Dwight

Thanks everyone for the good words . . . It was a case in itself . . . after we first got started . . . he had to go out west for a few weeks . . . got covid . . . Came home . . . took a long time to get well . . . Original plan of front to back double suspenders wound up getting scrapped in favor of the three legged design . . . Had to add legs to the holster and mag pouch that way . . . I got a bunch of interim orders I would work on when he wasn't available . . . all in all it took a bit over a year to get it on his shoulders and out the door. But it was fun. May God bless, Dwight

If you use 4 layers of veg tan . . . say 10 oz . . . 2 of them put together with Weldwood contact cement for the front and 2 for the back . . . you can put neatsfoot oil on the two interior layers to keep your sword from rusting. The contact cement will keep it inside the leather. Make sure to put a welt all around the outside of the sheath . . . and cut it so it fits within 1 1/16th of an inch of your blade. The welt should be 8 oz or so. Contact cement that welt to the back slde of the sheath. Next . . . mold the leather to your sword . . . by wrapping your sword in 8 or 10 mill plastic sheeting (two wraps is plenty) . . . and wet mold the two halves to your sword. Lay down a very smooth 1 x 4 board . . . cover it with parchment paper (your wife has it in the kitchen if she bakes). Lay down the back side . . . insert the sword . . . put on the front, carefully aligning the edges all the way around . . . more parchment paper . . . and another very smooth 1 x 4. Add several wood clamps the length of your sword and tighten them uniformly up and down the sword . . . not super tight . . . just enough to get the mold of the sword impressed into the center two pieces of leather. Leave it for an hour or so. Put the sword and leather parts in a cardboard box with a couple of 100 watt lightbulbs at the bottom . . . put a thermometer in there and keep an eye on it . . . don't let the box get above 145 farenheight . . . but you do want it to get up to 130 degrees. In at least 3 places . . . wrap plastic . . . then masking tape . . . to keep the pieces lined up while they dry When it is fully dry . . . it will be really hard . . . you can probably knock someone out with the scabbard alone. Oil the inside two halves of the scabbard . . . SPARINGLY . . . and if you want to do any stamping on the outside . . . put the sword back in . . . lay the bottom (keep it dry) on a couple of towels . . . and gently dampen the top outside layer with a sponge . . . and stamp your leather. Put it back in the box to dry. Contact cement the top to the bottom . . . sand the edges smooth . . . bevel . . . sew it and finish the edges . . . and you will have probably the best scabbard in your knights group or whoever you are "swording" with. You can from time to time oil your blade . . . just be careful about getting the inside of the sheath super wet with oil. That was the process I had devised for my own sword (see pictures below) as one of my alter egos is Centurion Salvatorus Antonio, the Centurion of Capernaum. I got behind in my schedule . . . and just ordered my scabbard . . . and it turns out it is leather made in a similar fashion as I explained. I would never hesitate to use that scabbard as a weapon itself if it was all I had. I think I could knock out a prize fighter with that thing. May God bless, Dwight

From what little vinyl experience I've had . . . just one note of caution. You will have to have that foam trimmed REALLY close to the shape you want it. Even marine vinyl . . . thick and tough as it it . . . it also is unforgiving if there is a valley or hill in the foam. That valley or hill will show up worse than coal soot on newly fallen snow. AND . . . actually cutting the foam just a tad bigger allows the vinyl to cover up some of those problem areas. Leather is much more forgiving (and problem hiding) than vinyl. May God bless, Dwight

A long time friend of mine (50 yrs + ) asked me a year ago if I could make him a set of suspenders that would incorporate a shoulder holster . . . mag carrier . . . and of course, hold up his britches. Between sicknesses . . . travel . . . and a few other things . . . took over a year to get it done. He drove off with it on yesterday . . . pleased as punch. I felt good making it for him. May God bless, Dwight

Have fun . . . just around the corner from you up Marion way. May God bless, Dwight

It's a bit tricky . . . but you can also take the large piece of leather (biggest ya got) . . . and cut a running piece around the outside edge in a circle . Keep cutting . . . coming in on that circle . . . and you can get 15, 20, 30 ft of length . . . all one piece. May God bless, Dwight

Very Well done ! I'm not a fan of all the skull heads etc . . . but it still turned out as a really good piece of work. May God bless, Dwight

Joann Fabric . . . they've got it or can order it. I've never used elastic on any of the many I've built . . . mine are all leather . . . Buy one . . . from a good maker . . . get a used one cheap on Ebay . . . see how they did it. May God bless, Dwight

A friend asked me a week ago if I had a Taurus G3 . . . I answered yes. He then asked how hard it would be to make a box holster for one . . . looks like you got a meter or a book or something like that on your side. Told him it was a piece of cake. Made it . . . took it to him for final fit check . . . but not worried because we both got G3's. Welllllllllllll.................. his G3 turned out to be a G3 . . . mine is a G3C . . . 5/8 of an inch shorter barrel. Now I'll be making it over . . . and I'll have a G3C box holster in the plastic tub with the others I've collected over the years. God ahead and giggle . . . I have been . . . or I'd have to go bust something up. May God bless, Dwight

Uhh . . . no . . . the loops always come out the exact same size . . . because the "form" that makes them . . . is the bullet that will be held in them. And yes . . . wet molding would probably describe the process accurately. OK . . . why would you want to integrate a rubber butt pad with a leather butt cover and shell holder . . . with a possible cheek riser on it?? The cheek riser and butt cover . . . they go together well . . . A butt cover . . . and cartridge loops . . . they go together well . . . cover, riser, and loops all go togetherwell . . . But a rubber butt pad??? I actually make cheek risers for scope shooters and they work well for some iron sights . . . I just lace em on like the pics enclosed. This one in the pic used brass grommets . . . it was a test run . . . didn't work out. We just punch holes in em now . . . and lace thru the holes. May God bless, Dwight

Actually . . . I made em so when the belt was laid down on a table . . . the loops touched each other. Didn't have to worry when it was being worn . . . rounded backsides always separated them a tad. I tried following the sewing idea one time . . . doubt if I ever will do it again. This takes about the same amount of time . . . but I like it much better. besides that . . . sewn loops have to be sewn back somewhat behind the cartridge . . . or over time . . . they get loose and when the belt is taken off . . . clink clink clink . . . bullets on the floor. May God bless, Dwight Check the above post May God bless, Dwight

I just looked at it real quick . . . noticed one thing I forgot . . . when you cut the leather for the belt loops . . . cut it about 1/16 of an inch wider than the slots you are using. That way when it dries . . . it dries with a nock in the leather at both ends of the slot . . . and does not allow the loops to move. The fellow who gave me the idea also said he used calf leather. I've never been able to get any calf leather here . . . so I've just used veg tan cowhide . . . have never had any real problems. May God bless, Dwight

For the last 20 years + I have made cartridge loops mainly for gun belts similar to Marshall Dillon and others like him. I used a design I copied from some place . . . I've long since forgotten the originator . . . although he is certainly an intelligent fellow. The design uses a loop system . . . where you punch a hole . . . pull the cartridge leather up through the hole . . . around the cartridge . . . then back down thru the same hole. You use the actual cartridge . . . NOT AN EMPTY ONE because they have been shot and have expanded somewhat . . . and you end it with rivets at each end. You would not use rivets . . . just make the two ends go out an inch and a half or two . . . allow the leather to dry . . . then contact cement them to the backing leather . . . and it'll never move. You do the work with dampened leather . . . slightly wetter than you would if you were stamping it with a design. Pull the loops tight around the bullet . . . and what I do is take the bullet out once I have gotten about 8 or 10 of them done. The loop will be set by then . . . and pulling out the bullet allows them to shrink just a very slight bit . . . making the loop tight to hold the bullet after it dries and you put on the final finish. I use resolene . . . it works great. Just do not put it inside the loops. Look at the photos enclosed and holler if you have any questions. You will like the finish product I am sure. May God bless, Dwight

Looking at the tool . . . . and the price . . . . I'd run from it. My 20 yr old Dremel is still working . . . does not work as good as it did back then . . . but I doubt if the Detroit will last that long. And my Dremel tool alone was almost twice that price. Best wishes . . . may God bless, Dwight

OK, Folks . . . the project you all helped me get done is there in the Gallery. Thanks again for the advice and encouragement . . . May God bless, Dwight

I had a guy want me to make him a 53 inch cowboy belt . . . took a while to make it . . . He needed a 56 when he came to pick it up. Fortunately I was able to salvage the job by making a new tongue and installing it for him free of charge. May God bless, Dwight

Sometimes something is staring you in the face . . . and you cannot see it. I never gave a thought to how it could be arranged to work out right like that. Just thought ya stamped it and bordered it . . . and ya was done. That's part of why I never messed with it before . . . when I did try the results were much less than stellar . . . Thanks again . . . may God bless, Dwight

Hmmm . . . never gave it a thought. Just set my square on the leather . . . went down the 45 side . . . started knocking out the stamps. Good to know tht there is a better way. NOW . . . other than the little half circle star like stamp I used . . . is there any other "border" tool that is normally used??? Sounds picky . . . but I hate doing the same old thing . . . every time . . . like a bit of spice or difference. I've got a deer hoof print tool and a butterfly print tool . . . both of which I hand made . . . will never be used again . . . but was fun using them the first time. Both made belts that went out as "One of............" belts. One of em went to my sister I lost this year. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks to every one who replied . . . and I was wondering about rotating the pattern. I tried to look and figure out what angle most folks did their stamping at . . . kinda thought it was close to 45 degrees . . . so I grabbed my carpenter's square . . . laid it on the leather . . . and drug my stamping tool down along the edge to get two parallel lines at a 45 degree angle. Do most of you stamp at a different angle? As for the deeper / shallower impressions . . . 76 year old hands . . . doing something they never trained for earlier. Now if I could do the impressions with a lever action .22 or a semi auto military rifle . . . or a Remington typewriter . . . they would be spot on. AND . . . I had to get up and drag my $1.25 per pair . . . dollar store . . . seeing eye cheaters so I could see where that stamp was going to land. Man I hate wearing those things. I'll look up for my coffee . . . or to check on a sound . . . and my whole world goes to the "big blur" thru those dollar store cheaters. But again . . . thanks to you all for your advice and encouragement . . . the project is taking shape rather well . . . I didn't charge the guy enough for it . . . but I'm not planning on making a career out of these things anyway. But I do enjoy the challenge of a "one of a kind" leather project. Done many of them . . . hope to do more. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . I went out to my shop . . . thinking I had a couple of old basket weave stamps I got years ago from Tandy. Watched a video on "how to" . . . and started messing with it. Would just like you guys that do this . . . give me an honest . . . brutal if necessary . . . assessment of the second thing I did a basket weave on. It is a box that will be folded up and the basket weave follow around the sides. I'll post pictures of the finished project in a week or two . . . depending on how long it takes. I thought I had it today . . . found out I left out one of the really important pieces . . . this box I stamped. Thanks. . . . may God bless, Dwight

I tried that years ago . . . found out it was a losing proposition. Make up representative belts "for show" . . . but not for stock. If you are well set up . . . you can get an order today . . . and ship it tomorrow . . . only one days difference from pulling it from stock. All you need is the leather properly oiled and dyed . . . cut to some 55 inch length or whatever your cow's side will allow you to cut them. You simply then grab two pieces the same color . . . work out the ends . . . glue em together . . . punch the holes . . . sew em . . . and put the final finish on it . . . and go to bed. Get up the next morning . . . pack and ship it. Your customer's will not know nor care the difference of one day. And you will not have them hanging there taking up space. I actually still have one unsold belt in my closet . . . will one day drop it off to the salvation army. May God bless, Dwight

I would use a drill bit that is right at the diameter of the rivets in the top photo. I would use a brand new one . . . super sharp . . . and I would not get in any kind of hurry at all. You might even go in on the backside . . . use a drywall screw to keep it from turning . . . hold the drywall screw with a pair of pliers . . . and I'd do this in a drill press if you have that option. I've drilled out bunches of rivets from time to time . . . because of the dryness of the leather . . . it has probably shrunk . . . the rivet will spin if the drill big catches it . . . just be careful. May God bless, Dwight

Make sure you post a picture when it is done . . . and don't forget to put plenty of beads on the flap . . . showing outside. Wouldn't want anyone to think your idea was "blowing in the wind" May God bless, Dwight

Actually, Scootch . . . just a common basket weave will do for me. Being as honest as I can . . . I'd rather hand sew a 55 inch gun belt . . . than stamp anything. I've never been able to really get much more than a couple patterns to work like I want them to. And that is only a basic border stamping. I have a "one of a kind" project for a Texan . . . he wanted it to have a Texas flavor to it . . . and I just wanted to basket weave some of the smaller parts . . . but the cheap garbage Tandy stamps I've got . . . won't do it . . . and just as soon as I get a decent one or two . . . they're liable to wind up being ballast for the local garbage truck. Thanks to all of you for your suggestions . . . one of them will probably work out . . . Sergey and Barry King will get my attention for the time being . . . and we'll go from there. May God bless, Dwight