Dwight

Good morning from Marion, Ohio, . . . Good looking holster there my friend, . . . May God bless, Dwight

http://www.selfreliancecentral.com/2018/09/19/girl-with-gun-teaches-thug-painful-lesson/ I never saw her holster, . . . but she was packin', . . . knew what to do, . . . how to do it, . . . and far as I could see, . . . did a bang up job (pardon the pun). Had her figured for purse carry. May God bless, Dwight

Somewhere in the actions we do, . . . our final product is different. When I use Weldwood contact cement, . . . I do not put it together until it is DRY, . . . and I mean DRY. Touching it anywhere will not get a tacky or moist feel at all. The only thing that will stick to it, . . . is another piece of something with contact cement on it. I stick the two pieces together, . . . and somehow PRESS them together, . . . palms of my hands work, . . . a seam roller from wallpapering days also works well, . . . especially on the edges. I then sand the edges of everything I make, . . . to make them even, . . . and when I burnish, I cannot hardly at all see see the line where the two pieces come together. May God bless, Dwight

That's Feibings British Tan, . . . probably my most used color. I cut it 1 to 1 with Feibings thinner and dip dye all my projects. May God bless, Dwight

This is a picture of my money belt, . . . this one is a rough out leather belt, . . . since it is not curved to help keep it up, . . . the rough out takes over that job a bit. It is all one piece for the belt itself, . . . only sewn at the top, . . . and should easily hold silver dollar size coins. The buckle end has the usual treatment on the one end of it, . . . the other end goes down thru a 2 inch slot in the top and the bottom sections of the belt, . . . goes back under the belt and is fastened with the two snaps you see. Unless you have a pretty good size waist, . . . that many cartridges may get bunched quite a bit, . . . I'd probably do a shotshell slide if I wanted to take them with me for some reason. This makes a pretty belt, as well as a practical belt. May God bless, Dwight

In the design for the back loop, . . . you "stepped down" from the holster opening. Do just the opposite, . . . raise it a half inch on the next one. Raise the front slot as high as it will go, . . . and it will give you some cant on the gun. Once you have move the back slot up, . . . tip the gun forward to the cant you want, . . . mark it, . . . make the next one there. When I run into these problems (thankfully not often), . . . the holster that does not work gets cut up, . . . leather sewn on, . . . stitches pulled out, . . . and re-worked until it DOES do what was intended, . . . or thrown into the "other holster" box. This one would get the rear stitches removed, . . . slot lengthened, . . . rear slot cut off, . . . other leather sewn back on, . . . a new slot put in, . . . and then check for fit. May God bless, Dwight

Practice, . . . practice, . . . practice. Use old scrap leather pieces, . . . practice on them and pitch them. May God bless, Dwight

I'm with dikman, my friend, . . . love to see at least a "Howdy" every week or so, . . . chime in and pour decades of information on us, . . . and don't be afraid to whale on us. You could also make up a picture gallery of 30 or 40 of your best ones, . . . give the newbies a goal to shoot for. Don't forget to remind them about Mop & Glo, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Mike, . . . we missed you my friend, . . . VERY glad to see you back on the keyboard and the leather working table. If I said you were instrumental in enhancing my love of leather working, . . . I would be just scratching the surface. You have been a tremendous example to all of us here, . . . along with Lobo, . . . and a few others. Keep up the good work, . . . and don't let that be your last one, . . . the folks down at Mop & Glo are depending on you to keep them in business. May God bless, Dwight

Excellent work, . . . AND, . . . I love the grips, . . . they add much to the overall image.............. The little touch of red on the rose petals, . . . making it look like it once was fully bright red, . . . but only the touches remain, . . . EXCELLENT !! May God bless, Dwight

Leading edge is the front of the holster, . . . the top of the barrel side. Trailing edge is the rear edge of the holster, . . . traditionally it surrounds the trigger guard, . . . or at least that side of the weapon. My vacuum forming rig is a vinyl bag, hose, and a vacuum pump. Take a look at it here: The dremel tool burnisher is a 1/2 inch diameter piece of dowel that has a 1/8 inch drill bit glued into it's center, . . . put the drill in the Dremel tool end, . . . use various files to create the burnishing tool you want, . . . I have several I've made, . . . they work really well. May God bless, Dwight

Personally, . . . from my hunting experience, . . . I don't even think of a belt slide for .308 or 30-06. A butt stock carrier, . . . or pocket carry is much preferred, . . . and the length of the shells is the singular reason why. I would make one for a customer if he demanded I do so, . . . but it would be reluctantly, knowing after a couple hunts it would go in his drawer with the useless holsters he bought down through the years. May God bless, Dwight

First thing you need to understand, . . . you can wet form a holster, . . . OR, . . . you can cut /tool/stamp a holster, . . . but unless you are Santa Claus or the Lone Ranger, . . . you cannot do both. Let your customer determine which he/she wants, . . . and provide it. Generally, . . . the list of how I do things goes something like this, . . . it would be for a pancake or "sort of" pancake type holster: Lay out pattern and cut the back of the holster. It will very seldom have anything seriously done to it, . . . so it is first, . . . to get it out of the way. Lay out front pattern, . . . I generally use a process where the "leading edge" of the holster is seriously cut out first. The trailing edge is always cut a tad big. Look at the front and back, . . . where do I need to dress the edge (makes it easier to do now than later), . . . do that edge beveling Cut out, . . . bevel, . . . and sew on any "accent" pieces, such as a piece of ostrich, buffalo, elephant, . . . a panel with a LEO shield stamped, . . . a stiffening panel, . . . etc. Contact cement the "leading edge" of the front and back, . . . sand the edges, . . . sew that leading edge completely. This is where I wet form my holster, . . . laying the front over the weapon as it lays in position on the back, . . . generally, I use a vacuum forming process, . . . easy and very good results come from it. Let the thing dry, . . . COMPLETELY, . . . I often use a drying box, . . . 130 deg F, . . . for an hour or so. Sew the back edge, . . . but first, . . . apply contact cement to both pieces, . . . put the gun in the holster, . . . make sure it is properly positioned, . . . stick the pieces together. Here is why I cut the trailing edge a tad bigger, . . . just in case there is something goofy going on, . . . I now trim that so it matches the back, . . . then sand the edges, . . . and finish sewing the holster together. Finish beveling all edges, . . . and I then use a Dremel tool to dress the edges, . . . make em shine real good is the goal. Apply a light coat of neatsfoot oil here, . . . with a cheap bristle brush type paint brush, . . . this is a "have to" step if you generally are playing around with any light or medium brown colors, . . . tans as well. I went for a LOOOOOOONG time trying to figure what I was doing wrong, . . . and got mottled and blotchy tans and light browns. The neatsfoot oil is the one thing I found that all but eliminates that problem altogether. NEXT : all my holsters are dip dyed, . . . and after the dip dying is done, . . . it goes to the arbor press where my maker's stamp is applied. AGAIN: Let the thing dry, . . . COMPLETELY, . . . I often use a drying box, . . . 130 deg F, . . . for an hour or so, . . . then let it hang for the next 24 hours. After it is dried, . . . belt loops are applied, . . . or punched out, . . . as appropriate. Final step is one or more coats of Resolene, . . . basically the only finish I use. Hope this helps, . . . holler back if you have any questions. May God bless, Dwight

One word, . . . Resolene, . . . been making belts (as well as cowboy rigs) for over 10 years, . . . only belt that was a problem, . . . guy measured 53 inches, . . . came back to get it about 8 weeks later, . . . he needed a 56, . . . lol. Seriously, . . . Resolene finished belts have never been any problem for me, . . . all my customers are happy with them, . . . many of them have multiple belts in various colors / designs. May God bless, Dwight

Just wondering if anyone has done a seat for a Suzuki Kingquad, . . . its a 700 cc beast of a 4 wheel machine. I want to do the seat this winter, . . . along with a set of bags for it, . . . as I'm making it street legal as a motorcycle. Appreciate any info you guys have. May God bless, Dwight

Really great work , . . . I'm surprised that you didn't get any offers to "adopt" another dad or two.........lol Seriously, though, . . . you long ago passed me up in the decorating dept, . . . I can make the holsters, gun belts, chaps, spur straps, etc, . . . and they work good if not great, . . . but they are all plain jane vanilla because I simply cannot do the level of carving and stamping that you and others exhibit here. Don't lose that talent, . . . not many have it, . . . and your got a really good dose of it. May God bless, Dwight

That looks good from here. Main thing, . . . are you happy with it?? Does it do it's intended function?? Those two are the main two pieces of criteria, . . . whether it is a BBQ show piece is a whole 'nuther category. May God bless, Dwight

A few years back, I ran across the design used for the Roman soldier of old sandals. It is a pretty ingenious design, . . . sole, . . . middle sole which actually becomes the sides of the sandals, . . . and insole where the feet actually stand in the sandals. Take a gander out on the internet, . . . I'm sure you can find it as well, . . . modify that design and make a pair. My pair used up about 5 square feet of veggie tan 7/8 leather, . . . are very comfortable, . . . and have a very distinctive look about them. There are any number of modifications could be made to them to make them "yours", . . . and might be worth while as a personal investment. Actually the hardest part of the whole thing was having to hand sew the seam up the back of the heel, . . . as I hate hand sewing. I contact cemented all three pieces together, . . . took em to my Tippmann Boss, . . . voila, . . . sandals. May God bless, Dwight

That work is definitely above my pay grade and station in life. Really, great work Josh, . . . in my opinion, more artistic than utilitarian, . . . and that is exactly what a lot of people will pay really good money for. May God bless, Dwight

Just shipped this one out earlier today, . . . for a S&W Governor. Actually was one of the harder ones I've ever patterned, . . . but was very happy with the finished product. May God bless, Dwight

Really super looking, . . . great job. AND, . . . congratulations on the amount of patience you have, . . . I would never be able to keep my sanity with that much tooling. May God bless, Dwight

Form follows function is a great reminder of how leather working came about in the first place. A product need was determined, . . . and once the basic need was filled, . . . others began to embellish it, . . . and it became for example, the silver laden trophy saddles we often see or the BBQ holster many folks have. Your product needs two things to embellish it and get it ship shape: bevel and buff the raw edges of the product, . . . sand down the edges so that it is a uniform distance from stitch line to product edge. Other than that, . . . good job. May God bless, Dwight

I use 346 thread at 6 stitches per inch on belts, holsters, purses, billfolds, . . . darn near everything, . . . never any problems. I wouldn't think a pony seat would be any different. May God bless, Dwight

PJ, . . . depending on the desired thickness at the end of the job, . . . it will be between two layers of 6 oz and two layers of 8 oz. I like cutting the pieces from the same hide, . . . side by side if I can. I don't do much custom carving (actually try to avoid it) so I'm not the best source, . . . just giving you the info on how I do it. The video shows how I put em together. May God bless, Dwight

I'm not much of a fan of steel or kydex lined belts, . . . leather has been doing a great job for centuries all by itself. But if I did, . . . I'd use steel strapping off pallets, . . . it comes in a 1 inch wide variety, . . . and some folks will give it to you for hauling it away. Sew both edges and the tongue, . . . slip the steel piece in like putting a knife into a sheath, . . . sew the buckle end closed, . . . voila, . . . done. May God bless, Dwight