Dwight

Probably a lot of us know that eggs have yokes . . . comedians tell yokes, . . . but who knew airplanes had yokes??? Seriously, . . . show a picture of what you want to cover, . . . and some idea of what you want to finish up with, . . . someone on here can probably help you out. May God bless, Dwight

Actually I got both, . . . have no idea what is going on in the background, . . . Try it again with your mailing address.......... It'll be later today or first thing tomorrow, . . . gonna be up and leaving here in a very few minutes. May God bless, Dwight

Would something like this be OK? If so send me your mailing address in a PM, . . . it is really too complicated to do on here and get it right. I'll cut you out a full size pattern and mail it to you. May God bless, Dwight

Make a square cup that fits around your press's square shaft, . . . make it out of 3/4 or 1 inch steel, . . . put a 1/4 inch floor plate on it, . . . hold it on the shaft with a set screw you turn with your fingers Attach your brass stamps thru a piece of 1/4 or 3/8 inch steel so they are screwed in place and cannot move on the plate. Set a rail in the rear that bumps the stamps, . . . it will always be centered then. I use brass stamps on some of my stuff, . . . but they are small enough that I can use them under my ram, . . . yours look too big. To be successful, . . . you need that pressure to be the same all over the area being stamped, . . . OH, . . . and cut a piece of 1 inch pvc pipe about 36 inches long. When you are applying pressure on your ram, . . . that piece of PVC used as a cheater over the regular handle makes life a lot easier, . . . believe me I do enough of it that I learned that lesson all too well. My PVC handle sits just outside my shop door, . . . easily accessible and readily handy. May God bless, Dwight

Another way to make it more permanent is to stamp it in dampened leather. Veg tan works best of course, . . . but others in varying degrees also respond. For that sheath if I wanted that particular design, . . . I would probably take a piece of thin, . . . polished and rounded aluminum, . . . that would go across the whole piece of leather so there are no beginning and ending marks in the stamping, . . . get the leather wet, . . . lay it on my marble slab, . . . and stamp away. It compresses the leather much better than a creaser in my opinion. AND, . . of course, . . . that has to be done before making the blank piece of leather into a sheath, . . . so you can lay it down flat and stamp it. May God bless, 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