MarkCdub

I know this is an old topic, but what weight leather did you use for the straps and holsters WhiteyT?

Thanks for all the replys. I do have the ability to skive and punch holes for the buckle slot and adjustment slots. I just want a quick belt so Ill probably get a Tandy belt blank in the interim while I look at some of the recommended links. I'm also gonna try and lose a belt size or two in the time being hecause it seems like the smaller belt will make it easier to find.

Just to clarify, if I buy a buckle for 1.5" belt the width of a 1.5" blank will be 1/8" to wide for the buckle? If I order a 1.5" belt blank will it be cut exactly 1.5" or will it be cut to accomidate a 1.5" buckle?

I'm going to make myself a belt and I want it to be a good quality leather. I want it to go together quickly so I want to buy a belt blank. This will be my day to day belt and I want it vegtanned, no dye. Can anyone recommend a belt blank for this, I'm thinking 1.5"-1.75" wide and I need it long enough to fit a 38" waist when completed. Thanks.

Can you explain your position on this? Why is a bell skiver not good for skiving gussets?

It took me 2 years to make myself a strop. I used a painters stir stick ( free or nearly nothing), 2 oz veg tanned leather scrap piece, green polishing compound from Harbour freight (can be bought nearly anywhere) 5 dollars for a "lifetime" supply. I glued the leather flesh side to the stick, trimmed the edges when dry, and loaded with compound. 5 bucks and a couple minutes time and now I kick myself in the butt for not making one sooner! All my tools run better, safer, more accurate, less struggle. I took a used razor blade to the strop maybe 10 times and it cut better than new. I stropped my edge beveler a few times and again, it cut so smooth it was like I was using a different tool. I can't recommend making a strop enough and I wish I would have listened to the recommendation of others here on the forum. They are cheap/easy to make, and they will readily increase your joy in leather working, especially when your able to slice your leather easier, cleaner, and more square. I was constantly cutting my edges on an angle because the blades were dull and I was having to really fight the blade to move it through the leather. Less clean up work in the end and less ruined leather.

I'm looking for folks close to meet up with, share ideas, techniques, loce of the craft with. I'm new in experience but I strive to learn and create more. You don't have to be pro, just willing to meet up and talk about leather. Mark

If you put a piece of metal (knife, stitching chisel, etc.) Into a wet piece of leather to wet form it I recommend wrapping it in plastic cling wrap or something to protect the metal from moisture. I did not do that and had rust forming on the items fairly quickly (within 24 hrs). When burnishing edges, there are nearly as many ways to burnish as there is leatherworkers, one thing to remember is that you don't have to use excessive force when slicking the edges, the back and forth motion of the burnisher will build up plenty of heat. Excessive pressure will cause your edge to "mushroom" and that is another issue to deal with especially at the tail end of a project. If you want the edges rounded, you will need an edge beveler and there are many brands and sizes depending on how thick your project is and how much of the edge you want to remove before burnishing. The most helpful thing is that you sand the edges as smooth as possible and to the profile you want before burnishing. Wetting the edge with water can be sufficient to get the initial burnishing. You can always lightly sand with very fine grit at this point if the edge isn't to your liking. Then let the edge dry and use a mixture of your prefered edge "wax"/protectant to finish off. Many people use a piece of heavy canvas with the wax as their final burnishing medium and the point is to lightly burnish where speed is what heats up the leather and was to help it absorb into the edgebetter.

Both look really good! I especially like the saddle bags, I have no horse nor motorcycle but I have always wanted some. Watching old westerns and seeing cowboys throw the over their shoulder looked so cool.

What did you use for the plastic cover?

You can always glue 2 pieces of thinner leather flesh to flesh so you have smooth in and out and you can tool tye outside too.

I played darts from about 10-18 yo. I stopped playing when girls became more important... I was really good. I wish i never quit, I had alot of high level players tell me to keep playing and I beat some really good players at a young age (made them fighting mad lol). I agree with everything you suggested about protecting the flights and shafts from damage and that is a concern of mine. Shafts and flights are pretty resilient and I dont envision players keeping them in there for an entire day/tournament. I'm trying to keep the strap small and lightweight. I feel like it is more of a novelty that a dart player would carry just to show off.

The width of the strap is slightly larger than 3/4 of an inch, roughly the size of a watch band. The dart holder part is 2 1/4 in X 2 1/4 inch, so it is no where near the size of your ammo carriers so it should still give the wearer mobility and flexibility. It is designed to be worn on the wrist like a watch, I could he wrong but atleast in my mind the dimensions I'm working with should be similar to wearing a large watch and possibly lighter. I'm going to make him one so I will see how his holds up, and how he likes it. The darts will ride similar to his current pouch that Ill leave below for reference. I may also leave pocket open rather than stitching to allow the wearer to place things in there where they want.

I was contemplating lining the strap, my concern with the thickness of the strap is that it is thick enough to be durable and thin enough to be flexible. The weight of the darts and a couple of flights/shafts will be relatively light. I am hoping for it to fit like a watch and I want to ensure the weight of the leather will hold up over years of use. I don't want it to stretch too much or deform from the weight being too thin, I think a 5 oz leather should give me the characteristics Im looking for (I hope lol). Using some heavy duty 3m velcro is an interesting idea I hadn't thought of (I have a roll of it in the garage), but Im not sure how I will like the aesthetics of it. I may add it as an option since it would make the adjustability limitless for a perfect fit. I could even add the snap side to make it look how I want. Im sure the pockets are deep enough for the shafts. They are no more than 3 in long and the pockets are inch deep. The barrel pockets will allow the attached shaft and barrel to stick out.

I'm going to be making a wrist band for my stepdad to hold his darts (3) with a pocket to hold a couple of extra flights and shafts. This is the design I sketched up. I am curious what y'alls feelings are for leather weight. I have 2 oz and 5 oz veg tanned currently, and I am thinking about using 5 oz for the strap/back piece and 2 oz for the front and pocket pieces. Using the lighter leather for the front will allow it to take more of the form from barrel of the darts and leave the back flatter (hopefully), and will allow for more flexibility and a slimmer look. My concern is with the 5 oz leather and if it is in the goldilocks zone of thickness and strength. I want this to be comfortable (will obviously need some break in time and some wet forming wouldn't hurt) and long lasting. I will be making this one with a watch strap style band but if his dart friends want one I may just make them with snaps to make them easier and more cost effective. Anyway, now that you know my plans, I'm open to any criticism/ideas on design, weight, or etc.

Rossr, the good thing is it is just leather. You can design and make sheath 2.0 for very little cost. As far as how high tge sheeth is, I don't mind it for a 12 Y.O. it is good for retention and won't accidentally fall out. The clamshell designs that I have seen dont generally have such a sweeping point on the folded edge if at all. I like it, maybe ask your sons opinion, and if he would like any changes made to it and get him involved in the leather working process too.

I would recommend from personal experience to get a 1+ inch chisel to cut out your punch holes for the belt slots. I also found that punching and cutting out the belt slots when the leather was still fairly well cased helped tremendously. I would also burnish the inside of the slots. I love pancake style holsters for any and everything I can make them for. Measuring and drawing the pattern, creating the holster, then finally inserting the object and praying that everything was correct along the way lol. Great job! How wet was the holster when you wet molded it, and what did you use to form it?

Very nice knife and sheath. It may just be my own preference but the only thing I would change would be to ever so slightly round the and off the point (tip) of the sheath. I can see in the pictures where it is bending one way or the other but like I said probably just personal preference. Your son is very lucky, I wish my own dad would have had the skills, patience, time, desire to teach me.

Suede is a common liner from all that I have seen. I made one and used some suede to line it. The stock was black polymer so I don't believe it was needed but I did it anyway for aesthetics. Depending on the expense of the gun, I question how much damage will be caused to the finish once the cover is sinched down. I would line it if you are using eyelets because I could see where the metal could cause damage. Post some pics of your previous covers, I always enjoy some eye candy.

Make 10 of each, put them up for sale and see which one sells the fastest... You are really asking an impossible question for us to answer, we don't know where you intend to sell them and for how much. We also don't know your market. Cost, marketing, target demographic, etc are important. If you don't market the right product, at the right price, too the right customer, you won't sell many wallets. For the most part, consumers want things as cheap as possible. We live in a disposable world, where most people don't care if theor wallet lasts 1 year or 20. They will use their $20 department store wallet until it wears out in a year or 2, then buy another one. They will skip over your $30+ wallet that may very well last them the rest of their life just to "save" a few bucks. You have to find/educate people on why your product is superior and worth the added cost compared to a department store "brand name" wallet. How much experience do you have with leather work and making wallets specifically? Good luck, and let us know how your plan works out. 1 more thing, where do you intend to sell this item, store, etsy, personal website, word of mouth? I only ask because etsy is a common place for craftsman to sell their items and their is a ton of competition in the wallet game. The prices have a good size range and the quality level varies greatly. I would recommend checking out the competition and their prices to see if you can be quality and price competitive. I have seen a "race to the bottom" from hobbyists like myself where they think they are going to sell a ton of them or just make a few of them to practice and put on etsy, then because there is so much competition the prices start dropping until the items are being sold for less than what it took to make them. So my suggestion to you would be to make a couple of each and see how one sells ove the other, and make them in a few different colors or offer to make them in different colors to see what is most popular with your customers. They are being handmade by you, so you have the ability to allow for custom orders if the customer is willing to wait a few days extra for his item. Michael, I just read your other post about making a cellphone wallet case and I am hoping that you take what I say to heart. This art, and it is an art form is not easy to do well. As others have said it takes time, many mistakes and those things cost money. I have made a few things over the last couple of years and it is a struggle on every project to make it as good as I can, learn from my mistakes, and improve my ability to create the project. I have drawn all my own patterns on graph paper, learned how to create patterns from books, forums, instructionals, and YouTube. I have made many mistakes in the pattern making process that made my project too small because I did not account for leather thickness, or I forgot to add the width of an item twice, etc. I do research what others are making, and I do use it for inspiration. And you are right, the basic shape of a wallet, construction, and assembly are very similar across the industry. With some items, there is a very long history of them being a certain shape like fixed blade knife sheaths. There is a best practice and they all come out looking very similar. I feel like you rubbed alot of people the wrong way, myself included because you are asking for a short cut to profitability. But more than that, your attitude towards the craft is disrespectful. This is not an "easy" way to make money, there are many really good leather craftsman with years of experience that struggle to make enough just to keep practicing their trade who would love to sell 10-20 items for $71 every month. You have some basic tools, very little knowledge of the craft, not alot of basic business understanding, and I think your goals are very unrealistic. Creating your own patterns are not difficult with basic knowledge of pattern making but becoming proficient does take time and practice. This forum can be very helpful but you need to show some respect to the craft and be humble about your lack of knowledge when asking people with years of experience and in many cases you are asking craftsman who make their living creating goods from leather, to share their tips, tricks, years of experience with you so you can become a competitor. And you do all this while telling them their craft is "easy". Do you have any idea what weight leather you are going to use for your wallets? What size thread are you going to use? Are you going to hand sew use a stitching wheel or pricking iron and an awl, a chisel? How are you going to hold the pieces together while you sew? There are so many steps to consider, remember, and to implement them well and in the right order and a mistake in 1 step can ruin an otherwise perfect piece. This is all before you ever sell a piece. If you want to build a business/brand selling wallets for $70, your items have to be top notch quality. Perfect edges, perfect stitch lines, perfect fit, etc. I have seen through my own research, the quality or rather the lack there of, of wallets and cases for sale on etsy. I would be ashamed to ask someone to pay me for much of the stuff I encounter on there and yet there it is, for sale, marketed as hand made, and the asking price is shocking. Anyway, I only toom the time to write this because I want you to understand that the people here (some are professionals with decades of experience) are extremely generous with their time and experience. They give us help freely because they love the craft. You struck a nerve because you came in here with unreasonable expectations and a severe lack of knowledge, understanding, and respect of leather working and the craftsman themselves. It is obviously harder than you think, or you would not be here asking how to do everything.

Here is where I'm at so far. I made a mistake while stamping, 1 stitching bole is too close to other holes for comfort, I'm not sure if the pattern is big enough for a full size trapper style folder, and I do not have enough thread to complete this project... Oh and its labor day weekend so everything is closed and mail isn't running.

Thank you for responding, that makes really good sense to me. I also don't hammer the chisels all the way through so the bottom may just have smaller holes.

Rocko, maybe its just me or how I use my chisels but I have a hard time with the J.J. needles going through the 5mm holes and have to use a pair of pliars at times to get the eye to pass through. I've got my pattern cut out, going to be tooling similar to the photo then assemble. This is a test run to see if everything fits.

All BS aside, carrying anything in the middle of your back and then sitting in a car seat is bad for your back. Just ask any law enforcement officer that carried his hand cuffs in the middle of his back while riding around in a patrol car for his career how his back feels. I wish I had a pattern for you, but I can recommend the Al Stohlman holster pattern making book. It mainly references wheel guns and tooling those style holster but their is a nice section on different style of belt attachments that would help you out and give you some ideas. The lessons learned and general pattern design will work for any holster/pouch design. I think the book is like 11 dollars on amazon and well worth the price.

If your gluing the gator to the rough side of the leather that would put the smooth top grain inside. There are many holsters with the top grain as a liner. I do like the idea of a microfiber liner though. Good luck.