Dwight

If you don't get a good answer, . . . one of my tried and true answer finders on stuff like this is model building. Build a 12 inch long scale model of it, . . . with true scaled thickness and widths, . . . then measure the pieces, . . . multiply it by the scale, . . . and you'll have it. May God bless, Dwight

You're fine, Memphis, . . . I never could figure out how those copper rivets came out so really pretty on some stuff, . . . An old saddlemaker showed me 1st the tool, . . . then 2nd how to use the tool. I would have been up the proverbial creek if he had not taken the time to show me how to do it. Glad you got the goods this time, . . . happy riveting. May God bless, Dwight

My apologies to you then, my friend, . . . I have no idea then what is happening, . . . would probably just have to be there, . . . is there any saddle makers or other leather workers in your area? I would search one of them out, . . . take the tool and the rivets with you, . . . or maybe even take them to a Tandy story. My Tandy store has a manager who KNOWS leather and how to do the stuff with it, . . . he is my big resource. Best wishes, may God bless, Dwight

Easy fix though, . . . center punch a couple places near the edge of the hole, . . . on opposite sides, . . . should grip then. Course, . . . better idea is toss the bad ones and only use good ones, . . . even if it means tossing the whole package. Few things are worse than trying to use a "raw material" that was not properly made, . . . and won't allow you to do the job you intended to do with it. Grrrr May God bless, Dwight

Best I can figure, . . . you are not doing it right. Stick the copper rivet thru the leather, . . . put on the washer, . . . slip the tool over the end of the rivet and smack it with a mallet, driving the washer all the way down onto the leather, hit it again for good measure, . . . cut the copper off about an 1/8 to 3/16 of an inch above the washer, . . . peen with a ball peen just a minor bit . . . then use the little rounded out place in the bottom of your tool to make the rivet "purty". I always do this on a piece of 1/4 inch steel laying on my work bench, . . . and often as not on top of my marble slab. You cannot peen and set the rivet most of the time on a soft table top. May God bless, Dwight

It would really help if we saw the "multitool" you are trying to protect. My first thought was the pair of pliers that has 10 things built into each handle, . . . but that does not seem to be the case here. May God bless, Dwight

Let me predict that brown or black, . . . even green, . . . that style holster is very comfortable, . . . and in the words of many a suit salesman "you gonna like the way you look" May God bless, Dwight

As Rockoboy said, . . . your teacher is the Ranger belt. I first find out what kind of buckle will be worn on that belt, . . . then I work the two billets so that they will be back equal distance from the center of the buckle when the buckle is in the center hole of the belt. That makes the belt look right on the wearer in my opinion. It should hold true for your design as well. May God bless, Dwight

If it is costume, . . . spray paint will work AOK, . . . does not handle a lot of flexing, . . . but can be very convincing in appearance, . . . Tandy stores also carry paint you can apply with a brush. May God bless, Dwight

Here is the "pattern" I use, . . . I use the moniker of "Trucker" when I'm working on an order with someone. That is suede for the lining. May God bless, Dwight

You cannot go wrong with Resolene, . . . mix 50/50 with water, . . . brush it on with a cheap bristle hair brush, . . . swirl it around on there until you get a little "lather" of bubbles, . . . brush it back and forth, . . . up and down, . . . all sorts of angles until the bubbles disappear. Repeat. Let it dry, . . . use it. I use Resolene exclusively for wallets, holsters, belts, cell phone cases, . . . etc. Funny part is the only time I've ever had dye rub off, . . . it was a small shoulder holster rig I was testing out, . . . had to go to a party, . . . didn't want to go disarmed, . . . threw it on. Got home and took off my shirt, . . . (holster was between shirt and tee shirt), . . . stinking black dye was all over my tee shirt. Got to checking it out, . . . forgot to coat it with resolene. Coated it, . . . never had any more problems. Tossed the holster as I figured out the design was flawed. May God bless, Dwight

Pretty good start, . . . Scorpio is upside down though, . . . lol.......... Seriously, . . . go for it, . . . show pics of the finished product. I make one or two of these from time to time. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, guys, . . . many of us have done the drill press bit, . . . and there is an easy "cure" for the leather sticking once you punch it. Swipe the sides of your awl with beeswax, . . . you will be amazed at how well it works. May God bless, Dwight

Another one is to take one of those little wooly daubers that come with the 4 oz of Feibings dye, . . . take a Bic lighter to it and burn it down about half way, . . . being careful not to make a torch out of it. Rub all the carbon off it, . . . dip it in the dye, . . . shake off the excess . . . and paint your edge. This is the only way I do it, . . . and I do very little of it. It is efficient though, . . . just practice a bit on some junk leather laying around, . . . you might like that process too. The dauber will then dry hard if you don't clean it with thinner, . . . and you'll have to roll it around a bit next time you need it to bet it pliable again, . . . I have a black one and a brown one for whichever I need. May God bless, Dwight

The boat anchor is a great machine, . . . can be a tad finnicky at times, . . . but I've had mine for something near 15 years now, . . . will sell it when I cash in my leatherworking chips, . . . but until then it is my "baby" for sewing. If you get one, . . . you can do like the guy did in the above video, . . . build you a better table for the machine, . . . it will save you some grief. I used mine without a table for a number of years, . . . messed up one expensive holster, . . . got my table, . . . but like him, I built my own. I mainly do belts, holsters, cell phone cases, and knife sheaths, . . . but I've done a bunch of other stuff with it too, . . . including bouncy houses, tents, tarps, whatever. Best thing is I can take it anywhere practically and use it as it needs no electric power. I settled on a thread size of 346 for all that I do, . . . set the machine for that, . . . works good. If you live near Ft. Wayne, Indiana, . . . you are really good, . . . that's the plant, . . . guy in there named Ben, . . . he's tops on working on em, . . . if I have a problem, I load mine in the Jeep, . . . I'm there in 2 1/2 hours, . . . he's been called ahead of time, . . . he clears his bench and "does his thing", . . . I take a fixed machine back home. Look out on Ebay, . . . there is usually one, . . . this one is newer than mine: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Used-Tippmann-Boss-Leather-Sewing-Machine/202781236432?epid=26034600462&hash=item2f36b41cd0:g:0q0AAOSwcghdgYt5 Best wishes to you, . . . may God bless, Dwight

On the contrary, . . . until you have done a lot of "experimenting" and practicing on scrap leather, . . . knock those chisels thru, . . . and don't bat an eye doing it. There is a lot of art required and finesse in saddle stitching if you expect both side to look as well. That means holding the awl at such an angle that it goes perfectly 90 degrees into the leather and comes out on the other side equally spaced each time you do a stitch. The stitching chisels relieve you of a lot of that aggravation. Secondly, . . . using the dividers looks good on TV, . . . but IMHO does nothing more than mark where it should be stitched. Using a groover allows the stitch to lay down much flatter, . . . removing the chance for rubbing abrasion on the stitch. I would never send out a holster or belt that did not have the stitches put down in a groove. I hate repairing something I could have fixed right in the first place. May God bless, Dwight

First thing is to never make a 90 degree inside corner, . . . always make a rounded corner. 1. It takes away the problem you mentioned. 2. It is easier to make than a 90 degree inside corner. 3. No matter how you cut it, . . . a 90 degree inside corner will almost always have one of the two cuts go into the side of the other one, . . . and that is where the pulling and tugging of using the (whatever it is) will start to separate it and it will begin to look ugly. Rounded corners take this problem all away. May God bless, Dwight

Welcome back, . . . I been keeping the place warm. May God bless, Dwight

Yep, . . . sure do, . . . usually have one hanging on which I'm cutting. I'm down in that picture, . . . was taken maybe a year ago, . . . was running out of stock. May God bless, Dwight

On straps you do not want the wrinkles, . . . bend if first around a half inch bolt, . . . then a 3/8 inch bolt, . . . and finally a 1/4 inch bolt, . . . all while it is more than damp, . . . but not sopping wet either. AND, . . . don't just bend it around the bolt, . . . pull on it while you are doing it. This will stretch the outside layer a bit, . . . and it won't look as wrinkled. What I usually do is form mine right after I dye them, . . . OR, . . . right after the first coat of the final finish. You have to touch up either one, . . . just depends on which you want to mess with. My worst offender is the buckle end of CCW belts, . . . but with a bit of care, . . . they won't look too awful bad. May God bless, Dwight

If you just took a picture off the wall (or something similar), . . . used only 2 x 2's as the top, bottom and sides, . . . with only a half sheet of particle board, . . . you could still hang a dozen double shoulders inside that little space. Vertical space is not hard to find if you just stop and look at all the possibilities. I have one wall I'm removing next summer, . . . turning it into a storage wall, . . . as one side will be hinged, . . . opening it up to a 4 ft by 8 ft by 3 1/2 inch box, . . . 2 x 4's will be set horizontally to act as shelves, . . . I'll store a boat load of little "thingys" in there that clutter the workshop today, . . . on the wall, in boxes, on shelves. May God bless, Dwight

When I built my shop, . . . I started with the idea of rolling them, . . . but it puts a permanent or at least long lasting curl in every piece of leather. I chose to hang my leather that I'm presently using, . . . and it makes working with it a whole lot easier. I can hang something on the neighborhood of 65 sides of 8 oz leather in my "vault" if I could afford that much. In the one picture you can see that I have other stuff in there. It is two 4 x 8 sheets of particle board, . . . one is nailed to a ring of 2 x 12's that make the sides, top, and bottom of the vault, . . . the other is hinged on one side. I made arms that swing on one end, . . . so I can find the piece I'm looking for. Have never run out of space, . . . and can find anything I'm looking for in about 30 seconds or less. Wouldn't store mine any other way after using this. May God bless, Dwight

Turn it over so the seat is laying down if you cannot remove the pieces. Take a small bristle brush (1 inch from Harbor Freight for 69 cents or so is a good one), . . . dip it in a jar of neatsfoot oil, . . . NOT neatsfoot oil compound, . . . brush on a light coating to the flesh side of the leather, . . . go find something else to do for 36 hours or so, . . . Come back and see if it has become a bit more pliable. One more coat should do it if the first does not. Just about any good shoe polish should fill in those scratches, . . . not liquid, . . . paste wax in a flat round can, . . . and if you put a bit of elbow grease into the project, . . . it should look good as new for less than $15. At least that is how I would do it. May God bless, Dwight

Well, Treesner, it will sound at first as though I'm picking on you, . . . believe me I am not. ALL decent saddles that cowboys ride for a living, . . . that the cavalry rode for a living, . . . that armies for hundreds of years rode for a living, . . . were made of leather, . . . and it was polished and wiped with beeswax and beeswax compounds that while waterproofing, . . . also made them more slippery than a democrat at a town hall being asked about taxes. The riders learned how to hang on to their mounts with their legs, . . . mostly their thighs. How did I learn this, . . . I own a 700 cc King Quad with a vinyl seat that is more slippery than two of those democrats previously mentioned, . . . and I had to go back to my horseback riding days to figure out what I was doing wrong, . . . almost sliding off the Quad if I wasn't careful. I've since adjusted my riding techniques, . . . life is so much better now, . . . BUT, . . . having said that, . . . many saddles do have a "rough out" patch in the seat of the saddle that does aid in keeping seated, . . . if you were to make one like that, . . . incorporate a patch of rough out leather (not suede, just the leather turned over) I think you would find it much "grippier" so to speak, . . . and with a little imagination it could be very attractive. Also, . . . relying on past experience, . . . brushed on 50/50, . . . Resolene and water, . . . is a very good water repellant, . . . looks good, . . . and has a sun blocker built in just for these types of use. Best wishes on whatever you do. May God bless, Dwight

Pappy, . . . I don't mean to sound like an ogre, . . . but the 99% cause of sprayers not spraying is simple: not properly cleaned. Little air sprayers work like a champ, . . . but are a pain to clean and keep clean, . . . at least that has been my experience. That is why mine are all on the shelf and I use brushes. May God bless, Dwight