No sir. You cannot. And why you do it is just like asking why people go deer hunting. It has nothing to do with money or time. Heck, all the tools in my shop cost less than one year on my brother's deer lease, and if you consider stand time, drive time and all that, well time just doesn't enter into it either.
No, you do it because it's a part of who you are. At some point you'll stop, but as the guy said at the end of Gladiator.."But not yet...not yet."

Edges are burnish and it's ready to spray. I'm only spraying the veg side. The Horween already has a finish.

Tell you what, the Aholes that make the Angelus No. 600 leather finish...

I'm all set to spray the belt. Get er' done, right?


Nope. I sprayed two test pieces to get the air pressure right. Sat the airbrush on the stand and prepared to spray the belt. And NOPE.. The finish dries so fast, it clogged the nozzle. Not by a little but by alot. It really jacked the airbrush up. The Angelus is like trying to spray Mop N Glow. Remember that stuff? Some kind of air drying wax you slosh on the kitchen floor?

Doesn't say chit about needing thinned on the bottle. Nothing like that. My house is 65° and it still dries like nothing else.


So instead of spraying my belt. I had the joy of spending time taking the airbrush apart. Acetone soak overnight.


Take 2, today.

Over night acetone soak. Now a vinegar soak. I'll brush them out later. I don't know if it's old gunk or the leather finish. I don't mess with airbrushes that often. What I do know, it's gotta be clean.

Check out the fancy airbrush. Says, Iwata Eclipse HP-CS on the side. What a PITA little thing.

My compressor just took a dump. It's done. I have a pancake air compressor in the garage that'll work. Harbor freight special and It's got an air regulator.

Now it's personal. I will spray my belt.

That wasn't supposed to work but it did. They are right. Airbrush is the way to go. #600 gives just enough sheen without it looking like plastic. Belt is officially sealed.

Planning the billets. Store bought belts come in standard buckle sizes. 3/4", 1", 1 1/2". Years ago when I made my own buckles, I made 4, 3 piece buckles. Three of them was I what I thought was 3/4". The last buckle made I knew was an odd size. I have no idea why I made these the size they are. The top buckle is 15/16" and the bottom is 11/16". Why in the world would I have cut the slot such an oddball size, escapes me.

I'm going with the 15/16" buckle. This belt will be the only one in the universe it'll fit. Extra custom.

Billet pattern. New verses shorter old. I added an inch. The tip on the tongue has a Vogt brand, belt tip curve. I'm not using a Vogt belt tip. I just like the shape.

What a 15/16" wide billet looks like on a 1.5" belt. It'll do. None of the stitching will hit other stitches.

Take two. The pattern needs to be near perfect so a copy of it, in leather, is as close as it can be to the original.

Final pattern. It's 1.75" longer then my old pattern. .850" wide by 13 inches long. This pattern is for both the tongue and the buckle side billets. I need to put some clear packing tape on it. Good patterns ain't easy to make. I need to take care of it. Even though I'll probably never use it again.

We're coming up on a possible slow down. My new edgers haven't shown up yet. I want to use them on the billets. That's why I bought the things. The tongue billet has been cut and the edges sanded. Starting at 150grit and ending with 1500grit. It still needs a stitch groove, holes, stitches, beveled, and skived. But not in that order.

And BTW. Merry Christmas!

Trip to the bank tomorrow. I've been researching things. I've found out there's a wider useful range of pricking irons. Instead of hammering them through the leather. Creating big holes on one side, smaller on the backside. The other way is to hammer the iron ½ or ¾ the way through. And then finish the hole with a stitching awl. Therefore getting uniform holes on both sides.

I need one for two reasons. First is the ability to adjust the hole size. Second is for stitching the billets on my belt. The main strap measures about 6mm. The billet will add another 4-5mm after it's thinned down on the side that'll be stitched. A leather stack of ~11mm can be tricky trying to poke plumb holes. I'm getting an C.S. Osborne awl with a removable tip. A, 'Haft' and the actual, 'Awl'. Diamond shaped. I don't own any C.S. Osborne products and I wanna give them a go.

Hopefully, my edgers will get shipped.

Other things I'm getting are more stitching needles in size #2 for .080mm thread. More thread in brown, red, and white. More dye in chocolate and ox blood. A veg tanned panel, 26" x 11", 5.5/6.0 oz.

The next project is going to be a 1800s, Texas style, tooled, shoulder holster for a Glock 43 in chocolate. But the belt comes first.