Dwight

I'd really be tempted to say your need is why buckles were invented. But I wish you the best on your venture. Personally I would split the leather and stuff the attachment part up in the middle of that split leather . . . with the metal scratched up real good with the corner of a file or something of that sort . . . and put it together with Weldwood Contact Cement. Contact cement on both sides of the metal . . . and both insides of the split leather. Best wishes . . . may God bless, Dwight

I don't mean to sound like a bully . . . but hobby lobby IS NOT THE PLACE to get good leather. Tandy is a much better place. When you go there . . . ask them if they have any vegetable tanned belly leather. it is compared to the rest . . . about THE cheapest . . . AND it will hold your impressions well enough to get you going. Obviously . . . follow the other suggestions about casing . . . etc. PLUS . . . get a good marble, stone, or if nothing else . . . a smooth cement backer on which to do your stampings. I use a cut off piece of a counter top . . . don't know what kind of stone it is . . . but it is stone . . . and it makes all the difference in the world when one is beginning to stamp. A table top, desk top, or counter top just gives too much here . . . not enough over there . . . way too much in that corner . . . etc. The stone stops all that garbage . . . helps you develop the proper stroke for what you are doing. The belly leather is softer than usual tooling leather . . . but it works for beginners to decide if they want to continue . . . and there can be some beautiful work done on belly leather. Best wishes and have fun. May God bless, Dwight

Don't know much about it . . . just recall my old barbers . . . always stropped the razor before cutting my neck hairs . . . Never saw them do anything to the strop but use it . . . it always worked to shave my neck. May God bless, Dwight

There may be Klara . . . but I've never found the perfect way . . . The topcoat finish, Resolene, is I believe the only one that has some kind of blocker for the sun's darkening nature. But with age . . . I believe even it cannot stop the darkening process. Look at older saddles . . . they'll tell the tale . . . none are very light after a number of years out there in the sunlight. May God bless, Dwight

If you go out of Olive Hill on 60 towards Morehead . . . just after the funeral home on the left . . . you'll see a bridge ahead going across Smith Run Creek. Follow that dude back up in the hills there for a couple miles . . . spent the first part of my life back up there . . . enjoyed every moment of it. Got dozens of cousins there of the Webb Clan . . . my grandfather was Will Webb . . . him an his brother Vince built the little Globe United Baptist Church there on 60 across from the flea market. My sister in law . . . Wilma Wells . . . worked at the bank for decades. We all go down to Walkers when I'm in town . . . I get their hamburger steak. It's a noisy place, but I like their food. It's a small world we live in . . . glad you made it here . . . holler if I can ever be of help. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . let me jump in there and say I'm glad to have the opportunity to be the first to say "Well Done" I'm not a fan of OWB . . . but if I was . . . that one would be high on the list . . . if nothing else . . . a BBQ holster. Good job my friend . . . hope you eased thru that last hurricane. May God bless, Dwight

How close are you to Olive Hill? It's my "kinda sorta" home town . . . May God bless, Dwight

Well excuse me Dr. Fauci . . . sorry if I offended your "follow the science". Science is good . . . so far it has give us three immunization programs that seem to kill a few folks every now and then who only took the medicine. Science also allowed a rocket to blow up after launch back in 1986 killing the school teacher riding aboard. Both are unintended. AND . . . making your own leather conditioner may have "unintended" consequences. I simply attempted to warn someone who may not have known about the "possibility" of unintended consequences . . . and possibly help them avoid a situation they did not envision. But of course . . . you and the Lone Ranger rode in to save them from my layman's helpful warning . . . so good of you to do so. May God bless, Dwight

If you make this containing olive oil or almond oil . . . please understand that in time the product will go rancid and have to be thrown out. The reason is the oils you use. They are plant based oils . . . and will eventually rot, go rancid, stink . . . and make your product useless. The one oil that does not do that is neatsfoot oil. I have products made with neatsfoot oil that are over 10 years old . . . have never had a problem with it. I use natural bees wax that I personally took from my bee hives . . . and I use the more expensive 100% neatsfoot oil (not the cheap neatsfoot oil compound that contains other oils). I put them together in a jar . . . put the jar in a pan of boiling water . . . let them melt together . . . give it a couple stirs . . . pour it out into muffin papers. I use a scale and make it exactly a 1 to 1 ratio by weight. Adding a little more oil makes it softer . . . adding a little more wax makes it harder. Because my wax comes straight out of the bee hive . . . it has a slight honey smell to it. May God bless, Dwight

My apologies Xig . . . I did not mean to insult you . . . and if I did . . . I'm truly sorry. It might help if you did use the translator . . . then look at it again before sending it to make sure it says what you want. English has no equals in the business world among all the languages of the world. That is why it is the standard for business use. May God bless, Dwight

I took it that he was interested in making a pigment plant as in a factory. You do those things when you spend 30 years working in a "plant" . . . and the languages uses the "plant" as a place a lot in your conversation. May God bless, Dwight

I believe somewhere in the translation of Arabic to English . . . your thought got lost. Leather has it's own natural color when tanned . . . and I think you may have been trying to describe dyes??? Try again . . . perhaps we can help you more. May God bless, Dwight

One of these days . . . Lord willing . . . I hope to own a similar tomahawk. That and the sheath are both super. He's a better man than I am . . . packin that 44. I've owned several of them down thru the years . . . never could keep one . . . they were always too much gun for me. But I really like the leatherwork it is wearing . . . good job. May God bless, Dwight

I think I could make a sheath that would stop at the wood . . . angled so it always stops in the same position . . . and I would make the welt in leather exactly the thickness of the blade . . . and the welt would be exactly the shape of the blade from the tip on top all the way down.. I would also make the welt at the bottom far enough up into the sheath that I could double sew that whole sheath. But that's just how I'd do it . . . probably at least 99 other ways. May God bless, Dwight

Bakelite is far too hard for your purpose . . . it will destroy the edge of the knife . . . just by pulling it out and putting it in. Bakelite is also brittle . . . and will break . . . leaving broken pieces to fall down into the sheath and do even more damage. There is really no plastic I can think of that will glue well to leather . . . and honestly . . . I really do not understand your reluctance to use leather. I make cheek pieces for rifle shooters . . . stackingup leather to as much as 1 1/2 inches. A knife sheath should not need more than one welt of 8 oz leather which is 1/8 of an inch thick . . . and glues or contact cements well to the outer pieces of the sheath. The welt is more than anything else . . . there to protect the threads . . . by being made of leather . . . it also protects the knife edge. May God bless, Dwight

Boat vinyl is a good product . . . takes contact cement very well on the back side . . . sticks really well to the leather . . . especially the flesh side. The PLUS you get is it protects the leather fairly well . . . being for the most part "water proof". To get a really good product you can cement it to the back side of leather . . . hide that in your edges . . . and if you got to Joann Fabric . . . look on the i'net and get a 20 to 50% off coupon . . . I do it all the time. I use the vinyl for patterns . . . works really well. May God bless, Dwight

Actually . . . I've always thought that a lined product (for the most part) is a better item . . . and tote bags are especially in that category. So yeah . . . I would rather line em. Canvas is my bottom choice . . . boat vinyl is next . . . and of course leather is the top choice. But I did learn a lesson . . . buy the wedding gift . . . I had known from years past that lots of wedding gifts get the "exit stage left" treatment . . . but I had convinced myself that it would not happen to something this carefully crafted . . . especially with the relationship we had. Reminds me of that guy standing in the library . . . wondering if he should check out that paperback book on understanding women. May God bless, Dwight

Looks good from this end . . . also makes me glad I did not have to be a soldier in those days . . . May God bless, Dwight

Last one I did was for a wedding gift . . . I had something near 30 hours in it . . . about a year later . . . got an email . . . lady had hunted me down with my leather logo . . . said she bought it in a second hand shop . . . wondered why I had made it . . . what was it's purpose. Purpose was to go shopping . . . stuff it full of stuff . . . come home. I haven't made a wedding gift since.

Using the same pattern as the tote bag . . . make a canvas one or vinyl one using the same pattern. Cut it slightly smaller if you use vinyl . . . same size for canvas . . . on the rim of the tote bag . . . put a border . . . sew the lining to the inside of the border . . . works really well for what few I've done. May God bless, Dwight

Good looking work . . . May God bless, Dwight PS: Glad I didn't get born into that era. Not sure I could have survived . . .

You will have to be seriously gentle . . . but there is a product called SOFT SCRUB and it will take it off. If you rub hard . . . it can also damage the original finish . . . that's why I said be careful. But IT WILL take it off. Just don't get in a hurry . . . take your time. May God bless, Dwight

I don't know if it was Lobo . . . but I do recall a "drying box" thread we had on here some couple years or so ago. I built one and think I posted pictures on here . . . still have it . . . use it occasionally. Nothing more than a tall box with regular incandescent light bulbs at the bottom . . . thermostat in the door up at holster level . . . and I really like it. Using it adds a level of hardness to my dyed holsters that I don't get from my regular drying process hanging them in the shop. And it only takes a couple hours and they are DRY . . . dry. May God bless, Dwight PS: I don't use it on belts . . . holsters, knife sheaths, etc. ONLY

Couple things, Windrider . . . one is the oil thing . . . ALWAYS add one light coat to belts and holsters especially and things like purse straps . . . suspenders . . . anything that will be flexed a lot. Second . . . I'm not "slamming" whoever you got your belt blank from . . . but my personal adventures with them is they are cut from second rate leather . . . and although I might buy one for me . . . I'd never pass one on to a customer. Too much of "premaide" blanks and stuff is cut from a less than optimum hide . . . which is of course the only way that they can be offered for the low prices they get. May God bless, Dwight

Don't recall what it was some years ago . . . tried olive oil . . . never tried it again. May God bless, Dwight