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

He can have holster or blueing, . . . not both. Holsters will wear the blue off, . . . and the Python blue, . . . thought gorgeous, . . . is not invincible to wear. You don't want to know how I know this for a fact. May God bless, Dwight

I make my pocket holsters with the flesh side out, . . . puts the smooth side to the weapon, . . . gets a better fit. Also, . . . I use Resolene on the outside of the holster, . . . it all but eliminates that "catching" of all the stuff in the pocket. Just one way of doing it. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Matt, . . . I just changed mine yesterday, . . . started to toss the old blade, . . . decided to keep it, . . . gonna "practice" on getting it sharp. Now I know how to do it, . . . I'm usually sharp enough to think of something like that, . . . but this getting old stuff sometimes don't let one think 100%. May God bless, Dwight

Personally I own a whole slew of knives of different sizes, shapes, . . . round knife, . . . butcher knife, . . . pocket knife, . . . little plastic box cutter, . . . standard "Stanley" box cutter (4 of em), . . . and a couple other "specialty" blades. Sometimes I use a square, . . . sometimes a rule, . . . sometimes a line on the leather, . . . sometimes a plastic triangle, . . . they don't help the 90 degree part, . . . just the line being cut where I want it. The Stanley box cutter is for me THE BEST. First thing I do when I put in a new blade, . . . it gets stropped 25 times in each direction. Periodically, . . . it continues to get stropped as needed, . . . There comes a time, however, . . . when for some reason I have yet to discover, . . . it no longer wants to sharpen. I turn the blade around and start again on the other point. When it won't strop up nice and sharp, . . . I toss it. The KEY thing, . . . MOST IMPORTANT thing to making good cuts, . . . is a SHARP, SHARP, SHARP cutting instrument, . . . AND, . . . practice with it. I used to grip mine with my index finger holding down the tip, . . . arthritis does not let me do that any more. I hold it like I would hold a claw hammer, . . . and I make "next to" perfect 90 degree cuts. But then again, . . . been doing this stuff for a bunch of years, . . . the experience is quickly attained, . . . it's the practice that keeps the experience sharp. May God bless, Dwight

Bob, . . . if you were to come to me with your request, . . . my first two suggestions would be an Avenger style (1st choice, . . . it generally keeps the butt tucked in fairly tight), . . . or a flat backed snap cake. The down side to the Avenger is when you get it on today, . . . it will pretty much stay on all of today, . . . being in a wheel chair, it would be a real pain for you to take it off. OTOH, . . . a snap cake will only add about 1 1/4 inch to the length of the holster, . . . and if you have to shed it, . . . two snaps and you are done. The down side is of course, . . . they can be tricky to mold so that the butt pulls in tight. I'm sure you are familiar with these, . . . but just for a refresher, . . . here are some pics. Both of these are really easy to change the cant, . . . it can be a bit of a pain, . . . but if you wanted either of these up to a 45 degree cant, . . . it can be done. May God bless, Dwight

Good job, Craig, . . . I do not have the patience for that kind of work, . . . and with Chuck gone, it is good to see someone coming along behind him. I REALLY like that knife blade, . . . and the way you attached it gives it an air of authenticity. My two attempts at anything like this are far below your level, . . . but I thought I'd share them with you. The sheath was lined with rawhide so he would not cut it up drawing the knife in and out, . . . and the beading went on the upper end of a suede gun bag for a rolling block 45-70. Just one curious question, did you bead the main beads separate and attach later, . . . or are they actually sewn individually onto the sheath? May God bless, Dwight

I don't do a lot of chaps, . . . mostly only for friends, . . . but I found a "cheat" that works wonders. Get the 40 or 50% off one item coupon for Joann's fabric store, . . . go back to their vinyl section, . . . buy up 40 bucks worth. It is a bit more flimsy than chap leather, but it is close enough that I use it to do a pattern I've never done, . . . and then I have the pattern. They can be sewn on a regular machine, . . . and fit tested by the actual user, . . . adjustments made, . . . etc, . . . and the outlay is not that bad. Plus you fold em up, . . . put em away, . . . and you can cut em up, . . . sew em back together a different way, . . . practically indestructable. May God bless, Dwight