billymac814 Report post Posted December 17, 2012 Or how should I make an alligator belt. My question is what's the best way to cut the hide. I have a customer who brought me a whole hide from a gator he hunted then had tanned and now I have it to make a holster, belt and a few things for his wife. My initial thought was to cut it in one piece, the problem is ill really pretty much have to split the hide which seems a bit wasteful. I looked up and seen a tutorial kind of thing from someone and he pieces them together which would give a much better yield. Depending on what advice is given here I may just give the guy a call and see what he wants me to do, I think I an make either look good. Another interesting thing I seen on that how to page was that he didn't see the belt together, just glued and rolled it. I have no doubt good glue would hold, after all it holds on shoe soles which take a lot of abuse but it still seems odd to me although I'd probably prefer the looks without the stitching. I also debated just doing inlays which would eliminate the issue altogether and stitching IMO looks much better on regular cowhide than it does on exotics and it would be much better to get a nice edge. Maybe I'll run that idea by him, I didn't talk to him about the belt as that was an afterthought and he called in and added it after he left the shop. I just wanna make sure its as good as possible, he has a small fortune wrapped up in this project between the hunt the tanning and me and he's been waiting patiently for about 9 months. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
