Dwight

If the Weldwood was a problem after stitching . . . my shop would be full of returned two piece belts. Best I know . . . never had one returned in 15 years. Only a very select few for certain purposes were single layer . . . all the rest are double layer . . . sold as CCW belts. One I got on right now is 15+ yrs old . . . pretty scratched up . . . stained . . . but still holding together . . . packs 44 oz of 1911 and more with mags and cell phone. Oh . . . keeps my britches up as well. Seriously . . . don't worry . . . here is a little video I made for putting it together. . . . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOiADFuEGrE&list=UURg-Mif53wUyT8e3BoYzhwQ&index=169 May God bless, Dwight

Mike . . . look up front of the loop . . . you'll see what looks to me like 3 stitches . . . My guess . . . that is his technique. May God bless, Dwight

One part has a slot . . . the other an arrowhead shape . . . Edges of the arrowhead keep if from backing out of theslot . . . and arrowhead is tapered to a zero thickness . . . makes it look nicer than if you didn't skive taper it down. May God bless, Dwight

No . . . my bad . . . it's braided polyester . . . heavily waxed . . . works great. hotheart10 is the seller's name on Ebay . . . May God bless, Dwight

An excellent pattern material can be found at Joann Fabric shops. Ask them about their marine vinyl. It's a tad pricy at 19 to 25 a yard . . . but the yard I believe is 45 inches wide . . . and you can get 20, 30, 40, and sometimes 50% off (one item) coupons on the internet. It is my go to pattern material. It mimics leather in many ways . . . but can be easily hand sewn or a good home sewing machine will also sew it . . . and you can play with it all day long. I've used it for chaps . . . bags . . . gun cases . . . a little with holsters, but I don't usually need it there. Have fun . . . may God bless, Dwight

Beautiful work . . . exceptional actually . . . But even dead . . . dried out . . . and stitched in place. I ain't gettin' that close to no snake . . . just ain't happening. May God bless, Dwight

From the website description . . . piece of cake. Lay out on the backside of the strap . . . holes that are 5/32 in diameter . . . the size of your bell plus 1/4 inch apart. If you have 1 1/2 inch bells . . . holes need to be spaced 1 3/4 inch apart. Use a pop rivet gun (sold at any half decent hardware store) to shove the rivet thru the backside of the strap . . . then into the back of the bell . . . pull the handlel on the gun until it breaks the rivet stem . . . and it is a done thing. Watch this little video if you've never used a pop rivet gun. May God bless, Dwight

Some simple templates . . . if I envision this correctly . . . it is wider at one end (or both ends) than in the middle . . . those templates are easily made and work wonderfully. Take a piece of 1/16 inch aluminum bar that is 1 inch wide . . . and at least 3 inches longer than the narrow part of the strap. Then file or grind down the middle area such as in the little drawing I have included. You then clamp it at both ends on the edge of your work bench . . . with the strap underneath it . . . put your thumb on the back side of it in the middle . . . and use a very sharp razor knife to make the cutout. In this case I believe we were going from 24 mm to 20 mm . . . so the area ground down in the template needs to be 2 mm. Once you have cut the one side . . . flip it over and do the same for the other side. If you take your time and make your aluminum template well . . . it will serve you for the rest of your life . . . barring some unforseen accident. May God bless, Dwight

NEVER had that kind of problem with weldwood May God bless, Dwight

You guys just using that cheap chinese leather. The belt I mentioned above was made with that good ol Tandy leather . . . I always put 7 holes in mine . . . started out in the middle hole 20 some odd years ago . . . I'm all the way back towards that very first hole . . . use it often . . . or use the second one. Only use the third one when I'm packin' that full size 1911 . . . use the second hold carrying my Officer model . . . both in IWB. Y'all just need to use better leather. May God bless, Dwight

I saw a thread about these on here a number of years ago . . . thought about making one. But I wear a two layer .230 thick veggie tan belt that has carried a cell phone . . . mags . . . and a .45 for some 20 years . . . only sag is in the middle of the back where the center Wrangler belt loop pulled it down. Besides that . . . contact cement WILL come loose from metal . . . allowing the steel piece to move between the belt pieces . . . and I figured eventually it would cut the stitches. Looking at my belt . . . I would have lost 10 or 12 inches of stitches on the top of my belt in the back . . . so I'm glad I never made it. When asked for one . . . I just decline . . . May God bless, Dwight

That's good looking there Az . . . I built one similar to it several years ago . . . guy had a Ruger with a scope on top of it . . . squirrel hunter. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . Bert . . . If I had access to the tapes I learned that trick from . . . it was John Bianchi . . . who showed me how. You are careful . . . you take your time . . . you flatten the holster with your hand . . . bend it just enough to get it thru the loops . . . and once in and ready . . . a good stuffing of it with the appropriate firearm . . . voila you are in business. If you can get the VHS tapes or the DVD of his basic western holster making . . . well worth a $100 investment in my personal opinion. It took me from a seriously strained rookie . . . to making fairly good holsters in only a week. Oh . . . and yes . . . took down the website for fixing . . . haven't fixed it yet. May God bless, Dwight

Contact cement both pieces together into one homogenous piece . . . and create your holster from there. I generally cut both pieces . . . and I will do a very rough form fit . . . such as draping both pieces over the gun . . . and squeezing the leather with my hands until they form a "U" that surrounds the gun. Contact cement them together like that . . . then continue wiith making the holster. My edges very . . . very rarely ever try to split apart. When it does . . . far more often than not . . . it is the leather separating . . . not the seam. May God bless, Dwight

That is one opinion . . . not mine . . . and I specialize in CCW holsters that ARE form fitted before sewing. My holsters are form fitted in a vacuum forming machine . . . rubbed with any tool I need to get the proper forming I want . . . and with one exception . . . have not had one holster returned. The one holster returned was because of an error made in the design . . . not in the execution of the design. After form fitting and drying overnight . . . they are then contact cemented together . . . stitched together. . . . edges leveled . . . edges beveled . . . dyed . . . edges burnished . . . and final finish. Has worked for me for 20 years. May God bless, Dwight

There is another way I've had some good results with . . . Push the needle all the way thru on the outside . . . then pull it down inside . . . holding it with the little finger and palm . . . pulling down on it . . . you can then fairly easily find the hole as it is pulled stretched open . . . and the inside needle can be then started back thru it. Takes some practice . . . but you don't poke yer fingers any where near as much as some other ways. May God bless, Dwight

You didn't show the back . . . so it's unknown . . . but out front . . . kinda following chuck's lead: I tape a small dowel rod the height of the front sight . . . to the top of the weapon . . . from front sight to rear sight . . . with vacuum forming . . . it gives me a perfect sight channel every time. And yes . . . get those stitches a BIG LOT closer to and around the trigger guard. You can do that easliy with the stitches you have . . . leave them and put an interior row of stitches up right real close to that trigger guard and barrel. Up at the top of the stitch line you already have . . . move in towards the trigger guard one full stitch . . . and then use that for the spacing away from the formed leather. I make mine tight with that row of stitches . . . then add just a tad of dampess . . . work it a bit . . . let it dry . . . they work really well for me that way. As for lining it . . . it's one of those "some do . . . and some don't" things. I've lined all sorts of holsters . . . and made bunches without lining. Just remember to really soak that leather WET before vacuum forming it if you are using 2 layers of leather. Two bonded layers are as tough to work with as one layer that is 3 times as thick as the leather you are using. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . first off. . . welcome . . . glad to have you aboard . . . we were all in your shoes one day in the past . . . some recently . . . some back about Noah's day or so. But anyway . . . put that belt back in a drawer . . . and take a shot at something much simpler. That belt is way up on the totem pole of expertise . . . and quite honestly . . . you will be a while getting there. Wallet kits are probably the very best learning tool out there . . . many come with detailed instructions for each part . . . a tool list you will need . . . and you can get the necessary "work" feedback relatively quickly . . . to see what you are doing. Plus they make a special gift for a brother, father, friend, etc . . . here is one that is good to start with: https://tandyleather.com/collections/kits_wallet-card/products/premier-wallet-kit The swivel knife (you did not say you had one) is the backbone of leather decoration. You HAVE TO get it and learn how to use it . . . FIRST. Then shading, backgrounding, beveling . . . they will come. Practice makes perfect . . . May God bless, Dwight

I am certain that down thru the years . . . one or more did not meet or exceed the buyer's expectations. One I did for a Texan . . . had to be done over . . . and he was happy . . . but others . . . well . . . just have not heard. Did do a belt for a gun shop owner in Tenn . . . wanted a pants belt with 6 loops for .38 special . . . I made it . . . he didn't like it because he had to unload it to put it in his pants or take it out of his pants. I made him a new belt . . . I've got the old one . . . draped over a filing cabinet. I've always taken the tack that much like automobiles . . . ya gotta do some new stuff . . . make a different product . . . or you wind up selling 38 Ford coupes for 80 years straight. May God bless, Dwight

Take the loop . . . and with no thread in the machine . . . punch holes thru one side. Sew the other side onto the bridle . . . Then sew up to where the loop would go in on the other side . . . remove the thread . . . and make holes through the bridle . . . like you would sew it. Cut the bridle thread and bobbin . . . about 8 inches long or so . . . and hand stitch the 4 or so stitches thru the loop . . . then 4 or 5 stitches afterward . . . double them back so it is tight. You are done. it's a piece of cake once you have done it a half dozen or so times . . . becomes almost as fast as machine sewing (I use a Tippmann Boss). May God bless, Dwight

Just one simple comment Scootch . . . rather than drill the holes . . . replace the drill bit with a machine sewing needle of the appropriate size to the thread . . . and the holes can be punched straight down . . . no problem at all . . . AND . . . you do not mess up your holes. Actually . . . if you own one of those little cheap drill presses . . . https://www.lowes.com/pl/Drill-presses-Presses-lathes-Power-tools-Tools/4294607825?refinement=2104441257 from Lowes or similar . . . you can use either a needle or an awl blade . . . and ALL OF YOUR HOLES ARE PERFECTLY 100% STRAIGHT UP AND DOWN. I sometimes take the thread out of my Tippmann Boss . . . use it to punch the holes . . . and then saddle stitch the item. It takes a lot of practice to learn to use an awl correctly . . . and become good at it. This little trick eliminates the wait and the practice . . . for less than a hundred bucks. May God bless, Dwight

For years I was on GoDaddy.com . . . and was never dissatisfied with their service. The domain name was one cost . . . the monthly fee was another. You'll have to check and see what their "today" price is . . . No . . . they did not nickel and dime you to death . . . but you had to delete their every two week sales pitch . . . email. If I went back to a website . . . they would be where I would start . . . they have a real good rep. May God bless, Dwight

Feibings makes and sells dye thinner . . . and frankly . . . after a few unhappy episodes such as you mentioned . . . I don't use anything else. Some folks on here will tell you that you can save a bunch of money using something else . . . but when you figure the price of the thinner into the dye you are using . . . VS . . . your labor . . . and the leather . . . in my opinion . . . they are shoveling sand against the tide. AND . . . always cut it 50/50 . . . never more . . . never less . . . you will like the results. PLUS . . . a light coat of neatsfoot oil the day before you dye . . . on the hair side only . . . will make the dye job look really good. May God bless, Dwight

Two layers of 6.7 oz . . . bonded flesh to flesh . . . seams 180 degrees from each other . . . outside piece sewn along the edges . . . formed as cylinders around a piece of plastic pipe . . . will make a really nice one. put a wood plug in the bottom . . . then sew a leather bottom on and a leather top . . . Cut both cylinders . . . the inside one about 10 inches from the top . . . the outside one about 14 inches from the top . . . and it makes a nice two piece cue carrier. Couple of small ties or buckles will keep them together . . . mount a shoulder to it . . . you're good to go. I've not made any myself . . . but a buddy showed me how he did them . . . and I was going to try some until I found out how cheap pool shooters are in my area. May God bless, Dwight

IF you have a solid backing underneath it . . . the white cutting boards sold in housewares are good. AND they are cheap. They will get marked up a bit after several month's use . . . simply flip em over and use the other side. They're also cheap to replace. Lay it on a piece of marble or granite . . . and whack away. May God bless, Dwight