Dwight

Weldwood contact cement, . . . properly applied. May God bless, Dwight

I don't know enough about saddle structure and this riding sport, . . . but from a leather working standpoint: 5 stars my friend............ May God bless, Dwight

Cut up a portion of a one gallon freezer bag, . . . so you can wrap it around your knife, . . . shove the knife and bag down in the sheath. Get up tomorrow morning, . . . remove the knife, . . . unwrap the bag, . . . try the knife again. If it is still too tight, . . . keep adding layers until you get the fit you want. Remember to leave the knife in the sheath for several hours, . . . I like to do 8 or so, . . . it allows the leather to stretch out, . . . but not spring back. We do this with gun holsters, knife sheaths, even billfolds and check books. Neat trick that works every time. May God bless, Dwight

They never wound up that bad, . . . but I had some shipmates that must have been some relationship to your sonarman, . . . cousins or something, . . . they would do the same thing. Had one EM1 that wouldn't drink anything but sloe gin and orange juice, . . . he was ugly when he was plastered. Thanks for the story katsass, . . . I needed a chuckle today. May God bless, Dwight

She carries a Ruger wheel gun in .44 mag to keep snakes at bay while out camping. I'll admit, . . . I did see some pretty big snakes down around E street when I was in the USN out there. But they were mostly the 2 leg variety. But camping with a .44 mag.............gives a whole new perspective to the idea, . . . unless they're camping in the hills south of San Diego, . . . then I'd be carrying something that reloads a lot faster than a wheel gun. But with that, . . . good looking rig you're doing there. Be sure to post the finished product up close when it's done. May God bless, Dwight

Some years ago, . . . I bought a tool from Walmart (they don't carry it here now) that has blue handles, a white head, made of metal, and is for line 24 snaps only. It is too big for the smaller ones. I have seen that same tool at Hobby Lobby, . . . it is a card item, . . . hanging in their sewing area. They have two versions, the one that supposedly does all the sizes etc, . . . and the one that does the 24's only. That is the one I would get. It has served me well for the 6 or so years I've had it, . . . and I think the price was like $25.00 May God bless, Dwight

I was tasked with a special problem with two Boston bull dogs. Each one would tug at the other one's braided cloth shock collar, . . . until it fell off. Then the other dog would get his off, . . . and the pups would flee the yard for squirrels, frogging, mud running, . . . whatever. I made two new collars, . . . 8 oz veggie tan, . . . two layers, . . . sewn together like a cowboy belt, . . . Feibings stain, . . . Resolene finish, . . . and I have not had one bad comment from the owners, . . . That was a couple years ago, . . . I consider it a total success, . . . but just my situation, . . . YMMV. May God bless, Dwight

Occasionally I will use shoe polish, . . . but as an old Navy man, . . . Kiwi is the only shoe polish that comes in my front door. I have tried mop & glo, . . . prefer Resolene, . . . mainly because it is the only product out there that has a sun shield in it. I'm doing a few different things now, . . . and I just may step across the line to mop & glo, . . . will pass it on if I do. All my finishes are either dip and drip or brushed on, . . . and I want to experiment some this summer with spray finishes. Also want to look at two tone finishes you can get with spraying on the dye, . . . gonna do some "playing" so to speak. May God bless, Dwight

Supercub hit all the points I would have mentioned. I do have a couple patterns, but for the most part, your way is the way I do it as well for most pancake holsters. May God bless, Dwight

I'll do it for $62,500.00 (the price of the new Ford Quadcab I would like to have) May God bless, Dwight

Ray, . . . please don't be a stranger here, . . . you may not be "creating" anything on the production table, . . . but your vault of expertise can be profoundly useful here to many of us. I'm actually looking at the same situation in a year, . . . maybe 2, . . . maybe 3, . . . but for sure within the next 5. Seems like every project took so much longer than the one before it did, . . . and my arms aren't quite long enough to get stuff out there where I can see it anymore Take care, . . . may God bless, Dwight

What I do is roll them around a small steel dowel, . . . do that a couple times, . . . they will loosen right up. May God bless, Dwight

No "slight" intended SooperJake, . . . I owned an XD double stack, . . . carried it for a while, . . . and I'm sorry, . . . but I just could not get past the Glock look and Glock feel of it. Honestly, I never got to the point where "I" trusted it, . . . no doubt everyone else in the county did, . . . I just could not. Finally got a chance to trade it up and up for an ATI, all steel commander, . . . grabbed it while I could, . . . never looked back. I would love to see one disassembled, . . . see what makes the thing tick, . . . never had the time or inclination to do that with mine while I had it. A 1911, I have never taken one apart blindfolded, . . . but I'm thinking I could almost do it. I have taken it down to a pile of pieces, . . . the only parts still together were the sights still on the slide, as I recall. I wouldn't do that to an XD. But then again, . . . lots of people trust them, . . . and their trust is verified by their safety record. Can't even come close to saying that for Glocks. May God bless, Dwight

I have kind of shied away from making a lot of pancake holsters, simply because I've seen some worn that I wouldn't put my worst enemy's gun in, . . . they were all loose, floppy and more like a flannel bag than a leather holster. I tried Katsass' method of making them, . . . and I've become an enthusiast at least, . . . and in all probability, . . . a convertee. "THANK YOU", Mike. It is not readily apparent, but the holster is 4 pieces of leather: front and back each made of two bonded pieces of veggie tan. I think it could be marketed as the 11th round, . . . 8+1 coming from the 1911, . . . the 1911 itself being the 10th round, . . . and the holster, removed from the belt, could be the 11th round down range. Certainly if a guy was hit up beside the head with this at any speed at all, . . . it would certainly get his attention. I was also surprized at how well this process takes to the molding detail. I kinda figured it would not do well, . . . pleasantly surprised that it molds very well. This is for a full size 1911 that has a rail on it. Anyway, sorry the picture is not of better quality, but all black holsters don't photograph really well. May God bless, Dwight

Here is a sample of what I was talking about. The right side is sewn down, . . . the whole thing submerged, . . . gun outline made (Beretta 9mm in this case). After it dries, . . . finish gluing it together, . . . gouge, stitch and be on your way. It also allows you to use a bit bigger piece of leather, . . . and you can then mold it to the weapon, . . . especially if you do not have a pattern for that exact model. In this case I'm using a 1911 pattern back, . . . and a slightly enlarged front, . . . to do the Beretta, . . . and my "lucky guess" as to how much bigger to make it came out pretty good this time. They don't always May God bless, Dwight

I tried the game of having patterns so perfected that I could plot the stitch lines, . . . sew everything flat, . . . wet & mold later, . . . etc. Personally, . . . I did not like it. Much prefer to get one side of the holster stitched down like it needs to be, . . . wet & mold, . . . dry, . . . do the stitching on the second side. I also lightly gouge for stitch lines, . . . mainly to give these 71 year old eyes a target to put the stitches in. AND, yes, . . . they are also flat, . . . less chance of wearing and abrading through. I only mention these techniques as "the way I do it" and it is not necessarily "THE BEST" way for everyone, . . . but it makes my shop hum and be productive. Trying different approaches will sometimes create a nice pile of beautiful scrap leather, . . . but it will also give one foresight on what can and cannot be done that way. May God bless, Dwight

No, . . . believe me, . . . this is a "one of a kind" weapon. They sell for less than $200 new, . . . if that gives you any idea. Personally, . . . would not own one unless I had to. Google "image hi point 9mm" and double click on "more images". It'll give you an idea of what you're dealing with. Plus, . . . there are several different versions of the 9mm if I'm not mistaken, . . . you would need to know exactly which one. It's kind of akin to saying you are making a holster for a Glock 9mm. Which one??????? May God bless, Dwight

Unfortunately, . . . you will be making a Lincoln to haul pigs in. Hi-Point firearms are notoriously heavy and unweildy beasts, . . . make sure you use at least 8 oz leather on that thing, . . . and put some kind of retention strap on it. I personally have never been asked to make one, . . . and from my personal experience with one of them, . . . it's just as well. Last time I held one, . . . my finger had been clear of the trigger for a good 10 seconds when it finally decided it wanted to go boom. Depending on how good you are at woodwork, . . . you may be able to cobble up a dummy gun from wood that will suffice. I've done that in a pinch a few times. May God bless, Dwight

Heck, . . . I like it, . . . Now if that had a USN insignia in the middle.............. Seriously, DD04, . . . you could probably sell those at a local fair faster than you could think of making them, . . . course, . . . depending on price. My big old case goes to the left side of my billfold if I carry it, . . . learned that over in RVN, . . . Anyway, . . . welcome to the forum, . . . glad to have you here, . . . pull up an ammo crate and have fun. May God bless, Dwight

I've never done it, . . . but I have heard of folks using mink oil as their final finish, . . . Can't be all bad, . . . I mean, heck, a couple hundred years ago, what were your options: mink oil, bear grease, tallow, beeswax, olive oil, . . . many items were used then that we have developed replacements for now. Give it a whirl, . . . worst thing that will happen will be like some of my "experiments", . . . off to the "didn't work out" box. It's getting pretty full May God bless, Dwight

Mike516, yes you are right, . . . the only thing that goes onto my belts after the resolene, is the dust that gathers hanging in the closet........lol. My outside piece on a lined belt stays flat for stamping, sewing, tooling, and all that stuff. Then when all that is done, . . . it gets dyed. When that is dry (and I mean DRY................), . . . I'll actually flex it a bit in my hand, . . . nothing serious, . . . just roll it enough so if I lay it on its edge on a table, it will stay standing up, . . . maybe a 40 inch circle???? Then comes the Resolene process, . . . with a 1 inch pig hair bristle brush (them cheap little rascals at harbor freight, . . . I get em when on sale). I give it a good coat on the inside, . . . going back and forth, . . . brushing out all the bubbles. That includes the buckle end, . . . I usually do it last. I then flip the belt over, . . . give it a real good coat up at the buckle end, . . . and this is when I do my bending, . . . and I do it kinda of slowly, . . . making a really good bend, . . . usually with a small wooden dowel where the buckle would be. I then complete the Resolene treatment to the rest of the belt, . . . come back up and touch up the buckle end, . . . lay it on the top edge on a piece of cardboard for about 15 minutes, . . . flip it to the other edge and allow it to fully and finally dry. Tomorrow, when it is fully dry, . . . I'll take it to my electric burnisher (think 1 hp electric motor with burnishing wooden tool on the shaft), . . . i burnish the edges, . . . put on the buckle and belt keeper with 2 chicago screws, . . . it's done. Seriously, I have never had a problem since I started it this way. May God bless, Dwight

Welcome to the forum, . . . glad to have you aboard. May God bless, Dwight

Like you, . . . most of my belts are also lined. I have a special cutter that puts the two pieces together up at the buckle end. Just one of those "process steps" that we all get into, . . . I found that the Resolene dampens the leather plenty enough for me to make that bend without any cracking and so I've just "done it that way" so to speak. I also had a problem one time with snaps, . . . quit using them, . . . all my belts go out now with Chicago screws. I put one in front of the keeper and one behind it. No complaints so far, . . . and I usually don't have to skive, because my lining leather is almost every time, from the same hide. I cut two pieces, . . . take the better looking one for the outside, the other one goes to the inside. May God bless, Dwight

As well, . . . the "recent posts" is a blank screen, . . . "No new posts available" or something to that effect. May God bless, Dwight