Dwight

Thanks, Malabar, . . . but you just don't know me. That holster the "I" would put in there for 24 minutes, . . . might wind up in there for 24 hours, . . . or 2.4 hours, . . . or somewhere in between. I guess you could call it an "Attention Span Lost Disorder", . . . my attention span just won't let me do those kinds of things. Fortunately, . . . it is something I have fought all my life, . . . most of the time successfully, . . . but I can just see me putting a $125 creation/product in that thing, . . . remembering to go to the mailbox, . . . stopping to spray some roundup on the way, . . . but having to find my sprayer first, . . . and needing to charge the battery in the tractor so I can move it out of the way to get in the shed where the sprayer was. Thanks for the idea, . . . though. May God bless, Dwight

Yes, drop the carnuba, . . . I only use it if I want to polish up a purse, . . . deeply decorated holster, . . . etc. Your 13 oz backer for the holster needs to stay fairly rigid, . . . I NEVER add oil to a piece of leather, . . . have never had an issue. The brush I use is the cheap little 1 inch wide (25 or so mm) made of bristle (pig hair I think), . . . and it works well to get into the crevices and crannies and creases. The alcohol is used to reduce the oil base dye. Any old water that is relatively clean is good for reducing the resolene. May God bless, Dwight

Just some notes: 1. You do not need to oil the leather before dyeing it, . . . there should be enough natural oil in the leather to last the life of the project, . . . if not, it is junk leather. Many people do it, . . . and it will take away from the stiffness if in fact you want the holster to be stiff (and all of mine are). 2. Cut your dye 50/50 with thinner or denatured alcohol, . . . fiebings black oil dye is really nasty stuff if you try to use it full strength. 3. Cut your resolene the same, . . . 50/50, . . . but use water, not thinner. Apply with a brush and make sure you brush, brush, and brush, to get all the bubbles out, then hang it up to dry. Poke a hole in it where you will place one of the rivets, . . . and use a wire to hold it up in the air until it dries. Don't mess with it until it has dried for at least 18 hours. 4. Tragacanth is a nasty product, . . . you can achieve as good a finished edge without it, . . . and if you get it on your pretty leather area at all, . . . dye will not penetrate there. I tossed the first bottle I ever bought after ruining one too many projects with it. Simply use your edge tool, . . . and burnish after dying. Get some really good looking edges on there, . . . the resolene will keep them looking good. May God bless, Dwight

Kinda hard to tell if it is different without knowing what you have, . . . May God bless, Dwight

This is the back side of an Avenger Holster, . . . and it looks very much like the above knife sheath could also be worn in the same manner. May God bless, Dwight

Check in the upper right hand corner, . . . you have a PM from me.

Thanks again everyone, . . . especially the search info rickdroid, . . . I do a lot of searching, . . . never saw it used that way. I found most of my building materials today, . . . will get the others later this week, . . . will post the "results" when I get er done and tested out. May God bless, Dwight

Well, . . . I went out and took my trusty Stanley pocket 10 foot tape, . . . pulled it out, . . . and no matter how I held it, . . . it would not register as a 1/2 inch or as a 15/16. These 71 year old eyes can sometimes be troublesome. Sooooo, . . . reached over and grabbed my handy-dandy caliper from Harbor Freight, . . . it made me feel right real good. It reads .490 inches, . . . maybe my eyes ain't all that bad after all. May God bless, Dwight (Romans 8:28)

Thanks, Rickdroid, . . . I tried the same "hot box" in the search window here in Leatherworker, . . . it did not pull anything up for me, . . . must have mis spelled it or something, . . . Anyway, . . . i never got around to building it 4 years ago, . . . thought I would now, . . . could not remember what people had said or posted, . . . other than it seemed to work for them real well. I had in the back of my mind that folks were talking about a 130 degree or so temperature, . . . that was the big puzzle piece I was REALLY looking for, . . . the temperature. Ahh, well, . . . maybe just have to 'spearmint a bit and see what works. May God bless, Dwight

I'm looking at that almost in awe at the huge amount of concentration, and effort put into getting that done, done right, and no mistakes. The originator could probably point out a few "miscues" in it, . . . but THAT is far up and above anything I would want to tackle. Thanks for sharing, . . . that is a treasure just in Americana if nothing else. May God bless, Dwight

You are very welcome, Norman, . . . I hope you like your Boss as well as I do mine, . . . truthfully, . . . it is the best Boss I ever had, . . . pun intended. Seriously, . . . it is a great machine for sewing leather, . . . and while it has it's limitations, . . . it also has some nifty perks. May God bless, Dwight (Romans 8:28)

Well, . . . here you go............. May God bless, Dwight

I kicked around trying to find the proper search terminology to come up with what others have written on here about "hot boxes" for drying leather goods quicker. Worse than "Zero", . . . it wouldn't even recognize my entries. So, . . . I'm just reaching out to those of you who use them: What temperature do you have yours set on? How do you regulate the temperature? What did you use for a heating element? Any and all info will be welcomed, . . . and of course, many thanks. May God bless, Dwight

I always put a welt in a knife sheath as well as hatchet / axe sheaths. The reason is simple, . . . the welt gives a place for the blade to rest on and to glide against as it is holstered or withdrawn. The welt will last a long time even with a lot of use, . . . but if there is no welt, . . . the next thing for the blade to contact as it goes in or out, . . . is the stitches. If you have a sharp knife, . . . the expected life span of the stitches can then become fairly short. Just my thoughts and the way I do things. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Glockanator, . . . good job my friend. I had seen that video, probably over a year or so ago, had forgotten how he did that. Thanks for the reminder, . . . I just may do something with that, . . . got a couple things in mind, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I did not use bolts for mine, . . . instead, I fixed it so the off side of the boss goes directly to a level table. Sure makes long belts a whole lot easier to manage. I also made a little table for it off to the left of the boss. The top is made from a scrap piece of nylon (?) kitchen cutting board. The little table and the boss are both held in place by "C" clamps, . . . so either can be pulled very quickly and easily. The boss is pulled for general maintenance and cleaning from time to time, . . . the little table is pulled so I can change out the bobbin. This may not work for you, . . . but it is my best shot. May God bless, Dwight

I like em, . . . guess it is just one of those things I picked up as a kid watching saturday cowboy shows, . . . I believe a rifle is properly cared for when it is in a leather saddle scabbard. You made that happen for the three amigos........ May God bless, Dwight

Hey, John, . . . can you show us a full picture, . . . I'm curious as to what else is on there. Thanks, may God bless, Dwight

I didn't notice the shoulder holster part, . . . Here's the shoulder holster rig I use for side by sides. I also do a back to back, . . . not as wide, . . . I think it looks better. Basically two pieces of leather, . . . same process as the other one, . . . just different design. May God bless, Dwight

Red Cent, . . . that's cool, . . . never thought of that. I think the first place I would look would be for one of them nylon shotgun boleros some guys use, . . . holds 25 or so, . . . goes over the shoulder. Should be able to just trim out the length you want, . . . sew it at the top, . . . sew it at the bottom, . . . loops are already pre-formed, . . . and those would have to hold up I would think or they wouldn't be selling many of them. May God bless, Dwight PS: Rickdroid, . . . what store did you find that elastic in, . . . I'm looking for some for a special belly band I gotta make for a preacher. He's thinking he needs to carry, . . . but so that not even his deacons can see it.

Here is how I do it, . . . if you really need it, . . . I'll check (shop is in a mess right now) and see if I can find my manila folder pattern. It's really pretty simple, . . . back is flat, . . . front is the width of the mags plus about a half inch over the depth of the mags times 4. Sew the center, . . . wet and form the mags on the sides, . . . let it dry, . . . sew, trim, dye, finish, . . . you are done. I use the snaps, . . . makes it easier and quicker to get off if needed, . . . plus the opening allows it to be placed with a belt loop between the fingers, . . . it DOES NOT move around on you then. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Red, . . . whatcha gonna do with elastic? May God bless, Dwight

I use Weldwood exclusively, . . . and for instance a belt and holster: put first pieces together with weldwood, . . . force dry with a heat gun, . . . sew, . . . dampen and do first wet forming around gun, . . . hang up to dry. While the holster is drying, . . . glue up both sides of the belt, . . . lay flat on the table, . . . force dry with a heat gun, . . . press together with my hands (belt laying flat on the table), . . . sand edges, bevel edges, run edges through my burnisher, . . . sew the belt together. I'm done for the day on those two projects. Come back tomorrow, . . . finish sewing the holster together, . . . dye both, . . . hang up to dry, . . . third day, . . . put finish coat on both (Resolene usually), . . . after a few hours drying time, . . . put on the finish hardware, . . . ready the paper work for shipping out. Far as I'm concerned, hammers are for nails, . . . rolling pins are for pie crusts. Get a can of Weldwood, . . . you will also get rid of whatever problem you are having with the glue gumming up the sewing machine. Weldwood never does that for me. May God bless, Dwight

I've got one of those pieces of marble too, . . . mine is going to become a shooting bench out at the 200 yd mark. May God bless, Dwight

Ugh, . . . there for a second I thought JLS was talking about skinning me, . . . thankfully I'm not veg tanned, . . . just sun tanned. May God bless, Dwight