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

Because I already have this template made up, . . . I would personally just go ahead and use the 5/8 inch spacing and every thing else the same. Realistically, . . . we are talking .450 minus .357, . . . which turns out to be .093 inches or 1/10 of an inch. I'm not going thru the pain to adjust everything for 1/10 of an inch. May God bless, Dwight

I've made belts a couple of different ways, . . . and Ghormley's Style # 1 has never let me down. For a shotgun belt for myself, . . . 12 ounce belt, . . . 12 ounce backer , . . . 2 to 2 1/2 inch nylon webbing to hold em, . . . or 7/8 ounce leather. Once you lace them in and out, . . . pull it as tight as you can, . . . leave the shell in it, . . . move on to the next one, . . . I would rivet it at both ends. Attach the backer to the belt with lacing . . . sew it on, . . . or rivet it, . . . but whichever you do, . . . put the backer piece on the belt with contact cement, . . . and it'll never move. Show us what you did when you get done. Here is a drawing of how I would do it, . . . an an example of what Ghormley recommends. The first picture is my "cheat sheet" I keep in my cowboy bag for when I have to make one. Just did one last week for a "Have Gun Will Travel" type rig. May God bless, Dwight

You guys are a lot better than this old codger. Trying to cut 1/8 of an inch off each side of a liner, . . . then have to still sand the edges to be sure they are "flat", . . . sure is a lot more work than I'm willing to do. They start out the exact same size, . . . and only need minor sanding where the stamping may have swelled the top out, . . . or something like that. Oversize or same size, . . . still gotta sand it, . . . why put yourself in a pickle for that extra step??? Besides that, . . . I know me, . . . I'll slip with the old cutter, . . . and wind up with a slice in the belt, . . . nahhhh.... May God bless, Dwight

I set my cutting gauge and cut both pieces exactly the same size. Also try to get them both next to each other out of the same hide if I can. Do the ends of the liner and the belt blank. Apply cement and let dry. I then fold over my buckle end so I know exactly where I want my liner to start, . . . and with the liner doubled over backwards above and over my left hand, . . . I slowly feed the liner down onto the belt and use my thumb and forefinger of the left hand to line them up and make em fit right. I then go over the belt with special emphasis on the edges, . . . with a wallpaper seam roller. I then sand both edges flush, . . . stitch gouge both sides, . . . sew, . . . bevel, . . . and finish. It is the fastest and easiest system I've developed so far, . . . turns out belts that don't get complaints, . . . that makes me happy. May God bless, Dwight

Depending on he finish, . . . you may have little to do. BUT, . . . I would take it to a sander anyway, . . . makes it a better bonding surface for the contact cement. AND, . . . I have seen belts that would not come apart once contact cemented together, . . . even without the stitching. You are experimenting, . . . go for it, . . . and report back here and let us know your findings. May God bless, Dwight

FWIW, . . . yes, . . . Resolene is my preferred belt finish. Yes, . . . the liner and blank on that particular brown belt are both 5/6, . . . all stitching of the tongue and buckle keeper done, . . . then the inside and outside are stitched together. My belt keeper folds back between the two layers, . . . and is held by the Chicago screw that is visible in the buckle end of the pictures. I do that mostly so that if something happens to the buckle or if it needs changed, . . . it's a simple and easy job. All I did was take apart a ranger belt I had worn for 20 or so years, . . . make patterns from the pieces, . . . and make my new one. There are many different ways to do them, . . . that's just my way. May God bless, Dwight

Don't forget, . . . it is the placement and design of both the buckle end and the tongue that will ultimately make or break that belt. Make all the parts and pieces, . . . then lay them down on each other in their respective places, . . . do a measurement fit check before you start the sewing routine. Otherwise you can start out with the right pieces for say a 40 inch belt, . . . wind up with a 36 or a 44, . . . just by putting them in the wrong place. Have fun though, . . . and don't get too serious about this leather stuff, . . . keep it fun and it is a whole lot more exciting. May God bless, Dwight

OK, . . . sorry for the confusion, . . . I just couldn't wrap my head around the question. I did a 5 hour drive today, . . . too many white lines, . . . grey matter gets confused easily. My 38 inch ranger belt has a back side of 43 inches long. Look at the pictures and you'll see how I do it. Not everyone does it this way, . . . but not everyone makes pie crust like I do, and I like both my belts and my pie crusts. The back picture is just that, . . . the back of the belt. The same for the front picture, . . . The buckle end you can see it overlaps the end of the belt just the width of the leading edge of the buckle, . . . and the billet also overlaps the leading edge of the main belt piece. But from inside of the edge of the buckle to that center hole, . . . is 37 1/2 inches (God only knows what happened to the other 1/2 inch), . . . and that is where my target is for all my belts. You can also see that I give my customers 7 holes instead of 5, . . . gives em a bit of pizza room if they need it, . . . or CCW space if they need that. That back piece I measured to be sure, . . . it is 43 inches long. Hope this helps. May God bless, Dwight

OK, . . . I'll get in here, . . . A 38 inch belt goes around a 38 inch waist if it is a gun belt, . . . a web belt, . . . a garter belt, . . . or a ranger belt. I must have missed something in the question, . . . and I've made all but the garter belt, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Let me answer the second question first: I use a Tippmann Boss sewing machine, . . . and the presser foot is just tightened enough to work, . . . but not put deep marks on my work. It will in certain holster work I do, . . . but I just rub them out with my finger or a bone tool. But the sewing pattern is another question. In the first picture you see my pattern making tools and a short piece of belt blank. In the second picture the pattern is placed over the belt blank. It is purposely under sized by about 1/16th of an inch so I can visually see it is in the center of the blank. This one pattern can make both the fish tail pattern I put on the black belt, . . . and the lazy stitch pattern I used for the brown one. The third picture shows me marking the points on the belt blank. The last picture shows that I have used the wooden pattern and the gouging tool to make the pattern on the leather. This is simply then stitched onto the blank, . . . and I don't tie off the ends, . . . I lay them out flat in the contact cement (about an inch long), . . . and when the belt is put together, . . . the stitches are not going to move. Hope this helps, may God bless, Dwight

Thanks for the good words, guys, . . . this was a fun project. Even got another buddy to react in a fake conversation where we got the new owner of the belts, . . . to take off his belt so I could measure it. We agreed that just because a guy wore 36 jeans didn't mean his belt was a 36. Proved it when the pidgeon's belt turned out to be a 39 while he's wearing 36 jeans. Anyway, . . . we pulled one over on him, . . . but once he gets the belts, . . . he'll put it all together. Those are my favorite belts to make as well, . . . and of course all stitched on the "Boss". May God bless, Dwight

Had a friend who wanted 2 new belts for her hubby, . . . anniversary gift. Here is what she got. Just a couple new additions to the "finished" leather work of this world. May God bless, Dwight

Thank you, . . . I appreciate the vote of confidence, . . . (so does the Boss) May God bless, Dwight

Davidhebert, . . . did you ever send me your email address? I looked and could not find where I sent you a pattern, . . . suspecting I never got your email address. If you never got the pattern, . . . email me at ciminodw@gmail.com May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Lizardo, for the good words. As for the money, I just made it all the basic size of modern currency. I know that there were other sizes in the past, . . . some even ridiculous, . . . but most modernistas would look at it with a frown on their face, . . . so I just bent to peer pressure, . . . it works. May God bless, Dwight

Not odd at all, . . . I had the same question, . . . couldn't find decent answers, . . . so I googled up images of the stuff, . . . printed my own. Since it will never be used in commerce, . . . and is not "official" government currency, . . . it worked out. Bump up above in this thread and you can see some of the stuff I had. May God bless, Dwight

Good looking work, . . . but then again, . . . if the Duke is in it, . . . it's gonna be good. You did a real good job, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Do what TSes said, . . . and you will no doubt like that holster. One of the old timers we haven't heard from on here for some time, . . . Katsass, . . . that is pretty much how he made all of his. They were works of art. Search for threads under his name that he started, . . . sit back and enjoy. May God bless, Dwight

This subject was always in the back of my mind until we decided to build a car port. I went on the other end of the car port, . . . built a 10 by 22 room, . . . 9 foot ceilings, . . . with only one window. That window is for two purposes: security, . . . I can watch the window from the house AND I can look out the window and see anyone delivering or stopping by while in the shop. I put in a small vent free propane heater, . . . and a 6000 btu window A/C unit. Heater hangs on the wall inside, . . . A/C unit is in a small hole cut out in the wall up at about 7 ft off the floor. I don't notice any measurable difference in either the propane bill or the electric bill, . . . A/C stays on 24/7 during the summer, . . . heat is on 24/7 during the winter. The key is the insulation. The building has a minimum of 4 inches of styrofoam insulation in the walls and 6 inches in the ceiling and the floors. Outside is 3/4 plywood sheathing and interior is 3/4 OSB, . . . drywall ceiling. Yeah, . . . love my little shop. This will not solve the dilemma of the OP, . . . unless he spent the money to build a shop, . . . within the shop. It could be made of pre-fabbed wall panels, say 8 ft by 10 ft, . . . with pockets in the walls to bolt them together. Home made trusses could hold up the ceiling, . . . provide a place for the insulation. If you ever decide to move, . . . it's portable because it's pre-fabbed, . . . knock it down and incorporate it into the next place. Long and short, . . . the heating and cooling needed to not have problems with rust and mold in the type of shop outlined by the OP, . . . it would scare me enough to not even think about moving there. May God bless, Dwight

The only thing to consider is that the higher it rides, . . . the less "swing" you get of the lower portion, . . . which on some knives I've seen, they almost want a leather thong to tie it to the leg to keep it from flapping in the breeze. On the other hand, . . . if you bring up the knife so it rides higher, . . . the grip has a tendency to get caught on stuff you might bump into in the house, garage, or out in the field. But generally, . . . it simply boils down to the question: "What does the customer want??" THAT, . . . is the best answer. May God bless, Dwight

I usually make a plug out of 3 or 4 pieces of leather glued together like plywood. I then sand the edges on a 45, but not out to a real fine feather edge, . . . I then hand sew it, . . . in and out all around it, . . . then the second pass, it is sewn in where I came out, . . . and comes out where I went in on the first pass. That makes it look like saddle stitching, . . . but is a whole lot quicker for me (I hate hand sewing). And, . . . no, . . . no hole in the bottom, . . . May God bless, Dwight

About all you can do for those things, . . . make a bucket it drops in. What I mean is, . . . make a holster, . . . but do not form fit the thing, . . . don't mold it, . . . just wrap it around the basic weapon, . . . stitch in a toe piece for it to bottom out on, . . . and either put a suicide strap on it or a thumb break so he/she don't lose it. I've had to make a couple of these, . . . that's the way I decided to do them. May God bless, Dwight

Tom, . . . forget the sprayer for belts, . . . Go to Harbor Freight, . . . buy some of their little 1 inch wide bristle brushes, . . . they're about $.50 apiece, . . . mix the resolene 1 to 1 with tap water, . . . brush it on with the little hog hair brush, . . . brush it on in a swirling and back and forth motion, . . . working up a bit of a lather, . . . then brush out the bubbles. It makes for a really nice finish, . . . not too thick, . . . protects the dye, the wearer, and the leather from sweat. I use that process for all my resolene applications. May God bless, Dwight

That's my recipe as well. May God bless, Dwight