Dwight

I had to call my Tandy store, . . . I recall a leather I got from them a couple years ago, . . . It's called Milled Vegetable Tanned leather. Very soft like deerskin or goat skin, . . . seems to be very strong, . . . very pliable, . . . and while it would have to be shallow work, . . . I believe it could be impressed or embossed. May God bless, Dwight

Can you pop up a picture or drawing of a typical hat you would make? Probably help the idea process. May God bless, Dwight

Yes it is, . . . it is a bit stiffer, . . . but I use a very light coating on both, . . . mostly insides of gun bags, wallets, purses, . . . stuff that don't flex that much anyway. One thing you can do is only do the edges, like many handbags are done. They use some kind of rubber cement or double face tape to hold the liner to the zipper and to the leather, . . . sew all three together at the same time. I prefer contact cement. Very thin fabric, especially if it is light colored can let it show thru, . . . Mess with it, . . . you'll probably find you like it. Put a dab down on the fabric, . . . use an old credit card or putty knife to spread it out real thin, . . . dry it with a heat gun, . . . have a go at it. May God bless, Dwight

I'll give you the other advice, . . . buy the Boss. I've had mine for over 10 years, . . . and yes, I've had problems with it, . . . just like anything else man made. I truly believe the word temperamental should be more applied to the operator than to the machine, though, . . . as mine does just about anything I ask it to do, . . . sometimes on the second or third try, . . . but it does it. All of my other sewing machines are or were the same way, . . . including Brother, Singer, etc. The Boss gives you the ability to put the stitch EXACTLY where you want it, . . . and nobody will convince me that an electric machine will do the same thing. Plus, . . . it can be un-clamped and set up on the shelf, . . . something again, not usual with an electric. It also is manual, . . . meaning if I want to go to the barn with it, . . . I can, . . . the county fair, . . . a gun show, . . . I don't know how close you are to a Tandy outlet, . . . but you can go to ours here in Columbus, Ohio, . . . they'll give you a demonstration and let you play with it a while if you want to. That is how I decided on mine, . . . I will say one more thing, then go, . . . it does give one a hankering for an electric machine, . . . when I'm stitching a 53 inch cowboy belt, at 6 stitches per inch, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Contact cement has worked for me for years on end. May God bless, Dwight

That's also why Tandy sells a product called "bag stiffener" It works May God bless, Dwight

Line 20 snaps are 3/16 diameter (male part), . . . line 24 are 5/16 diameter for the male part. Hope this helps, . . . may God bless, Dwight

Take the knife, . . . add two layers of masking tape to each side, . . . put a little beeswax or parrafin on it, . . . slip it into the sheath and let it stay for 24 hours. Take it out, . . . peel off the masking tape, . . . try the knife again. By then, it should fit rather nicely. I do that same process to tight holsters, . . . but I use a plastic freezer bag. I also NEVER put rivets in a knife sheath along the blade. I know it is not probable, . . . but if you ever make the mistake of swinging the knife down into a piece of wood or something, . . . and the knife is still in the sheath, . . . where the rivets are, . . . you will have a serious gouge in your knife blade. Ellsworth Lynn Beach, my 8th grade scoutmaster, taught me that back in 1957, . . . never forgot it. Same goes for hatchet and ax sheaths, . . . round knife holders, . . . anything with a good edge on it. May God bless, Dwight

OK, . . . now that we have discovered it is not a biker belt, . . . and not a battery belt (used by nerds to carry small batteries to recharge their cell phones, . . . battery is sewn into the belt in many cases, or serves as the buckle), . . . and in fact, . . . a belt used to hold a battery in place on a motorcycle. I'm just going to say good luck to you, my friend, because if you are using upholstery leather, . . . on a vehicle battery, . . . it ought to last a good 30 days in the sun, heat, frost, dew, rain, and whatever the biker subjects it to. And that is not saying anything about the fumes which come out of a battery being used to start and run a vehicle, . . . That is the reason battery hold down's are made out of metal, . . . But have fun, . . . just be ready to see it come back in less than optimal condition. May God bless, Dwight

I had to google the term "battery belt", . . . having no idea what it was. So the question becomes: "where are you going to stash the battery he wants in it"?? To me, . . . that makes it almost a "have to" case for simply gluing the upholstery leather to the outside of the completed battery belt, . . . using it as a final finish. I'd also be willing to bet that if he gives it any kind of rough service, . . . you will be making him another one, . . . or he will abandon the idea. May God bless, Dwight

You will be hard pressed to beat a copper rivet, . . . properly cut and peened. But it is also a bit of work to use them. My dog collars and leashes I make have no rivets at all, . . . they are sewn. Have never had a complaint. Fact is, . . . one customer had two little pug bulls that figured out how to get each other's collar off by biting and pulling, . . . collars had shocking device they didn't want to mess with. They have yet to get my collar off each other. Yeah, . . . customer was some kind of happy. Those dogs still don't like me. May God bless, Dwight

I'm with you on this. Kinda like facebook, . . . used to be fun a few years back, . . . now so much of it is where they are, . . . what they are eating, . . . what they bought, . . . where they are going, . . . what x said to y, . . . what y said back, . . . and how x countered, . . . Give me something I can use, . . . just not interested in the day to day, . . . life stories of everyone. May God bless, Dwight

Use a little ingenuity, . . . there are bunches of punches can be made from EMT. Different size holes, . . . Cut away 1/2 of the circle, . . . becomes a punch to round the end of straps Cut away 3/4 of the circle, . . . rounds off corners Flatten it somewhat, . . . becomes an oval punch Have fun with it, . . . I've probably got a dozen punches made from EMT May God bless, Dwight

Buy a short section of 3/4 inch EMT (eletro metallic tubing), . . . better known as conduit. It needs to be about 8 inches long. Take a dremel tool and sharpen the outside edge of it, . . . by sanding a bevel into the inside edge. This won't work as well for anything above 6 oz, . . . but for chaps, billfolds, purses, thin one layer belts, . . . it works great. The same thing in 1 inch, . . . makes just over a 1 inch hole. Sharpen it by running the outside against a belt sander. AND, . . . it's like the little birdie, . . . cheep, cheep, cheep. May God bless, Dwight

Three things: critical 1. That is going to be one uncomfortable holster, . . . unless he has a portly side flap of human body in which the inside of the molding can settle into. You molded way too much of the weapon into the inside. 2. Unless he is wearing a very thin belt (maybe 1 inch wide) threading it through the holes will prove to be problematic and will destroy whatever belt he is wearing. Cut your belt holes so that the tops and bottoms are on parallel planes as sides of a box, . . . not a trapezoid as you did here. 3. There is an ugly little "point" on the top of the body shield, . . . sand these off with a belt sander. Same goes for the little point on top of the back side belt loop area. These would never appear if you took the holster, . . . after final construction, but before sewing, . . . and sanded, beveled, and polished the edges. It does not add to the function of the piece, . . . but it most certainly does add to the appearance, . . . which will ultimately bring in customers or send them off to other makers. Two things: applaud 1. Your hand stitching is far better than mine was when I bought my sewing machine 2. Your molding is good, . . . not over done like so many I've seen, . . . yet done quite well enough to be useful You are starting out fairly good, . . . just pay more attention to the end user, . . . Make a mock up of any "new" pattern, . . . wear it yourself for a couple days, . . . how does it fit? How does it unholster? How does it conceal? Don't get me wrong, . . . I've made a few holsters with hidden gremlins that came up to bite later, . . . but we have all gotten through them, . . . learned from them, . . . you can also, . . . and I have a sneaking hunch you will. May God bless, Dwight

We will excuse you for being a KW fan, . . . everyone has to have some sort of hang up, . . . If you want to make your first belt, . . . get some shoulder leather, . . . buy a nice double shoulder . . . get a 6/7 ounce weight. Measure the belt you have on right now, . . . from the outside of the buckle, . . . to the hole you use the most. THAT is the size belt you will be making. You are going to need a pattern, . . . believe it or not, . . . in order to get both ends to work out correctly. Send me an email address, . . . I'll send you the patterns for each end. I cut two pieces from the shoulder, . . . side by side, . . . 1 and 7/16 inches wide, . . . do the end treatments, . . . contact cement them together, . . . sand and smooth the edge, . . . sew the two pieces together, . . . bevel and dress the edges, . . . give both sides a light coat of neatsfoot oil (the oil, . . . not the compound), . . . when it dries, (24 hours minimum later), . . . Idip dye them in Feibings oil dye, . . . reduced 1 to 1 with Feibings reducer, . . . and allow that to dry for another 24 hours. My favorite color is saddle tan, . . . but you can pick your poison. The darker tans and black, . . . generally will dye more smoothly, . . . less blotchy places. Finish with a couple light coats of Resolene, . . . cut 1 to 1 with clean tap water. You will then have a belt that will last you 20 years, . . . providing of course that you don't do too much of that pizza and sub-sammiches while you watch Ohio State whoop up on KW. Just holler if there is anything else we can do to help.............. May God bless, Dwight PS: I'm actually a second generation Carter County fellow, . . . married to a first generation Lewis County lady (50 yrs and counting).

Woo-hoo, . . . I love the paint job. Not a big fan of purple, . . . but sometimes, . . . and this is one of them. Cannot offer any specifics on "how to" to make it better, . . . but if that was mine, . . . I'd play with it in my spare time, . . . for days, . . . until I got it working again. Best wishes and all the encouragement I can muster up, . . . is yours, . . . go for it. May God bless, Dwight

Same here in Ohio........... May God bless, Dwight

Go ahead, . . . but make the tool first, . . . Piece of conduit (3/4 inch), . . . cut it off square, . . . ream the inside so there are no burrs, . . . sharpen it all the way around before you begin the cutting. Cut it half way thru, . . . cross ways, . . . then cut the "cut piece" down the middle, . . . and then bend those wings back 90 degrees. Have fun, . . . and show us your handy work. May God bless, Dwight

That's easy, . . . When I started making belts, . . . I did not like the way it looked after a while with the two pieces just butting up against each other. A wrinkle would develop, . . . especially if it was flipped over backwards one or two too many times. So I set about to find a better way. That is what I developed. The one picture shows the tool, . . . just a piece of conduit I sharpened all the way around, . . . cut it half way through (cross ways) the split the cut half and bent them back 90 degrees. As you can see, . . . they come together nicely, . . . and the irregular shape keeps the belt from developing the "wrinkle". May God bless, Dwight

Thanks JD62, . . . sometimes the obvious goes over our head like Canadian geese in the spring time. Gotta get some pins and a board, . . . but the "small piece" is what I should have done. I just automatically thought of this place as I have had SO MANY questions answered at one time or another. May God bless, Dwight

I'll second Josh's motion, . . . just change M&G to Resolene, . . . Process is pretty much the same though. May God bless, Dwight

Chick, . . . do yourself a favor, . . . buy a Tippmann Boss. They can mail the darn thing, . . . it doesn't need electricity, . . . and will sew up to 3/4 of an inch of dry leather. They are in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. https://tippmannindustrial.com/tippmann-boss-leather-sewing-machine/ I've had mine over 10 years now, . . . don't know how I'd do leather work without it. May God bless, Dwight

I have several deerskins I was getting ready to use in a project, . . . and when the previous owner had them, . . . they were folded. That put some wrinkles in the leather, . . . and of course around the edges there are always some wrinkles etc. I was thinking of wetting them all down and stretching them out to dry, . . . hoping that would get rid of the wrinkles and folds. Anyone got any advice, . . . DO IT ???, . . . DON'T DO IT ??? Don't want to ruin the leather, . . . but if I could get it all flattened out, . . . it would make the job a whole big bunch easier. May God bless, Dwight

Ok, . . . its a garage, . . . go buy enough porcelain chain pull fixtures so you can put them in a grid about 6 feet apart, . . . buy LED daylight white bulbs, . . . get a "good guy" to wire them up for you using metal EMT and metal boxes, . . . you can put 20 of those (equivalent to a 60 watt bulb in lumens) and all can be controlled by one switch by the door. Plus there is no "heat" factor to worry about, . . . your annual electric bill may go up 25 bucks, . . . You will not believe what an absolutely wonderfully well lit work shop can do for you, . . . for your work, . . . and best of all, . . . for your attitude in general. May God bless, Dwight