Dwight

I guess I've only been making belts now for about 10 years, . . . so my technique may be juvenile. I just have them take off the belt they are wearing, . . . and measure from the outside of the buckle end, . . . to the most used hole. I have never failed to make a belt that fits using that strategy, . . . never, . . . not once. I did fail when a guy told me he needed a 36 inch belt. I made it. It was 4 inches too short. We measured his old belt, . . . yep, . . . 40. So much for believing the customer. If someone needs a belt, . . . and I cannot measure it myself, . . . I tell them how to do it, . . . or send them a little drawing that has been on here several times in one form or another, . . . and again, . . . if they measure right, . . . the belt fits right. Now, . . . I did have one customer that I made a 53 inch belt for once, . . . he couldn't pick it up for almost 60 days, . . . when he came to get it, . . . he needed a 56, . . . but that is another story for another day. Measure, . . . check your measure, . . . write it down, . . . it'll work. May God bless, Dwight

Bushpilot, . . . there are times I wish I had your patience. And today is one of those days I'll tell myself again that I need to do more work like yours. But then I'll start, . . . I'll mess up the tooling, . . . pitch it in the trash box and say to heck with it for another 6 months or so. That really is a beautiful bag, . . . showed my wife, . . . her first comment was it looked like a saddle bag, . . . and she thought it is really pretty. You do good work, my friend, . . . May God bless, Dwight

If you get a couple of tools, . . . it will work better for you. One, . . . buy an awl blade, . . . maybe 5 bucks, . . . set it in a drilled hole in a small piece of a broom handle, . . . it makes better holes than trying to poke them with a knife point or something like that. Take a set of points (dividers), . . . set them for the distance between the legs on the spots, . . . and use that to mark where you will want them. Poke the holes with the awl blade, . . . bend the legs over into the spot with another piece of broom handle or a piece of dowel rod the size of the spot. Push them up into the curve and they won't drag on other material. Do the same for the flat backs. And yes, . . . they are plenty long enough for that thickness of leather. Good luck, may God bless, Dwight

Well, Aaron, . . . you've probably come to THE best site on the internet for your stated purpose. Most folks are pretty willing to help out, . . . share, . . . course there are some cantankery old coots on here too, . . . but just take them with a grain of salt, . . . their keyboard is worse than their bite. Have to admit, . . . the WI was caught my attention, . . . spent many wonderful vacations in the Bonduel, Rhinelander, Shawano, Merrill, and Glidden areas. Getcha some leather, . . . some tools, . . . and go for it. Holler if you need any help. May God bless, Dwight

Quite honestly, . . . I and probably most others, . . . after several minutes pondering your question, . . . I have no idea of exactly what you want to do. Is this a double layer belt, . . . and you don't want to turn over the end? Are you trying to lace the buckle to the end of the leather belt instead of snaps? Are you talking about the tongue end becoming ugly? Try again on the description, . . . someone here will probably come through for you. May God bless, Dwight

Did you ever think about buying actual sewing needles for a leather sewing machine? I have needles for my Tippmann, . . . I sew through 3/4 inch leather with them, . . . never a problem. Using a drill press with them would be not really different from my machine. And I don't mean to sound mean or anything, . . . but I do not think I've ever seen a knife sheath that thick, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I've never been a fan of thumb breaks, . . . but my 1911's (so far) are Commander and full size, . . . they squeeze down in and don't wiggle out. But I do really like it overall, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I use a Tippmann Boss, . . . and a couple of other household machines in the stuff I do. First thing I would look at is the tension on the top thread. Looks to me like it is REALLY loose. And the comment about not all needles being created equal, . . . "Right on, brother". May God bless, Dwight

I'm glad I was sitting down when I called,........whew!!! Thanks, Art,...... May God bless, Dwight

Good job, Dave, . . . I wonder if that was the old .22 revolver I traded off a long time ago, . . . looks enough like it to be a twin, . . . and I'm just down the road from you by 40 miles. Anyway, . . . I like it, . . . your carving and stamping will always look better if the holster is brown or tan would be my comment on the decoration. May God bless, Dwight

If you cover the rail and the part of the gun behind it with 2 or 3 layers of masking tape, . . . then make the holster, . . . it does not "fit" quite as close as you would like, . . . but it also does not tear up as quickly. OR, . . . (I have not done this yet), . . . one could make an "inner" holster for the offending part, . . . of kydex, . . . mold the leather holster around the weapon with the kydex in place, . . . contact cement the kydex in place, . . . and go on with life. May God bless, Dwight

Here's what I noticed: 1. The belt holes do not have parallel sides. They are oval shaped, . . . should have straight and parallel sides. 2. The stitch lines are all in too far from the edges, . . . the leather will eventually lift up and look ugly. 3. The front piece as done is way too big. If it is for support, . . . only needs to be about a 1 1/4 inch band across the top, . . . if for accent, . . . then it needs to accent. This one looks more like an extra piece of leather didn't know what to do with it, . . . sewed it on the front. But for a first holster, . . . looks a lot better than my first one. May God bless, Dwight

One alternative would be a $49.95 drill press from Harbor Freight. Putting a leather needle in it and using it to do the hole punching, . . . it would speed up the process, . . . make sure the stitch is where it is needed, . . . and save a big bunch of cash from a machine. One could even get tricky by threading that needle, . . . and as it starts back up, . . . put a second needle through the loop, . . . effectively sewing the thing. Anyway, . . . good luck whatever you do, Alex. May God bless, Dwight

Unless you are making a shoulder holster for a S&W 500, . . . with a 24 inch barrel, . . . the 4/5 should work well, . . . I do that a lot.

I have a Tippmann Boss, . . . love it, . . . I really do not think there is anything out there that will do a better job of "positioning" a stitch exactly where you want it. It is hand operated, . . . you cannot leave it running while you do something more important. It does need to be mounted to a substantial bench, however. It will sew through 3/4 inch of dry veggie tanned leather (I have done it, . . . only once, . . . but I did it). It is made for thicker leather jobs, . . . but I do purses, belts, holsters, billfolds, and some saddle work with mine. Investment is in the thousand dollar range. The stitching on the front looks beautiful, . . . the back not as pretty, . . . but you have a "one face" product anyway, so I think it just might do the trick for you. May God bless, Dwight

Some years ago, I bought my first stitch line gouger, . . . from Tandy. I messed around with adjusting, . . . moving, . . . trying, . . . etc. One day I got fed up with it, . . . set it at a +/- 3/16", . . . locked down the screw, . . . ground off the rest of the post, . . . been using it ever since. I do have an adjustable one for "other jobs", . . . but this is my go to gouger, . . . use it almost all the time. May God bless, Dwight

Do this: Use contact cement, . . . glue the edges together so they cannot move. Sand the edges until they are all nice and rounded, smooth, and the contour of the holster is appropriate. Bevel the edges Gouge the stitch line Mark, punch, stitch (or in my case, . . . sew). Works a whole lot easier that way, . . . believe me. May God bless, Dwight

I was told most of the hide houses use a laser thingy that dots the edges, . . . hits the CPU, . . . and spits out a number. I've never been able to verify how close they are in their laser guesstimates. May God bless, Dwight

After throwing away a few holsters, . . . I finally figured out that if I glued, . . . sanded, . . . gouged, . . . THEN stitched, . . . it would work out better for me. You may not be able to get the distance from stitch to edge as even all the way around by doing it your way. But we learn as we go along. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Mike, . . . been wondering from time to time, . . . glad to see your signature back on here. Try some of them home made cinnamon rolls with butter, . . . some raspberry filled doughnuts with white butter creme frosting, . . . a banana creme pie or two, . . . along with keeping a bag of Chili Cheese Frito's corn chips open on the desk . . . . heck, . . . . you'll be back up to 210 faster than you thought possible. Anyway, . . . that's what happens to me if I'm not careful. Welcome back, my friend, . . . may God bless, Dwight

The first thing: you can stamp, cut, tool, and beat on black leather till you are purple in the face, . . . and it will never, ever show up as good as a tan color will. It is just the nature of shadows and shadowing, . . . the difference between black and tan. For black, . . . you can spray or paint on highlights, . . . edges, . . . stems, . . . leaves, . . . etc, . . . but that is about what you will have to do to get the desired result. The second thing, . . . I could not tell for sure, . . . but it did not appear that you did much beveling if any , . . . especially around the flower petals. The beveling is one of the tools that makes the image pop up off the leather, . . . and has to be done right, . . . it adds a 3 dimensional depth to the subject. I'm really not too good at it myself (mainly I DO NOT have the patience) but I use several different beveling tools to lift up one and put down another section of the leather, . . . giving it a much deeper "look" than it really is. Hope this helps, may God bless, Dwight

OK, . . . we've got orange oil, . . . cedar oil, . . . eucalyptus oil, . . . and now, rosemary. Question 1: Where do all you folks find these things? Question 2: How much do they cost? Question 3: How much do you use , . . . weight? ratio? measured? That would be good information to have. May God bless, Dwight

I'd almost be tempted to throw that leather gizmo away before I'd waste good peanut butter trying to clean it up, . . . That's pretty darn close to culinary blasphemy. May God bless, Dwight

Really easy, Dorado, . . . measure it by weight, . . . equal portions of virgin beeswax (make sure it is not some garbage manufactured beeswax product), . . . and neetsfoot oil. I put them in a jar, . . . set the jar in a $10 crock pot from Goodwill, . . . turn it on high, . . . come back in an hour or so, . . . make sure it has all melted together and is only liquid, . . . swish it around in the jar to make sure it is well mixed, . . . pour out the concoction into a muffin pan lined with muffin papers, . . . and when it cools, . . . I've got it. A dab more of wax and it'll be a bit more solid, . . . a dab more oil, . . . it'll be more squishy, . . . but both work well. I'd actually do everything with it if I thought my customer's would put up with it, . . . but most of them have been trained to expect the plastic type finish, . . . so I give them Resolene. A few of them get this treatment, . . . May God bless, Dwight

I have dealt with Tandy, . . . Springfield, . . . Weaver's, . . . and some mom and pop locations. I go to Tandy's because I can pick out THE hide or piece I want. I was not always satisified with the others when I ordered from them. YMMV May God bless, Dwight