one that I spoke of . . . works well from 1:00 . . . around to almost 5:00 . . . Plus it protects my "baby" . . . May God bless, Dwight

Let me give you an "experienced" suggestion . . . holsters like that are cute . . . BUT . . . unless you have a serious muscle or fat layer between the britches and the pelvic bones . . . that style holster will dig like a groundhog and . . . at least in my experience . . . will bring on some serious pain. Making it in two pieces . . . instead of a wrap around . . . kinda sorta like a pancake . . . leaving the ears to stick out maybe 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches on each side . . . and making it the style pancake where the inside piece is totally flat . . . all the gun is inside the outside piece . . . well formed . . . with a 1 1/2 inch top strip along that top edge for rigidity . . . it will be MUCH more comfortable. Anything from a Bersa Thunder up to a Taurus G3 compact . . . will dig in and hurt. The "semi pancake" gets rid of that leading edge which causes the pain . . . and will not allow the butt of the gun to roll out like a short baseball bat. But . . . your experience may very well be different from mine. May God bless, Dwight

Thank you Sir for the idea . . . I'm beginning to pack my little laptop a lot more than I used to . . . so I'm gonna be looking at something like that . . . not as upbeat . . . but a bag none the less. I just found a small keyboard for it . . . really happy now that I don't have to pack around that long dude I had before. Good job. May God bless, Dwight

Folks like myself . . . you would almost have to give it away . . . as I can easily go pick up my stuff . . . basically no cost because I'm there for multiple reasons. The shipping will be your bullet in the foot . . . except for those who have to have every thing shipped to them. Price accordingly to sell to whichever market you want to. May God bless, Dwight

Go to Ebay . . . search for what you have . . . compare theirs with yours . . . and price accordingly. You will really not beat that way of doing it . . . for the price it costs you to do it. May God bless, Dwight

It is actually not weaving . . . there is a piece of leather over the front cover. . . with edge stitching The exterior layer of the front cover has a series of round holes making up the center of the design . . . and an off spaced set of slits . . . the leather comes up out of the center . . . over to the edge slit . . . back to the center . . . etc . . . until it is all done. The place where the little concho is . . . has a filler under it . . . and the leather strips just go in and out the same type holes on the edge of it. Actually a rather unique design . . . have never seen that before. After it was all done . . . I would think he probably made some kind of press mold that would allow it to be thoroughly wetted . . . and the press mold laid on top of it . . . let it dry . . . to get the depth around those stitches . . . and then contact cemented to the actual flap of the purse. Personally . . . I like it . . . but it is certainly one long piece of work. May God bless, Dwight

If you contact Bob at Toledo Sewing Machine Co (an advertiser on here) . . . that looks just like the servo motor he sells. He's more than likely one who will help you with it . . . he's a good guy . . . 419 380 8540 May God bless, Dwight

With a small stack of southern yellow pine (preferably 2 x 8's) . . . a band saw . . . or good table saw . . . and a good bench sander . . . you can make a wooden copy of darn near any knife produced. You then make the sheath for the knife. Some good lessons at a local trade school or hobby shop on model making should be enough to get you started right well. I do it both for knives and guns . . . never had a problem May God bless, Dwight

What does one of those run . . . and what is the learning curve?? May God bless, Dwight

Everyone has a two arm pits . . . as well as a couple of opinions . . . and depending on the circumstances . . . they all stink. But in this debate . . . the saddle stitch will always be the better route . . . simply because even when one thread breaks . . . the other "may" still hold . . . any "non" saddle stitch does not have that backup. If the saddle stitch is done correctly with an overhand knot being tied in every hole . . . it is not only very time consuming . . . but it is also much stronger than any of the others. To say differently is only posting an ugly and stinky opinion . . . because it simply is a statement that does not hold water. Anyone with two pieces of leather . . . some thread . . . and two needles . . . can do the saddle stitch . . . and any or all others . . . and then put them all to a series of beat down tests . . . the saddle stitch will be the last one to give away . . . and that goes double if the thread was both waxed and the overhand knot tied at each stitch hole. May God bless, Dwight

I'd get some change from 500 bucks on all of them. Seems to be a boat load of folks trying to sell them . . . from about 400 plus shipping to 485 with free shipping . . . and lots of "in between" sellers. May God bless, Dwight

I have a fairly new Singer . . . table top portable machine . . . it will do embroidery and a bunch of other stuff . . . I bought it with the eye on the 90 day "send it back if it don't work" idea I had with the seller. I was looking for something that could sew two layers of suede or maybe 2/3 oz veggie tan. When I use it . . . I mostly use carpet thread . . . and it has surprised my britches off at the things it has done or will do. Anything in a shirt or light jacket . . . it'll handle it . . . no sweat. I used it to put my E-6 Navy patch on my short sleeve white shirt. Name tags . . . and the like are a piece of cake with that machine. I wanted to add to the group . . . the below picture . . . mostly for jackets and stuff . . . biker work . . . etc. I live between two towns of of 45K and 35K . . . with lots of police, military reserve, national guard, etc . . . and from the research I've done so far . . . I'd have it all to myself and the little old ladies with their thimbles. Plus there is a huge Harley place a 1/2 hour away . . . and 5 different state prisons plus three county lockups . . . and all them folks need patches sewn on. I wouldn't make a living at it . . . but at a minimum of $5 for the first one and 10 bucks an hour for the rest . . . I was looking at a nice extra few bucks . . . and I don't have to create anything here . . . just stitch the dude down. Most of it hinges on two "interviews" I have to do with a couple of dry cleaner shops. If I can become their supplier . . . I'd be looking at maybe a 100 a month average. May God bless, Dwight

Just to sew them on shirts . . . jackets . . . vests . . . etc. May God bless, Dwight

I am looking to get into the patch business as the last one in this area just up and quit. I need suggestions for a patch machine . . . and a quick couple of paragraphs on how they work. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

A bandolier is NOT cut like a belt curve. A belt is made to go around your total round waist . . . the bandolier only needs a curve where it goes over the shoulder. The easiest and least costly way is to make the shoulder curve . . . then lace the edges of it and the two straight pieces (front and back) . . . decorate the curve with appropriate stampings for the person or time period the bandolier would be used. The straight pieces overlap at the bottom with a snap or a rivet. May God bless, Dwight

There's a market for virtually anything produced. Price will generally determine how big that market is. May God bless, Dwight