Stetson912

Nice. It reminds me of Nigel Armitage's shotgun slider. Did you use that for inspiration?

I agree with grumpy. Craft foam should be fine. You can find it fairly thin I believe 2 mm. Also there are rolls of sponge neoprene you can buy. But I'm not familiar with that product as much.

More of an educated trial and error technique haha. I was just curious. I'm sure if I sat down with a pencil n paper I could figure something out along those lines. I make my own patterns too when I do a holster. I just haven't made many so I'm still learning. Thanks for the insight!

Ahhh, thanks for that. I didn't think of binding. That's just a little bit important I would think haha. So how do you enlarge the front panel? And how do you know it's enough? I suppose you could trace half the back panel and shift it over a certain distance to trace the other half then just connect the two parts?

Color me daft but what is the difference between the curved pancake and a regular pancake? How is the curve accounted for in the pattern/design? I see the backside is curved to fit round the hip a bit better but doesn't a regular pancake do the same? Just wondering is all. I have limited experience haha.

Everyone can suggest products and you'll get a hundred different o es for the same thing. I think you'll just have to try some and find what works for you. I use neautral kiwi shoe wax sometimes. Other times o use resolene. But in this case you don't want to use resolene. And I'm unsure if the shoe polish had a uv blocker (though I think it does not). There is also Aussie leather conditioner and carnauba creme. I just say try one or two new products on a piece of scrap and see how u like it.

They also make a small drill press stand for dremels that you can buy. But, if you have a few clamps lying around there isn't anything keeping you from just clamping it to the table haha

Correction: Wrlc is right. 95 cord is 1.85 mm. And 275 is 2.33mm so you're a little under or a little over the 2mm mark. The 95 cord is closer to 2mm though.

That's a great idea wrlc. I shoulda thought of that(as I do some paracord work too). It is cheaper than lace would be and comes in a ton of colors and patterns. It is confusing getting the right stuff tho. It's labeled by tensile strength usually. But 275 paracord is about 2.33 mm wide.its a few sizes down from 550 paracord which is commonly used. And being synthetic it won't deteriorate or dry out or break or crack or anything like that. You can take the inside strands out and use a low iron to flatten the cord. Use a towel or something over the paracord though, just in case the iron gets too hot the towel acts as a buffer so your cord doesn't melt and make a nasty mess. Then, once flat, you can use it exactly like lace. Man! I can't believe I didn't think of it first haha. Good going WRLC.

Hmm I'm not familiar with many brands. The stuff I have is from Tandy from a while back. It works but is brittle. The best lace you can get is kangaroo. There are many places to get it too. Kangaroo is especially prized for braiding because it is has a very high tensile strength. So, it's a lot less likely to break. And that's frustrating when you are lacing haha. The other option is to cut your own. Red hide/alum tanned/latigo is good for braiding if you can't or don't want to use kangaroo. A few places for kangaroo is knotty Linda, amazing lace, or David Morgan off the top of my head.

Well, it's really up to you and the style you like. I think lacing is attractive. But I think stitching is stronger. That isn't to say that lacing wouldn't hold it together though. Since you are only doing one side I vote for lacing. I think it'll look better than stitching in this instance. Just my opinion.

What is in the mop n glo that protects the leather?

Haha I'm familiar. Making a belt that way hehe.

Hey y'all just wanted to say happy 4th to everyone. I hope you all have a good day with your families and loved ones. A special thanks to the servicemen and women who help protect this country and it's freedoms. We are currently having a schmorgasborg of dinner. We have BBQ ribs, hamburgers and hotdogs, smoked sausage, beans, corn, potato salad, chicken wings, and then dessert later. Big ole mess of food and it was good eating. I hope everyone else can enjoy their BBQs and dinners as well. Again happy 4th!

That looks very nice. She will love it. And a thoughtful gift as well

Hehe that is true. Ahaem..."Experience" is valuable muahahahahaha! I will try it.

Lisa Sorrell sells a pen as well, it disappears with heat. You can still punch your holes if you take your time and measure from the edge. You can set dividers to the desired stitching allowance and use them as a measure for your chisels. In this case it's just setting the divider on the edge and measuring how far in they go so you can line up the end of the chisel with the divider. I hope that makes sense. Alternatively, the design looks fairly straight, you may be able to clamp or weigh down a straight edge and just punch along the edge of that. Just some ideas I had for not marking the leather.

Haha mop n glo? Hmm, well if it works it works haha. Thanks for the clarification. Much appreciated.

Thanks wrlc. I stumbled across this and have a belt project to start. The egg point looks great, so I'll go fer that one. Thank you!

Hehe, I always get the "what did you order now!?" Me:"Oh I got this tool for this reason because I'm making this thing and it requires said tool" Her:"I don't know what any of that means"

Do you use a resist? so you dyed the belt black then used lyquitex acrylic paint and rubbed that in and wiped off excess? Like you would do with gel antique?

Basting tape is a good idea. I just haven't used it. I totally butchered that belt just because I was lazy. So a I'ma do it right this time. It all works out though because it ended up being too small(bad measurements from source) If you are using an awl, you should make sure it is sharp and polished as well, that makes a huge difference. A dull awl will still Pierce the leather with some effort but it distorts the stitch lines on the back. So polish it up and it'll glide real nice through the leather and you'll get better results. It's not hard to do either, again Nigel Armitage has a video on awl sharpening too ( he goes by dangerous beans on this forum) I hope you get it figured out!

53"total length or from buckle to center hole? Looks good tho. I like how you do the letters. I know you said it's just swivel knife but how do you color it?

@Sceaden he's probably has a lot of practice lurking... With the flicking peanuts at old ladies and badger poking.... Gotta be sneaky!

Hopefully someone with more experience chimes in here, but I would think resolene or maybe even tan kote would be ok. Will the bracelets be lined? Or flesh side against the skin? Resolene waterproofs and seals the leather. Tan kote works too and is good for "sealing" the flesh side in my experience. But it is meant for providing "a protective finish to all smooth leathers" according to feibings.