A Stitch in Time

I received a special mail call today, my Redmeadow Belt GAW from John arrived a day early, it looks great and the fit is perfect. :thumbsup:
Great belt with jeans, I love it, and my wife really likes it, I'm glad I'm bigger than her she would probably take it :D Here's an average pic from a family member.
It's hot here in Texas, more shorts than jeans this time of the year but I'll keep you all posted with my reviews, thank you again John :thumbsup:

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As mentioned, I received a box from Montana today and I have to admit, I am blown away by the belt as well as the attention to detail in the packaging.



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A flip top box with a Redmeadow greeting and some fantastic packaging. No bubble wrap and plastic bags here.

Under that, a beautifully crafted belt. I have to admit that in my excitement I unpackaged the whole thing and completely forgot photos. I had to semi-repackage it.


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I mentioned attention to detail. Check this out.

A Redmeadow Knives badge/tag/whatchamacallit and it’s attached with the same color thread as the stitching.


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Everything about this is just perfect.


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John, you’re an unbelievably talented man and the detail you put into your work is just amazing.

I’m off to join a belt forum or Facebook group just so I can show this off. 😎
 
Redmeadow Knives said:
Belts are done other than final conditioning.

:rolleyes:We're not going to win any awards for the greatest stitch lines but the construction is spot on. They should last a lifetime.

Glad I invested in this industrial sun rack, it makes a great swing set when not warming belts.
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John, firstly, these are absolutely fantastic.

I wouldn’t worry too much about winning the stitching award, as a little miss here and there not only reminds us that we are human, but reminds other that these were custom handmade by a person! 😃

Excellent job, it only gets better from here.

Congrats to the folks who own one. Wear it proudly!
 
Sharp & Fiery said:
John, firstly, these are absolutely fantastic.

I wouldn’t worry too much about winning the stitching award, as a little miss here and there not only reminds us that we are human, but reminds other that these were custom handmade by a person! 😃

Excellent job, it only gets better from here.

Congrats to the folks who own one. Wear it proudly!
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Thanks, I appreciate that. We'll get 'er dialed in!
 
This goofy video outlined some of the investments I made recently. Chris I'm glad you mentioned the lack of bubble wrap. I want to go back to the days when you open a package and it felt like someone gave a shit when they packed it!
 
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Time for a belt update and since I do some leather work I can appreciate John's talent. My previous comment about not able wear the belt with shorts is wrong, I'm able to wear the belt with two of my cargo shorts with wider loops. I realize John is using a machine to stich but that gunslinger pattern does not look easy to do, it looks great. The belt edges are burnished evenly from end to end on both sides. Burnishing a 12" sheath can be hard to do let alone a 40" belt, nice job John. One of my favorite things John did was adding Chicago Screws on the buckle side, it might have another name but that's what I've always called them. If you ever want to replace the buckle, its easy to do with a screwdriver. I'm looking forward to wearing the belt more when Texas cools down and I wear my jeans more. I told John I would give an honest review and I really can't find anything negative to say, it's a well made heavy duty belt. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
 
Thanks Frank, one thing I should have done with those chicago screws is put some kind of threadlocker on them, hindsight is of course 20/20. You may need to make sure they don't loosen up. I haven't had the issue with mine but would hate for it to happen to you guys. In the future I'll put some loctite on the threads. It should break free if you ever want to change buckles.

So I just spent 3 hours in a Tandy store tooling leather. They have an "Open Table" and will let you use their tools. The guys there were awesome and gave me a rundown on basketweaves and let me tool leather to my hearts desire. I learned a ton and it was a really great experience. I picked up a few more stamps for the collection and a couple of other hand tools.

If any of you Texans get down around McAllen within the next month, beers are on me🤠🍻
 
Awesome work on the belts John! :thumbsup: :cool: Even just starting out, I can tell your work is better quality than almost every custom leather belt out there, except maybe the top few I'm aware of (and I'm sure you'll be right up there with them in no time).

I've appreciated a good, sturdy (gun)belt for some time now, since I found The Beltman some 12-13 years ago (company has since been sold to new owners; I cannot attest to their current quality). Even when not CCW'ing, I find I still appreciate sturdy belts, and just can't wear flimsy wimpy belts anymore. They just don't feel right to me now; even with fancy clothes I can't stand a thin, flimsy belt. I lucked into a returned black Sharkskin one in my size about 10 years ago (nicely discounted price being a return), and got a fancy buckle for it, so I wear that with most fancy clothes short of a good suit or tux.

I really like how you're doing the buckle ends of the belts. Chicago screws are perfect for that, and I would indeed recommend a very small amount of 242 Blue Loktite. Don't skimp on any chrome hardware though, I've been pretty surprised how fast that wears off of the underlying brass if not laid down pretty thick. I prefer a squared buckle to a rounded one, because the rounded ones tend to curl the leather, and it's a little uncomfortable on a thick belt.

You NEED to offer these in BLACK... ;)
 
SpyderPhreak said:
Awesome work on the belts John! :thumbsup: :cool: Even just starting out, I can tell your work is better quality than almost every custom leather belt out there, except maybe the top few I'm aware of (and I'm sure you'll be right up there with them in no time).

I've appreciated a good, sturdy (gun)belt for some time now, since I found The Beltman some 12-13 years ago (company has since been sold to new owners; I cannot attest to their current quality). Even when not CCW'ing, I find I still appreciate sturdy belts, and just can't wear flimsy wimpy belts anymore. They just don't feel right to me now; even with fancy clothes I can't stand a thin, flimsy belt. I lucked into a returned black Sharkskin one in my size about 10 years ago (nicely discounted price being a return), and got a fancy buckle for it, so I wear that with most fancy clothes short of a good suit or tux.

I really like how you're doing the buckle ends of the belts. Chicago screws are perfect for that, and I would indeed recommend a very small amount of 242 Blue Loktite. Don't skimp on any chrome hardware though, I've been pretty surprised how fast that wears off of the underlying brass if not laid down pretty thick. I prefer a squared buckle to a rounded one, because the rounded ones tend to curl the leather, and it's a little uncomfortable on a thick belt.

You NEED to offer these in BLACK... ;)
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My black bull hide belt with pressed basket weave pattern gets worn most, like 90% of the time. The brown horse hide belt usually only gets worn with some work clothes where my wife tells me that black doesn't match. :rolleyes: (Black matches everything...)
 
I just added two basketweave stamps to the arsenal of tools "I yet to know how to use". If there's patterns you guys would like to see, I'm all ears.

Note taken on the black leather. I'll keep that in mind next leather order, I'll let the pros do the dying.... dyeing... make the leather black!!

I've gotta find a good buckle source. I'll keep an eye out for a square front that doesn't have that typical box look.

Thanks for the feedback Jared, stuff like that helps me tremendously.
 
You're welcome, good sir! :) The belts I currently have are of a 2-ply construction, where the black is the outer layer, with the inner being undyed. I suspect they do this so they can just buy one weight of leather for everything and then stitch it together, vs. skiving the buckle end (but I personally think that skiving it is the higher-quality way to go).

Can't help you with the buckle source, unfortunately. Mine are admittedly pretty boxy, but aren't overly large (wide), so I don't think it really shows too much. I wear a chrome one with the black belt, because the black powder-coated one I had rapidly got looking pretty bad. I wonder if there are any decent, not exorbitanly expensive solid stainless steel buckles out there?
 
I've been using 2 layers, an outer layer of 8/9oz and an inner layer of 5oz. I use a 36 grit belt on the buckle ends to thin out both pieces before gluing them together. The 2 layers gives them a laminated strength that a solid piece of equal weight won't have. The stitching also stiffens things up quite a bit.

The belt I wore for years was a single piece of 9 oz and though I carried IWB and a knife daily with it, I never realized how much of a wet noodle it was until I traded it out for one I made. That sounds like some marketing shenanigans but it really made a difference.

I'm gonna see about getting a side of Bison in either a black or a dark brown. It has that nice "pull up" where you can see a color change when it bends, not sure of a better way to explain "pull up".
 
I'm sure stitching multiple pieces together makes it stiffer. Some makers actually put a thin piece of nylon or even metal in between the layers to add further stiffness. My Shark belt has one. Interesting that you're thinning both pieces for the buckle end, I don't recall ever seeing it done that way (thus, I haven't a clue if this is gooder or badder).

Ooo, I'd totes be down for a black Bison belt... 🤩 :cool:
 
Stainless, squarish buckles and Black Bison, I'll look into both:thumbsup:

I'm also gonna need to make some ladies belts, maybe we'll do a giveaway for the gals when I get back.
 
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