Dwight

Thanks, everyone . . . got some stuff to try now . . . never used Tan Kote . . . it is on my shopping list. May God bless, Dwight

Long as he is paying the bills . . . any style . . . any texture . . . any color . . . It's called full employment . . . May God bless, Dwight

Just a refresh . . . maybe y'all missed the question

Honestly . . . I have a couple knives in my kitchen that I could use doing leather work . . . as I believe in sharp knives. AND . . . get down to it . . . most kitchen forks can give you a pretty consistent spacing pattern of 5 stitches to the inch . . . if you happen to not have another tool there at the time. And I have to admit . . . I'm one of those guys who will use whatever works . . . sometimes something else works a lot better . . . but it is $79.95 plus tax and is 45 miles away. So I'll just use this other thing that belongs in my automotive tool box for now. May God bless, Dwight

That particular holster was built for my wife's uncle in Ky . . . he did a lot of ginseng hunting . . . always packed his .22 revolver. Because of his age . . . to make it easier for him . . . and his arthritis . . . was the spacing reasoning. They can be done closer . . . My little model in the picture above is pretty much how I've done them in the past . . . never had any problems with them . . . and that "tad" of extra leather between each one I figured would help keep the rigidity of the belt. And besides . . . if you did em up touching each other . . . on a 30 inch belt . . . you would have over 60 cartridges . . . May God bless, Dwight

It is really pretty easy to do . . . you simply punch holes with an oval punch . . . and thread the bullet loop material out . . . then back thru the same hole. Not sure who first showed me this . . . but it's about the only way I do them any more. Here are pictures of my little models that have all my notes on em. The most important thing is when you cut the leather for the loops . . . cut it a 1/16 of an inch wider than the hole. You also make sure it is wet when you do this . . . not sopping, drippy wet . . . just a tad more than "in case" for stamping. Pull it thru . . . make the loop . . . slip a cartridge in the loop . . . pull it tight. I leave the cartridges in there for a good 1/2 hour . . . then gingerly slip them out . . . You can see of course that I do 2 layer belts . . . but you can simply put this together . . . and I'm of the opinion you would not "have to have" the liner . . . although it looks better. Anyway . . . have fun . . . PM me if you have any quesions. May God bless, Dwight

THIS is the way to do .22 loops . . . and I do all my other loops the same way . . . stitched a few here and there . . . stitching never works as well for me. This process . . . I can do the loops in about the same time either way . . . but this makes a better project in my opinion. May God bless, Dwight

For a while . . . I was having trouble with some shades of lighter browns not being uniform across the project . . . Got the tip to apply a very light coat of neatsfoot oil to the project on the hair side only . . . with the emphasis on VERY LIGHT. It cured the dying problem . . . 100%. That is what I do now . . . stamping comes first . . . molding comes first . . . shaping comes first . . . stitching comes first . . . but as soon as the project is now a true belt or a true holster etc . . . it gets the oil treatment. Let it sit for at least 24 hours . . . then I dip dye the project . . . and am happy with the results I get. May God bless, Dwight

I'm going to be doing a purse for a lady this spring . . . probably some floral carving on the front and inside the flap. I want to use a soft finish . . . nothing like Resolene . . . and I'll actually fold and bend the veggie tan leather so it is very pliable for her . . . There will not be any colorizations at this point . . . just stamping and mabye . . . maybe . . . a little antiquing . . . Just need to keep the Saddle Tan stain from rubbing off on everything. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

Thanks tsuniasapa . . . left my brain on the kitchen table I think . . . Anyway . . . this is it.......... https://www.ebay.com/itm/401619926644?hash=item5d8269be74:g:SeAAAOSw52NdHXAP May God bless, Dwight

I know . . . it's not the same . . . it's not traditional "saddle stitching" . . . All I can say is "so what??" Hundreds of belts are sold each week with sewing machine stitching . . . which is the same stitching one gets from this kind of tool . . . and the thread will be as white on the first stitch as it is on the last one . . . which on a 50 inch long belt at 6 stitches per inch . . . that's 600 stitches . . . I often sew things with one of these . . . and I'm always satisfied with the end product. May God bless, Dwight

Wallets are good too . . . in the storeroom of my "goodies" I have a billfold made by my biological father . . . It is the only attachment I ever had to him . . . sometimes just get it out and hold it . . . wonder where all it went . . . all the conversations it heard . . . They can become special keepsakes . . . not sure anyone keeps a PVC purse or billfold. Put yourself into your leather work . . . it is a way of sharing yourself with others. I have one wallet customer . . . I know he remembers me every now and then . . . his daughter had bought him a "different" tri fold billfold some 20 years or so before . . . and it was just about done . . . flat out falling apart. He looked all over trying to find one like it . . . finally wound up in a Tandy store one day when I happened to be there . . . the store manager sent him to me . . . telling him they didn't have completed billfolds . . . but I could make him one. He kinda looked at me dumbfounded when I told him I'd need the old one for a pattern . . . but he emptied it up . . . put the stuff in his pockets . . . offered to pay me whatever I wanted if I would make him one like it. I did . . . sent it to him a couple weeks later . . . off in Pennsylvania somewhere. Got a letter back from him . . . he was tickled pink. Those are the moments that make life an enjoyable experience . . . leatherwork included. May God bless, Dwight

Welcome Selvune . . . as the Navy says . . . glad to have you aboard. One of the quickest projects you can do . . . and one that will bring some personal satisfaction . . . go to a leather craft store . . . and purchase a good looking belt blank . . . 1 1/2 wide. Buy a buckle you like . . . and don't buy a cheap one . . . get one you will be proud to wear. Tell the guy you want to tool the belt . . . you'll need a swivel knife and a half dozen tools to complete the job . . . and you need the pattern template for it. Check out youtube for advice . . . lots of good stuff out there . . . and even watching the goofballs . . . you will learn something . . . even if it is WHAT NOT TO DO . It'll take you several days . . . you'll have to find a solid place in your house where you can tool without waking the entire household . . . You'll have to take it out in the garage to dye it . . . and add the finish . . . use Resolene for the finish . . . Once you are done . . . you can wear that belt for years on top of years . . . and every time you hook your thumbs in it . . . you can be proud of your work. I have one of mine from over 40 years ago . . . I still wear it occasionally . . . still proud of my amateur work I did then. May God bless, Dwight

If you stamp / engrave a holster or knife sheath . . . there is a BIG fold that must be done after the stamping / engraving is done. Typically . . . I do not stamp or engrave in that area . . . will bring the stamping up to "almost" the fold . . . (especially on a knife sheath) . . . And I'll stay away from the stitching on the other side . . . If you do it right, looking at it from the front . . . there will be an equal border on the left side and on the right where the fold is . . . And by doing the same up at the top where the knife goes in . . . it makes a really pretty border of unstamped leather around your stamped part. Now you can stamp all the way to the back on some gun holsters . . . and then fold . . . it is often done on large revolver holsters . . . but the folding around the gun is much less pronounced than the fold on a knife sheath. Doing that with a knife sheath will cause distortion of your stamping in the fold area. Personally . . . I don't mind it . . . just one of those things we cannot perfectly control. AND . . . one last point . . . you want your leather to be "in case" when you do that fold . . . or maybe just a tad wetter than "in case". Just don't get serious with that wetting. Practice on some scrap . . . it won't take you but a couple small pieces . . . you'll get the hang of it. May God bless, Dwight

He-he . . . May God bless, Dwight

I can only say that I did not have any problems with the hydraulic press . . . other than being scared I was going to crush somebody's plastic fantastic lover pistol Wood and steel guns never were a problem for me and the latex rubber pieces I used to get the forming done. I do think though that the vacuum press does a better job . . . quicker . . . and I can see what it is doing . . . With the hydraulic press . . . if something gets out of alignment you will not know it until you lift the press. With vacuum bag system . . . you look thru the bag and you can see what is going on all the time. And for the price I paid for the latex rubber pieces . . . I could have bought the whole vacuum system . . . complete. (IIRC) May God bless, Dwight

Occasionally . . . the fringe was actually cut into the chap itself. It was not a separate piece. But from all I've seen . . . most were cut and then added onto the chaps . . . I guess the idea was either to use up small scrap pieces . . . or to be able to replace torn pieces later on. But anyway . . . the chaps go on the bottom . . . the fringe lays on the edge . . . and a long separate piece goes over the top of the edge of the fringe . . . when fastened down . . . it held the fringe in place. Hope this helps. May God bless, Dwight

But I can spell . . . don't have to scream . . . nor use language not preferable for a full family website. Grow up . . . will you? May God bless, Dwight

Honestly . . . never ever saw a pair like that. 1. the way the top is laced together . . . unless that was some very easily broken shoe string or something . . . I would never have worn them. Fact is . . . I'd a tossed the lacing and put in a leather thong or something similar. Again . . . that could get ya hurt. 2. the pockets look normal . . . and the fringe and the way the fringe is attached . . . yeah . . . OK 3. the bottom is just too narrow for any I've ever seen . . . they always flared out . . . but looking at the off side leg . . . looks like a pair of step in chaps . . . might have been something worn around the ranch when working cattle from the ground . . . help keep ya warm . . . and the dried green decoration on the nearest leg would also kind of bear that witness. May God bless, Dwight

Not really sure what paperback book you got that out of . . . but all our folks would have been proud to carry the cowboy moniker . . . Maybe that was true on the great plains north of London . . . lol May God bless, Dwight

The fringe is not truthfully "hard" . . . just time comsuming. Make a fringe cutter like this out of 1/16 or 1/8 plexiglass . . . I use all three of them . . . but the easiest one to use is the center one. The black line is the only cut in the plexiglass . . . the rest are just lines allowing me to check my work . . . Put down an straight edge to the left . . . shove the back side of the leather even with it . . . lay the cutter down on top of it . . . thumb on one side . . . fingers on the other . . . cut out on the black line . . . Move it up or down . . . I usually work down . . . line up the cut with the alignment line in the plexiglass . . . thumb and fingers down . . . cut it. I can cut out a pretty good sized piece of fringe with this fairly quickly . . . and if you are fairly careful . . . you will have a nice piece of fringe. May God bless, Dwight